Overview

This eye-witness account of the monumental Second Vatican Council, first serialized in The New Yorker magazine, remains a classic work of religious history as it was being made. Writing under the pseudonym Xavier Rynne, Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy captured the attention of the English-speaking world with what is the first-ever insider's account of a church council while it was in process. (A full four-volume history was published when the Council concluded in 1965). Capturing the essential issues and personalities that drove this unique and historic assembly, the first in almost 100 years. Vatican Council II is particularly astonishing for it's frank treatment of the political and theological maneuverings behind the scenes, as well as the debates as they unfolded in each session. This edition includes a new Introduction by Father Murphy himself, describing the book's background, his reason for using a pseudonym, and offering a fascinating insider's assessment of the legacy of the Second Vatican Council.

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9781570752933

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Reviews

""A highly informative and entertaining venture in theological journalism. . . . The best account of what the Council is all about. . . ""--The New York Times

This is a new, one-volume revision of the pseudonymous Xavier Rynne's notable, critically acclaimed, and commercially viable four volumes on the four sessions of Vatican II. This single volume enjoys all the virtues of its component works: it is pithy, perceptive, often amusing, gossipy, exact, comprehensive, and definitive. The substance of the four predecessor volumes is reproduced here intact; a little fat has been trimmed, some of the documentation has been excised, and some of the episodes which had been repeated from one volume to the next in the original editions have been unified - all of which is to the good. In a word, just as Rynne's original four volumes were the final, and most enjoyable, word on the four sessions individually, so is Vatican Council II the ultimate, most informative, and most readable of all the books on the Council as a whole. It is the book on the Council for libraries as well as for individuals. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Francis X. Murphy, CSsr, (""Xavier Rynne"") (1914-2002) taught moral theology at the Academia Alfonsiana in Rome between 1959 and 1975. He served as a peritus, or expert advisor at the Second Vatican Council from 1962-1965. His many books include The Papacy Today, Politics and the Early Church, and John XXIII.

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