A Brief History of Vatican II [Paperback]

Giuseppe Alberigo (Author), Matthew Sherry (Translator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 141 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (April 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570756384
• ISBN-13: 978-1570756382
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #547,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > History > Europe > Vatican

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eyewitness account, January 14, 2008

By 

S. Palmer "seeker" (DC metro area) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Brief History of Vatican II (Paperback)

Guiseppe Alberigo was a young professional when the council began. He was involved with Cardinal Lercaro's group from Bologna. His doctoral dissertation had been on the Council of Trent written under Hubert Jedin, the best in the field. Alberigo was with Cardinal Lercaro's group at the four sessions of the Council. Afterwards he edited the multivolume history of the Second Vatican Council, presented in English by Dr. Joseph Komonchak of the Catholic University of America.

This is worth reading, even if the style is not the most limpid. You will meet someone who was part of the Council. Cardinals Ruini and Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) prefer to see the Council more as a continuity than does Alberigo and the Bologna school. He sees the council as an overcoming of the Constantinian and Post-Tridentine traditions.

Stephen Palmer

19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is no substitute for the facts., July 19, 2007

By 

paul lakeland (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Brief History of Vatican II (Paperback)

Giuseppe Alberigo is probably the greatest living expert on Vatican II, having worked in its preparation and been closely involved, as a layman, with many of the clerical leaders of the Council. These days there are all kinds of ideologically-motivated efforts afoot to downplay the significance of the Council and to criticize "liberals" for distorting its message. Alberigo shows clearly the drama of the struggle on the part of the bishops, liberal and conservative alike, for freedom from the stifling hand of the Roman Curia (the church's central bureaucracy), and tells a truly exciting story about the successes and even the failures of the Council fathers. Incidentally, anyone who reads this can only look at many of the struggles in today's church and see them as but the latest chapter in an ongoing struggle between a controlling central bureaucracy and a world-wide church concerned above all with pastoral care of the church.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Alberigo's A Brief History of Vatican II, May 21, 2007

By 

James C. Lutz "booknut" (Wahpeton, ND USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Brief History of Vatican II (Paperback)

Having just finished a course on Vatican II, I found this short history of Vatican II to be very helpful in detailing some of the mystery and intrigue that went on behind the scenes. A must read for anyone who wants to know the "whole story".