Vatican II Council 1962

Next week we will be covering the final chapter of MacCulloch’s book, Chapter 25.  Please read the first two sections, The Second Vatican Council: Half a Revolution and Catholics, Protestants and Liberation, and answer one of the following questions:

1. Discuss the overall impact of the Vatican II Council during the 1960s. Discuss the roles Popes John XXIII and Paul VI had on the overall framework of Vatican II. Discuss the aims of the Vatican documents Lumen Gentium (‘The Light of Peoples’), ‘The People of God’, and Gaudium et Spes (‘Joy and Hope’).
2. What were the intents of priestly celibacy and the Catholic Church’s stance on artificial birth control? Was the Church successful in implementing these policies?
3. How was Catholic public worship and the Mass transformed under Vatican II – especially in terms of the vernacular used in services, the placement of church furniture, the altar, and use of music?
4. Discuss the rise of liberation theology, particularly in Latin America.  What were its core beliefs?  Discuss the aims of the Madellin Conference in 1968 and the efforts of Gustavo Gutierrez.
5. Discuss the activity of Protestants in the United States in the fight for civil rights during the 1960s. Discuss the theology used by Martin Luther King Jr.  Who was he influenced by?  Discuss the impact of his march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
6. Discuss the development of minjung theology in South Korea during the 1970s.  How was it tied to the Korean past and how was it received by the Korean government?  How did it coincide with the rise of Pentecostalism and the ‘prosperity gospel’ movement in South Korea?
7. Discuss the Dutch Reformed Church‘s involvement with the South African (Afrikan) government’s policy of apartheid.  How did they justify and why did they support this system of racial separation?  Why did most Western governments not speak out against apartheid policy for the most part?
8. Discuss how the Anglican Church led efforts to remove apartheid in South Africa.  How did the efforts of Anglicans, namely Trevor Huddleston, Desmond Tutu, and John Collins, bring about the end of apartheid policy?  How did the South African Dutch Reformed Church react after the end of apartheid in the 1990s?  How did this spur Protestant churches in the United States to confront its support of slavery in the past?

We will discuss these topics next week.