The Long Shadow of Vatican II: Living Faith and Negotiating Authority Since the Second Vatican Council

Coeditors Van Rompay, Sam Miglarese, and David Morgan (all, religion, Duke Univ.) here explores the progress in bringing the Roman Catholic Church into the 21st century, focusing especially on interreligious relations, differences between the Council's documents and their subsequent interpretation and reception, the broadening of ecclesial authority structures, and empowerment of the laity—sometimes in ways not originally intended such as inspiring a movement for female priests and the development of new kinds of lay devotionalism developing from older forms. The editors' joint introduction and epilog point to societal influences, such as postcolonialism, postmodernism, democratization, and individualism as well as to tensions within the Roman Catholic Church between progressives and conservatives, etc. Chapters were developed from a lecture series at Duke University in 2012, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II. Pope Francis's ascension is an unpredictable force in the Council's future reception.