Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 5 (2009) 362–402 379

Raymond F. Bulman and Frederick J. Parrella (eds), From Trent to Vatican II: Historical and Th eological Investigations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. xix + 344. £60.00. ISBN 978019517806 (hbk).

Eighteen distinguished scholars discuss the infl uence of two major councils, Trent (1545-63) and Vatican II (1962-5), upon the Roman church and, more widely, upon the Christian community and the modern world. Th e writers are largely agreed upon the importance of the two councils, rather less so about the degree of continuity between the two assemblies and the eff ects they produced. Th e two editors provide, separately, the Introduction and Conclusion to the volume. Trent came at a time of great crisis for the , as the early Protestant made sweeping gains. Th e council lasted eight- een diffi cult years, punctuated in the middle by two long periods when it lay in . Finally, however, it produced a remarkable series of that covered almost all the topics in dispute between Roman Catholics and Reformers. It gave confi dence to Catholics and formed the backbone of their apologetics for three centuries. Paradoxically, Vatican II emerged from no special crisis, it healed many of the wounds of Reformation and Counter- Reformation, yet its reception within the Catholic Church has been laborious. Bulman and Parrella elaborate on these themes and the insights of the contributors. Th e remaining sixteen chapters, each written by a single author, treat distinct topics within this general framework. Th e late Giuseppe Alberigo from , the only contributor from outside USA, examines how the developed into ‘Tridentism’. Th e interpretation of the council was taken over by , he argues, principally through Congregatio de Concilio, a department of the that was estab- lished soon after the conclusion of the council and whose mandate was to rule on disputed points regarding the implementation of the council’s decrees. Th e results of this and other ‘Tridentine’ developments are considered by Alberigo to have been largely negative for Catholicism. Only under John XXIII ‘did the Catholic church, and the Christian world at large, fi nally abandon all of the fundamental features of Tridentism’ (p. 31). Anthony Stevens-Arroyo, in his essay on art in America, is much more optimistic. Th is art, he argues, was both inspired by the council of Trent and a successful product of , art that was progressive while at the same time drawing upon the Middle ages for many of its ide- als. Joseph Komonchak, too, strikes an optimistic note in his detailed con- sideration of Vatican II’s faithfulness to Trent in four of its major decrees,

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI 10.1163/174553109X422638 380 Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 5 (2009) 362–402 on liturgy, Church, of priests, and Scripture: continuity and appro- priate development, rather than rejection of Trent’s teaching, are his fi ndings. Robert Daly, on the other hand, sees ‘an embarrassing dichotomy between the teaching of the contemporary offi cial Roman and that of most contemporary liturgical theologians’ (p. 98), regarding the . Th e former, he argues, lays excessive emphasis on the sacrifi cial nature of the ; but liturgists do more to show that their consensus on a wider understanding of the Eucharist is in continuity with the fullness of the Catholic tradition rather than a challenge to it. Gerard Sloyan struggles with the role of in the from before Trent until after Vatican II. Does the language still have a future in , or should English be embraced more enthusiastically as the predominant world language today? Heritage and communication struggle for priority. Th e establishment of seminaries for the training of diocesan proved to be a momentous decision of the council of Trent. Kenan Osborne looks at the results over the centuries, upon both clergy and the parishioners they served, also Vatican II’s attempt to update the legislation in its on ‘Priestly Formation’. Continuity and change intermingle. More might have been said about the infl uence of the training of Reformed clergy upon Catholic legislation, especially Calvin’s Academy in Geneva. James Boyce, the next to write in the book’s pleasantly variegated order of chapters, examines ‘Catholic Church Music’ from Trent to Vatican II. While Trent said very little directly on the topic, indirectly and for several centuries the council proved to be inspirational. Most recently, according to Boyce, Church music is providing a welcome ‘rapprochement between traditionalists and innovators’ (p. 153). James Keenan, writing on ‘Moral Th eology’, returns to a more negative ass- essment of Trent. Neither this council nor Vatican II taught much directly or in detail on the topic, but each council ushered in a new era. Trent, according to Keenan, brought rigidity and too much emphasis upon individual acts; Vatican II refocused upon the person and Christian life as a whole; but pope Paul VI’s in 1968 of Humanae Vitae, the on contra- ception, proved controversial and a return to the mentality of Trent. Laurence Cunningham’s elegant on ‘Th e Virgin Mary’ sees both councils as stimulating healthy devotion to Mary. Indeed it was Vatican II that gave the more focused attention to her, in the long chapter 8 of the decree on the Church, . Women are central to the next three chapters: Paul Lakeland on ‘Th e Laity’, William Roberts on ‘Christian ’ and Doris Gottemoeller on ‘Religious Life for Women’. Th e clericalisation inherent