Event, Legacy, and Vision: The Future of Vatican II Studies

This session facilitates critical reflection on the future of Vatican II Studies at a moment when six decades of scholarship and the passing of the 60th jubilee raises the question of whether the field stands at an endpoint, a continuation, or the threshold of a new era of Vatican II research. Recent major initiatives provide a valuable lens through which to evaluate current trajectories and imagine possible pathways forward. Discussing the Vatican II: Event and Mandate (Herder/Peeters); The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis (Liturgical Press); Vatican II After Sixty Years (Brepols) projects will allow us to assess how new scholarship advances intercultural and intertextual histories and commentaries and new methodological and hermeneutical directions. By placing these initiatives in dialogue, the session explores who will shape the field’s future, how it can serve both acaeudemy and society, and which dominant narratives require revisiting or renewal.