- Fremantle, Western Australia
- Ecumenical Theology, Jansenism, Theology and History of Vatican II, Vaticano II, John Henry Newman / Oxford Movement, Early Modern Catholicism, and 19 moreEarly Modern Protestantism, Lodovico Antonio Muratori, Catholic Reform, Reformation Studies, Yves Congar, Ecumenism, Second Vatican Council, vatican II and post-conciliar theology, Jacques Dupuis, Gavin D'Costa, Enlightenment, French Revolution, Henri Gregoire, Religion and Modernity, Intellectual History of Enlightenment, European Enlightenment, Scottish Enlightenment, French Enlightenment, and German Enlightenmentedit
anthology of primary sources published with CUA Press 2021.
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A collection of hitherto untranslated sources of female and male Catholic Enlighteners from Mexico to Poland.
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https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-synod-of-pistoia-and-vatican-ii-9780190947798?cc=us&lang=en& This book sheds further light on the nature of church reform and the roots of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) through a study... more
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-synod-of-pistoia-and-vatican-ii-9780190947798?cc=us&lang=en&
This book sheds further light on the nature of church reform and the roots of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) through a study of eighteenth-century Catholic reformers who anticipated Vatican II. The most striking of these examples is the Synod of Pistoia (1786), the high-water mark of "late Jansenism." Most of the reforms of the Synod were harshly condemned by Pope Pius VI in the Bull Auctorem fidei (1794), and late Jansenism was totally discredited in the increasingly ultramontane nineteenth-century Catholic Church. Nevertheless, many of the reforms implicit or explicit in the Pistoian agenda - such as an exaltation of the role of bishops, an emphasis on infallibility as a gift to the entire church, religious liberty, a simpler and more comprehensible liturgy that incorporates the vernacular, and the encouragement of lay Bible reading and Christocentric devotions - were officially promulgated at Vatican II. The first chapter describes the nature of Vatican II reform as ressourcement, aggiornamento, and the development of doctrine. The "hermeneutic of reform," proposed by Pope Benedict XVI and approved of by John O'Malley, is put forward as a way past the dead-end of "continuity" and "discontinuity" debates. Chapter two pushes back the story of the roots of Vatican II to the eighteenth century, in which a variety of reform movements, including the Catholic Enlightenment, attempted ressourcement and aggiornamento. The next two chapters investigate the context and reforms enacted by Bishop Scipione de'Ricci (1741-1810) and the Synod of Pistoia, paying special attention to their parallels with Vatican II, and arguing that some of these connections are deeper than mere surface-level affinity. Chapter five considers the reception of Pistoia, shows why these reforms failed, and uses the criteria of Yves Congar to judge them as "true or false reform." The final chapter proves that the Synod was a "ghost" present at the Council. The council fathers struggled with, and ultimately enacted, many of the same ideas. This study complexifies the story of the roots of the Council, the nature of Catholic reform, and the manner in which the contemporary church is continuous and discontinuous with the past.
This book sheds further light on the nature of church reform and the roots of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) through a study of eighteenth-century Catholic reformers who anticipated Vatican II. The most striking of these examples is the Synod of Pistoia (1786), the high-water mark of "late Jansenism." Most of the reforms of the Synod were harshly condemned by Pope Pius VI in the Bull Auctorem fidei (1794), and late Jansenism was totally discredited in the increasingly ultramontane nineteenth-century Catholic Church. Nevertheless, many of the reforms implicit or explicit in the Pistoian agenda - such as an exaltation of the role of bishops, an emphasis on infallibility as a gift to the entire church, religious liberty, a simpler and more comprehensible liturgy that incorporates the vernacular, and the encouragement of lay Bible reading and Christocentric devotions - were officially promulgated at Vatican II. The first chapter describes the nature of Vatican II reform as ressourcement, aggiornamento, and the development of doctrine. The "hermeneutic of reform," proposed by Pope Benedict XVI and approved of by John O'Malley, is put forward as a way past the dead-end of "continuity" and "discontinuity" debates. Chapter two pushes back the story of the roots of Vatican II to the eighteenth century, in which a variety of reform movements, including the Catholic Enlightenment, attempted ressourcement and aggiornamento. The next two chapters investigate the context and reforms enacted by Bishop Scipione de'Ricci (1741-1810) and the Synod of Pistoia, paying special attention to their parallels with Vatican II, and arguing that some of these connections are deeper than mere surface-level affinity. Chapter five considers the reception of Pistoia, shows why these reforms failed, and uses the criteria of Yves Congar to judge them as "true or false reform." The final chapter proves that the Synod was a "ghost" present at the Council. The council fathers struggled with, and ultimately enacted, many of the same ideas. This study complexifies the story of the roots of the Council, the nature of Catholic reform, and the manner in which the contemporary church is continuous and discontinuous with the past.
Research Interests: History of Religion, French Revolution, Catholic Reform, Jesuit history, Catholic Theology, and 15 moreEcumenical Theology, History of Roman Catholicism, Second Vatican Council, Early Modern Catholicism, Jansenism, Roman Catholicism, Ecumenism, Yves Congar, Catholic Church History, Religious Liberty, Papacy (Early Modern and Modern Church History), Tuscany, The Liturgical Reform of Vatican II, Pistoia, and Vaticano II
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In 1791, the Benedictine Charles Walmesley (1722–97), Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, wrote to his colleague Bishop Douglass: “We exist indeed in miserable times. We have our share here, and they suffer a great share abroad; but... more
In 1791, the Benedictine Charles Walmesley (1722–97), Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, wrote to his colleague Bishop Douglass: “We exist indeed in miserable times. We have our share here, and they suffer a great share abroad; but there was a Wo pronounced by the Prophet on this period of the Church.” Given the societal pressures on English Catholics, the upheavals in revolutionary France, and the doctrinal and political strife throughout Catholic Europe, one can understand Bishop Walmesley’s pessimism. But Walmesley’s apocalyptic interpretation of recent struggles – with recalcitrant progressive “Cisalpines” like Joseph Berington, or with news coming out of Pistoia, Austria, and France – was interpreted to fit a narrative of history that Walmesley himself had held for decades. In 1771, Walmesley published, under the pseudonym “Sig. Pastorini” the General History of the Christian Church, his first (and programmatic) apocalyptic work, in which he divided history into seven ages, in an attempt to prophetically interpret the seven Seals, Trumpets, and Vials of the book of Revelation. While the book earned the scorn of “enlightened” Cisalpines like Alexander Geddes, it was widely acclaimed, reprinted, and translated. This essay explores Walmesley’s interpretation of history and prophecy, which I will argue was profoundly shaped by his view of Protestantism, and shows how his apocalypticism impacted his interactions with the progressive Cisalpines, his ideological opponents. These latter, who had a typical “Enlightenment” view of history, had capitulated, in Walmesley’s view, to the poison of the Fifth Age.
Research Interests: Apocalypticism, French Revolution, Enlightenment, Early Modern England, Jesuit history, and 14 moreEschatology and Apocalypticism, Apocalypticism In Literature, History of Roman Catholicism, Church Reform, Early Modern Britain, Early Modern Catholicism, Jansenism, Book of Revelation, Counter-Enlightenment, Ecumenism, Benedictine Monasticism, Counter-Reformation, English Catholicism, and Intellectual History of the Enlightenment
This volume demonstrates that the Catholic rhetoric of tradition disguised both novelties and creative innovations between 1550 and 1700. Innovation in Early Modern Catholicism reveals that the period between 1550 and 1700 emerged as an... more
This volume demonstrates that the Catholic rhetoric of tradition disguised both novelties and creative innovations between 1550 and 1700.
Innovation in Early Modern Catholicism reveals that the period between 1550 and 1700 emerged as an intellectually vibrant atmosphere, shaped by the tensions between personal creativity and magisterial authority. The essays explore ideas about grace, physical predetermination, freedom, and probabilism in order to show how the rhetoric of innovation and tradition can be better understood. More importantly, contributors illustrate how disintegrated historiographies, which often excluded Catholicism as a source of innovation, can be overcome. Not only were new systems of metaphysics crafted in the early modern period, but so too was a new conceptual language to deal with the pressing problems of human freedom and grace, natural law, and Marian piety. Overall, the volume shines significant light on hitherto neglected or misunderstood traits in the understanding of early modern Catholic culture.
Re-presenting early modern Catholicism more crucially than any other currently available study, Innovation in Early Modern Catholicism is a useful tool for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars in the fields of philosophy, early modern studies, and the history of theology.
1. Introduction: Innovation and Creativity in Early Modern Catholicism
Ulrich L. Lehner
2. The Rhetoric of Innovation and Constancy in Early Modern Catholicism
Ulrich L. Lehner
3. Catholic Theology and Doctrinal Novelty in the Quarrel over Grace: Theological schools, innovations, and pluralism during the Molinism Controversy
Sylvio Hermann De Francheschi
4. Faithfulness and Novelty in Early Modern Thomism: The Dionysian Dimension of Physical Predetermination
Matthew Gaetano
5. The Innovative Character of the Suárezian Project in its Proper Historical Context
Victor M. Salas
6. New Models of Church Government: Innovation in Catholic Ecclesiology, ca. 1600–1800
Shaun Blanchard
7. At the Fringes of the Church: The Ecclesial Status of Heretics and their Baptized Children in Early Modern Ecclesiology
Eric DeMeuse
8. The Invention of Probabilism
Emanuele Colombo
9. Natural Law and Cultural Difference: innovations in Spanish scholasticism
Elisabeth Rain Kincaid
10. Duns Scotus and the Making of Modern Catholic Theology
Trent Pomplun
11. The Invention of Early Modern Mariology
Damien Tricoire
Innovation in Early Modern Catholicism reveals that the period between 1550 and 1700 emerged as an intellectually vibrant atmosphere, shaped by the tensions between personal creativity and magisterial authority. The essays explore ideas about grace, physical predetermination, freedom, and probabilism in order to show how the rhetoric of innovation and tradition can be better understood. More importantly, contributors illustrate how disintegrated historiographies, which often excluded Catholicism as a source of innovation, can be overcome. Not only were new systems of metaphysics crafted in the early modern period, but so too was a new conceptual language to deal with the pressing problems of human freedom and grace, natural law, and Marian piety. Overall, the volume shines significant light on hitherto neglected or misunderstood traits in the understanding of early modern Catholic culture.
Re-presenting early modern Catholicism more crucially than any other currently available study, Innovation in Early Modern Catholicism is a useful tool for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars in the fields of philosophy, early modern studies, and the history of theology.
1. Introduction: Innovation and Creativity in Early Modern Catholicism
Ulrich L. Lehner
2. The Rhetoric of Innovation and Constancy in Early Modern Catholicism
Ulrich L. Lehner
3. Catholic Theology and Doctrinal Novelty in the Quarrel over Grace: Theological schools, innovations, and pluralism during the Molinism Controversy
Sylvio Hermann De Francheschi
4. Faithfulness and Novelty in Early Modern Thomism: The Dionysian Dimension of Physical Predetermination
Matthew Gaetano
5. The Innovative Character of the Suárezian Project in its Proper Historical Context
Victor M. Salas
6. New Models of Church Government: Innovation in Catholic Ecclesiology, ca. 1600–1800
Shaun Blanchard
7. At the Fringes of the Church: The Ecclesial Status of Heretics and their Baptized Children in Early Modern Ecclesiology
Eric DeMeuse
8. The Invention of Probabilism
Emanuele Colombo
9. Natural Law and Cultural Difference: innovations in Spanish scholasticism
Elisabeth Rain Kincaid
10. Duns Scotus and the Making of Modern Catholic Theology
Trent Pomplun
11. The Invention of Early Modern Mariology
Damien Tricoire
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This chapter examines ecclesio-political, theological, and ecclesiastical controversies and developments in the period ca. 1600-1800.
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The teaching documents promulgated by the First Vatican Council are often seen as vigorous responses to external challenges facing the Catholic Church in the nineteenth-century: from rationalism and fideism to secularization and... more
The teaching documents promulgated by the First Vatican Council are often seen as vigorous responses to external challenges facing the Catholic Church in the nineteenth-century: from rationalism and fideism to secularization and democratic revolution. Without disputing the clear significance of Vatican I’s immediate context, this essay seeks to highlight the importance of the ultramontane desire for a final, definitive dogmatic victory over a variety of early modern opponents of papalism, including Jansenism, Febronianism, Josephinism, and – of the most perduring weight – Gallicanism. This reexamination will be achieved through an analysis of the conciliar Acta and through employing two interpretive tools. The first is the notion of the “controlling function” of a past teaching document; the second is the notion of conciliar “ghosts” – that is, key movements or events in the church’s collective memory which influenced the drafting of conciliar texts and the subsequent debate over them.
Pastor Aeternus, which proclaimed papal infallibility and the pope’s supreme and universal jurisdiction, was in part a response to contemporary challenges. But the concrete machinery of the modern ultramontane papacy which made such definitions possible was forged in the internecine early modern struggles against Jansenism and various forms of conciliarism, from about 1650 to 1800. By the eve of Vatican I, even some of those with serious hesitations about the prudence of a definition of papal infallibility, such as John Henry Newman, were in substantial agreement with champions of a definition, like Cardinal Manning, regarding which early modern papal teachings could be considered infallible (in documents like Unigenitus and Auctorem fidei). The fact that many contemporary Catholic theologians see only the definitions of 1854 and 1950 as exercises of extraordinary papal infallibility lends added interest to this examination.
Pastor Aeternus, which proclaimed papal infallibility and the pope’s supreme and universal jurisdiction, was in part a response to contemporary challenges. But the concrete machinery of the modern ultramontane papacy which made such definitions possible was forged in the internecine early modern struggles against Jansenism and various forms of conciliarism, from about 1650 to 1800. By the eve of Vatican I, even some of those with serious hesitations about the prudence of a definition of papal infallibility, such as John Henry Newman, were in substantial agreement with champions of a definition, like Cardinal Manning, regarding which early modern papal teachings could be considered infallible (in documents like Unigenitus and Auctorem fidei). The fact that many contemporary Catholic theologians see only the definitions of 1854 and 1950 as exercises of extraordinary papal infallibility lends added interest to this examination.
Research Interests: Historical Theology, History of Roman Catholicism, Early Modern Church History, Early Modern Catholicism, Jansenism, and 12 moreJohn Henry Newman / Oxford Movement, Roman Catholicism, Catholicism, Ecumenism, Gallicanism, Theology and History of Vatican II, Papal Infallibility, Catholic Church History, Papacy (Early Modern and Modern Church History), First Vatican Council, John Henry Newman, and John Henry Cardinal Newman
My contribution to a roundtable on 150th Anniversary of the First Vatican Council. "Toward the end of his magisterial study of Catholic ecclesiological struggles spanning 1300 to 1870 CE, Francis Oakley employed a striking image to... more
My contribution to a roundtable on 150th Anniversary of the First Vatican Council.
"Toward the end of his magisterial study of Catholic ecclesiological struggles spanning 1300 to 1870 CE, Francis Oakley employed a striking image to illustrate the victory of papalism over conciliarism. After Vatican I, the “solitary horseman” left on a desolate “ecclesiological battlefield” many centuries in the making was “none other than the resilient ghost of Bellarmine.” By this image, Oakley meant that Pastor Aeternus’ twin definitions of papal infallibility and jurisdictional supremacy represented the definitive triumph of the ultramontane school, as typified by the counter-reformation Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine. For Oakley—and in this point he echoed a common interpretation—Vatican I consigned conciliar and constitutionalist Catholic ecclesiologies to “oblivion.”"
"Toward the end of his magisterial study of Catholic ecclesiological struggles spanning 1300 to 1870 CE, Francis Oakley employed a striking image to illustrate the victory of papalism over conciliarism. After Vatican I, the “solitary horseman” left on a desolate “ecclesiological battlefield” many centuries in the making was “none other than the resilient ghost of Bellarmine.” By this image, Oakley meant that Pastor Aeternus’ twin definitions of papal infallibility and jurisdictional supremacy represented the definitive triumph of the ultramontane school, as typified by the counter-reformation Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine. For Oakley—and in this point he echoed a common interpretation—Vatican I consigned conciliar and constitutionalist Catholic ecclesiologies to “oblivion.”"
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Enlightenment-influenced English Catholic priests and laymen, members of the "Cisalpine" movement, had a significant impact on Archbishop John Carroll (1735-1815), first bishop of Baltimore, and in turn the Church in the United States.... more
Enlightenment-influenced English Catholic priests and laymen, members of the "Cisalpine" movement, had a significant impact on Archbishop John Carroll (1735-1815), first bishop of Baltimore, and in turn the Church in the United States. Though Carroll had ambivalent relationships with the "Cisalpines" and with that movement's conservative critics, particularly Charles and Robert Plowden, his close friends, the Cisalpine network supported many of the same reforms as Carroll, including religious liberty and liturgical reform, and they were irenic towards Protestants. However, Carroll consistently sought to stay on the sidelines of the "Cisalpine stirs," the controversies pitting the progressive Cisalpines against the conservative party led by the vicars apostolic. Carroll's intense interest and occasional participation in these controversies illuminate important elements of this thought, as do the reasons which he became increasingly critical of the Cisalpines.
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This article explores the evocations of the Synod of Pistoia (1786) at Vatican II, arguing that Pistoia was a “ghost” on the council floor, that is, a key moment in the Church’s collective memory which influenced drafting and debate. This... more
This article explores the evocations of the Synod of Pistoia (1786) at Vatican II, arguing that Pistoia was a “ghost” on the council floor, that is, a key moment in the Church’s collective memory which influenced drafting and debate. This is apparent in Bishop Carli’s evocation of Auctorem fidei (the 1794 Bull condemning Pistoia) during debates surrounding the theology of the episcopacy. This article concludes by arguing that the historical contextualization of Pistoia by figures like Cardinal Silva Henríquez was ultimately successful, as Auctorem fidei did not exert a strong “controlling function” over Vatican II’s ecclesiological debates.
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This paper argues that the record of theological dissent at Trent and Vatican I are positive and fruitful sources of theological reflection on the sensus fidelium. Not only do these “minority” voices (minority in the literal sense of... more
This paper argues that the record of theological dissent at Trent and Vatican I are positive and fruitful sources of theological reflection on the sensus fidelium. Not only do these “minority” voices (minority in the literal sense of opposing a majority group or opinion) help us to accurately interpret the drafts and final documents of these councils, but these minority figures can sometimes preserve the sensus fidelium through their calls for various concessions from the majority.
First, I revisit Trent’s decree on Scripture (1546). Due to the interventions of two Italians (Nacchianti, the Bishop of Chioggia, and Bonuccio, the General of the Servites), the question of the relationship between scripture and tradition was left open – that is, the “two-source” partim-partim theory was not dogmatically enshrined. This was an important episode wherein a tiny minority gained a critical concession. I argue that this minority intervention bore fruit not only in a final Tridentine document that better echoed the faith of the ages, but also bore fruit centuries later at Vatican II in Dei verbum.
Second, I argue that the minority at Vatican I protected the Church from extreme ultramontanism. This relatively large and intellectually powerful minority, many of them rooted in Gallicanism, played a key role in tempering a dogmatic proclamation that was further balanced and interpreted a century later in Lumen gentium and Christus Dominus.
I conclude by suggesting theologians should look for ways in which the minority at Vatican II could serve future generations of Catholics in unforeseen ways.
First, I revisit Trent’s decree on Scripture (1546). Due to the interventions of two Italians (Nacchianti, the Bishop of Chioggia, and Bonuccio, the General of the Servites), the question of the relationship between scripture and tradition was left open – that is, the “two-source” partim-partim theory was not dogmatically enshrined. This was an important episode wherein a tiny minority gained a critical concession. I argue that this minority intervention bore fruit not only in a final Tridentine document that better echoed the faith of the ages, but also bore fruit centuries later at Vatican II in Dei verbum.
Second, I argue that the minority at Vatican I protected the Church from extreme ultramontanism. This relatively large and intellectually powerful minority, many of them rooted in Gallicanism, played a key role in tempering a dogmatic proclamation that was further balanced and interpreted a century later in Lumen gentium and Christus Dominus.
I conclude by suggesting theologians should look for ways in which the minority at Vatican II could serve future generations of Catholics in unforeseen ways.
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In this article, I retrieve the eighteenth-century historian and Catholic reformer Lodovico Muratori (1672-1750) as a source for contemporary Catholic theology. I argue he is clear forerunner of Vatican II in his Christocentrism, his... more
In this article, I retrieve the eighteenth-century historian and Catholic reformer Lodovico Muratori (1672-1750) as a source for contemporary Catholic theology. I argue he is clear forerunner of Vatican II in his Christocentrism, his regulated devotion to Mary and the saints, and his "proto-ecumenism."
This is a pre-review copy of the publication of this essay in Pro Ecclesia 25 (Winter 2016).
This is a pre-review copy of the publication of this essay in Pro Ecclesia 25 (Winter 2016).
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Research Interests: French Revolution, Enlightenment, Jesuit history, Catholic Theology, History of Roman Catholicism, and 11 moreChurch History, History of Freemasonry, European Enlightenment, Heresy and Inquisition, Roman Catholicism, Copernicus, Voltaire, Lodovico Antonio Muratori, Papacy (Early Modern and Modern Church History), Catholic Philosophy, and Pope Benedict XIV
Forthcoming: “Reform vom Arno bis zum Rhein – Die jansenistische Synode von Pistoia und die deutschsprachigen Länder,” in Jansenismus und Kulturtransfer. Translated by Christoph Schmitt-Maaß. Series: Frühe Neuzeit. Edited by Christoph Schmitt-Maaß and Friedrich Vollhardt (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023).more
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“I don’t like Newman,” wrote the famous English historian Fr. John Lingard in January 1850. The reasons the aged and ailing Catholic historian gave for his antipathy towards perhaps the most celebrated English convert of all time... more
“I don’t like Newman,” wrote the famous English historian Fr. John Lingard in January 1850. The reasons the aged and ailing Catholic historian gave for his antipathy towards perhaps the most celebrated English convert of all time encapsulated the collision of old and new: “too much fancy or enthusiasm”[1] was Lingard’s gripe in a letter to his friend John Walker. The relative obscurity of Lingard today is surprising, since in his day (he died in 1851) he was “the best-known and most widely read English Catholic writer.”[2] Lingard’s “Victorian celebrity” was due primarily to ground-breaking historical works, but also significantly buttressed by his reputation as a formidable theo-political controversialist: both in intra-Catholic squabbles and in defense of his community against Protestant detractors.[3] The crowning achievement of a life of research, his eight-volume History of England (1819–1830) featured pioneering work with primary source material.[4] Lingard’s History was widely reviewed and debated. It was translated into many languages, went through multiple editions, and was even abridged for use as a school textbook in France. In the twentieth century, Hilaire Belloc added a final volume to bring the narrative from 1688 to the present; this version of Lingard’s History of England can still be found in old family libraries around the UK. Lingard can be counted as a kind of founding father of certain “revisionist” historical positions on English history advanced by scholars like Eamon Duffy and Christopher Haigh. Long before Duffy’s classic The Stripping of the Altars (1992), Lingard’s work suggested a re-narration of the Whiggish and triumphalist national story vis-à-vis Catholicism.[5]
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An interview with Dr. Adam DeVille, on my book The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II and issues and themes connected to it.
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Research Interests: Early Modern History, History of Roman Catholicism, Second Vatican Council, Early Modern Catholicism, Jansenism, and 8 moreRoman Catholicism, History of Birth Control, Dissent, Catholic Church History, Papacy (Early Modern and Modern Church History), Pope Benedict XVI/Josef Ratzinger, Vaticano II, and Pope Francis
Research Interests: Religion, Religion and Politics, Enlightenment, Catholic Theology, History of Roman Catholicism, and 9 moreHistory of Florence, Early Modern Italy, Early Modern Catholicism, European Enlightenment, Jansenism, Roman Catholicism, Medieval Devotional Culture, Papacy (Early Modern and Modern Church History), and Tuscany
Short essay in Notre Dame's Church Life Journal on the misuse of the term "Jansenist" as a slur in contemporary Catholic discourse.
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A response to an article in the Notre Dame Church Life Journal arguing that the term "ultramontane" can be equated with Catholic orthodoxy.
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This is a reflection on my time at the Covenant conference for Living Church authors. I was a Catholic observer and participant in this conference for Anglicans, which immediately preceded the important events presided over by Pope... more
This is a reflection on my time at the Covenant conference for Living Church authors. I was a Catholic observer and participant in this conference for Anglicans, which immediately preceded the important events presided over by Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby in early October 2016. I reflect on ecumenism, friendship, martyrdom, and division at the altar.
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This is a short article for The Regensburg Forum, an online journal dedicated to putting the Catholic and Calvinist traditions in dialogue through re-examination of the Early Modern period and the Augustinian tradition. I discuss the... more
This is a short article for The Regensburg Forum, an online journal dedicated to putting the Catholic and Calvinist traditions in dialogue through re-examination of the Early Modern period and the Augustinian tradition. I discuss the relative neglect of attention paid to eighteenth-century theology by contemporary Catholic theologians and suggest some fruitful sources in the period.
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This is a short article for The Regensburg Forum, an online journal dedicated to putting the Catholic and Calvinist traditions in dialogue through re-examination of the Early Modern period and the Augustinian tradition. In this short... more
This is a short article for The Regensburg Forum, an online journal dedicated to putting the Catholic and Calvinist traditions in dialogue through re-examination of the Early Modern period and the Augustinian tradition. In this short article I discuss the malleable concept of Jansenism.
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This is a short article for The Regensburg Forum, an online journal dedicated to putting the Catholic and Calvinist traditions in dialogue through re-examination of the Early Modern period and the Augustinian tradition. The "Third Party",... more
This is a short article for The Regensburg Forum, an online journal dedicated to putting the Catholic and Calvinist traditions in dialogue through re-examination of the Early Modern period and the Augustinian tradition. The "Third Party", (a phrase coined by Emile Appolis) were for Catholics who sought a moderate reform of the Church and wished to avoid the extremes of both the Jansenists and the traditionalist "zelanti".
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This essay considers the significance of John Lingard (1771-1851), a central figure in the early history of Ushaw College and one of the leading Catholic intellectuals in pre-Emancipation England. Lingard is significant in British history... more
This essay considers the significance of John Lingard (1771-1851), a central figure in the early history of Ushaw College and one of the leading Catholic intellectuals in pre-Emancipation England. Lingard is significant in British history as the author of a groundbreaking six-volume History of England (1819-30) which featured pioneering work with primary source material. An intellectual and ecclesiastical leader of pre-Emancipation English Catholicism, his career began in earnest after the "Cisalpine stirs" which pit Enlightenment Catholics against the party of the Vicars Apostolic, but ended just before the ascendancy of the church of Wiseman and Manning. Indeed, Lingard was uncomfortable with, even somewhat hostile to, both the ultramontane agenda of Milner and the vision of Newman. This essay argues that Lingard is best understood as something of a paradox - a man both stuck in the past and presciently forward-looking. He was in many ways a late survivor of the eighteenth-century "Third Party" described by Emile Appolis, which stressed toleration and irenicism, Christocentric devotions, and Gallican theological method. But he was also a striking forerunner of Vatican II in his proto-ecumenical consciousness, liturgical and devotional thought, and view of church-state relations. This essay draws from the significant Lingard collection in the archives of Ushaw College, where Lingard rests.
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This essay seeks to contribute to the categorization and analysis of Catholic receptions of the teaching and significance of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) by proposing four paradigms. It argues that views of history - both secular... more
This essay seeks to contribute to the categorization and analysis of Catholic receptions of the teaching and significance of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) by proposing four paradigms. It argues that views of history - both secular and ecclesiastical - are critical for the dynamic process of conciliar receptions. Finally, it proposes that a "hermeneutic of reform" as proposed by Pope Benedict XVI and approved by John O'Malley can help overcome impasses in conciliar hermeneutics. This "hermeneutic of reform," which perceives "continuity and discontinuity on different levels" should be rooted in Congar's theory of "true reform."
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This essay argues that the “late Jansenists” at the Synod of Pistoia (1786) operated between Reformations. Scipione de’Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia-Prato, and his collaborators sought to implement their vision of the Catholic (Tridentine)... more
This essay argues that the “late Jansenists” at the Synod of Pistoia (1786) operated between Reformations. Scipione de’Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia-Prato, and his collaborators sought to implement their vision of the Catholic (Tridentine) Reformation while also responding to some of the central concerns of the Protestant Reformers in ways that implicitly acknowledged the validity of such concerns. De’Ricci’s synod is best known to historians and theologians as a renegade push for Jansenist liturgical and ecclesiological reform in Tuscany, that was harshly condemned by Pope Pius VI in the Bull Auctorem fidei (1794). However, as the papal condemnation successfully identified in the first condemned article, the guiding principle for the Pistoian reform was not liturgical or ecclesiological, but the belief that there had been a “general obscuration” of Christian truth which had afflicted the Catholic Church in “these latter days.” Although de’Ricci and his confreres rejected important elements of the agenda of the Protestant Reformers, they conferred with those reformers that it was not only moral and disciplinary problems that faced Catholicism, but also doctrinal ones. These doctrinal issues included understandings of grace and free will, the nature of the papacy, religious liberty, the reform of indulgences, and the Christocentric reform of devotions. The Pistoians are worth retrieving not only for their innovative views on vernacular liturgy, the centrality of Bible reading, and ecclesiological reform, but also for their guiding principle that the church must be semper reformanda – an insight a hundred and eighty years before Vatican II.
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John Carroll, the first bishop of the American Catholic Church (1790–1815), was influenced by a political, theological, and philosophical climate deeply indebted to the European Enlightenment and his immediate American context. He was... more
John Carroll, the first bishop of the American Catholic Church (1790–1815), was influenced by a political, theological, and philosophical climate deeply indebted to the European Enlightenment and his immediate American context. He was also directly influenced by other English-speaking progressive Catholics – the “Cisalpines” of the United Kingdom. Cisalpine influence on Carroll can be seen in four areas: 1) ecclesiology, including the limits of papal authority and the rights of bishops; 2) religious liberty and modern conceptions of church and state; 3) proto-ecumenism and irenicism with Protestants; 4) the reform of liturgy and devotions, including a prioritization of the vernacular.
The Cisalpines were influenced not only by the Enlightenment and their English political context, but by the conciliarism that was prominent among recusants, by Gallicanism and Jansenism, and even by contemporary, more radical European Catholic reform movements like Josephinism and the “Pistoianism” of Scipione de’Ricci. Carroll’s relationship with these more radical elements of Cisalpine thought was ambivalent. In fact, he grew more and more critical of the Cisalpines, and especially Joseph Berington, because of their clashes with the English Vicars Apostolic and their anti-papal rhetoric. This essay seeks to make sense of Carroll’s reformist orientation alongside his reticence to embrace the Cisalpines, arguing that he is best understood as a late example of the “Third Party” – moderate reformers of the eighteenth-century who were neither Jansenists nor traditionalist zelanti. Notwithstanding Carroll’s differences with the Cisalpines, both were part of a transatlantic network of English-speaking Catholic reformers. This study seeks to contribute to investigate the diffusion of Enlightenment Catholicism outside of the European continent.
The Cisalpines were influenced not only by the Enlightenment and their English political context, but by the conciliarism that was prominent among recusants, by Gallicanism and Jansenism, and even by contemporary, more radical European Catholic reform movements like Josephinism and the “Pistoianism” of Scipione de’Ricci. Carroll’s relationship with these more radical elements of Cisalpine thought was ambivalent. In fact, he grew more and more critical of the Cisalpines, and especially Joseph Berington, because of their clashes with the English Vicars Apostolic and their anti-papal rhetoric. This essay seeks to make sense of Carroll’s reformist orientation alongside his reticence to embrace the Cisalpines, arguing that he is best understood as a late example of the “Third Party” – moderate reformers of the eighteenth-century who were neither Jansenists nor traditionalist zelanti. Notwithstanding Carroll’s differences with the Cisalpines, both were part of a transatlantic network of English-speaking Catholic reformers. This study seeks to contribute to investigate the diffusion of Enlightenment Catholicism outside of the European continent.
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In 1791, the Benedictine Charles Walmesley (1722–97), Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, wrote to his colleague Bishop Douglass: “We exist indeed in miserable times. We have our share here, and they suffer a great share abroad; but... more
In 1791, the Benedictine Charles Walmesley (1722–97), Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, wrote to his colleague Bishop Douglass: “We exist indeed in miserable times. We have our share here, and they suffer a great share abroad; but there was a Wo pronounced by the Prophet on this period of the Church.” Given the societal pressures on English Catholics, the upheavals in revolutionary France, and the doctrinal and political strife throughout Catholic Europe, one can understand Bishop Walmesley’s pessimism. But Walmesley’s apocalyptic interpretation of recent struggles – with recalcitrant progressive “Cisalpines” like Joseph Berington, or with news coming out of Pistoia, Austria, and France – was interpreted to fit a narrative of history that Walmesley himself had held for decades. In 1771, Walmesley published, under the pseudonym “Sig. Pastorini” the General History of the Christian Church, his first (and programmatic) apocalyptic work, in which he divided history into seven ages, in an attempt to prophetically interpret the seven Seals, Trumpets, and Vials of the book of Revelation. While the book earned the scorn of “enlightened” Cisalpines like Alexander Geddes, it was widely acclaimed, reprinted, and translated. This essay explores Walmesley’s interpretation of history and prophecy, which I will argue was profoundly shaped by his view of Protestantism, and shows how his apocalypticism impacted his interactions with the progressive Cisalpines, his ideological opponents. These latter, who had a typical “Enlightenment” view of history, had capitulated, in Walmesley’s view, to the poison of the Fifth Age.
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The phenomenon of “Josephinism,” that is, the ecclesial reforms of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (r. 1780-90) has been thoroughly studied as a main prong of Reformkatholizismus. This essay will examine the failed attempt of Scipione... more
The phenomenon of “Josephinism,” that is, the ecclesial reforms of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (r. 1780-90) has been thoroughly studied as a main prong of Reformkatholizismus. This essay will examine the failed attempt of Scipione d’Ricci (1741-1810), the Bishop of Pistoia-Prato, to harness the imperial power wielded by Joseph II’s brother, Peter Leopold (Grand Duke of Tuscany 1765-90, Holy Roman Emperor 1790-92), to reform the Tuscan Church along Jansenist, Gallican, and Josephinist lines. Although the collaboration of d’Ricci and Peter Leopold is best known for the radical ecclesiological and liturgical thought advanced by the Synod of Pistoia (1786), this essay will examine why and how d’Ricci placed sincere hope for the reform of the Catholic Church in Leopold, whom d’Ricci encouraged to preside over a series of regional and “National” church councils as an anointed Christian sovereign, evoking the example of Constantine and Charlemagne. On the eve of the French Revolution (and the Pistoians had fascinating connections with the Constitutionalist Clergy), d’Ricci saw an “enlightened despot” as the last chance of late Jansenism to reform the Church against the pope and curia – powers that d’Ricci saw as intransigent, unenlightened, and obscuring the gospel. This essay argues that the political circumstances of the day, as well as d’Ricci and Leopold’s inability to communicate their reforming ideas to the common people, led to the failure of this attempt of a relatively new imperial power (the Hapsburgs had been Grand Dukes in Tuscany only since 1737) to reform an ancient church.
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This paper seeks to introduce the English “Cisalpines,” an under-researched eighteenth-century reform network, and show their relationship with a continental Catholic reform movement – that of the late Jansenists at the Synod of Pistoia.... more
This paper seeks to introduce the English “Cisalpines,” an under-researched eighteenth-century reform network, and show their relationship with a continental Catholic reform movement – that of the late Jansenists at the Synod of Pistoia. “Cisalpinism,” the ideology, designates a cluster of theological, political, and historical persuasions that was most prominent in English Catholic life from about 1780 to 1800. The name “Cisalpine” was taken from the Cisalpine Club, founded in 1792 and promptly dissolved in 1830 upon the achievement of Catholic Emancipation (which finally passed through Parliament in 1829). The name “Cisalpine” (that is, this side of the Alps, north of the Alps) was deliberately provocative, for it was the opposite of “ultra-montane” (beyond the Alps, in Rome). The term ultramontane meant more than simply an attitude of favoring papalism over conciliarism. Often wrapped up with it was a conservative mindset in liturgy, in attitudes towards history, even in one’s political cast of mind and view of Protestantism. Likewise, “Cisalpinism,” quite self-consciously, came to designate opposing or contrasting persuasions on many of these questions. The Cisalpine priest Joseph Berington sums up this attitude with his characteristic bluntness: “I am no papist, nor is my religion popery.”
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This is a shorter and earlier version of the essay which was published in New Blackfriars in March 2017.
In this presentation at the Lumen Christi Institute in Oxford (summer 2016), I argue that Newman's seven "notes" of doctrinal development are indeed of practical value. I argue this is apparent in the development of doctrine concerning... more
In this presentation at the Lumen Christi Institute in Oxford (summer 2016), I argue that Newman's seven "notes" of doctrinal development are indeed of practical value. I argue this is apparent in the development of doctrine concerning the Virgin Mary and the papacy. I also make reference to Ian Ker's contention that they are manifested in the developments concerning religious liberty.
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While de facto religious pluralism was recognized and responded to in various ways at and after Vatican II, the Catholic debate over de iure religious pluralism – that is, whether non-Christian religions are willed by God as "paths of... more
While de facto religious pluralism was recognized and responded to in various ways at and after Vatican II, the Catholic debate over de iure religious pluralism – that is, whether non-Christian religions are willed by God as "paths of salvation" – had just began. This debate reached a crescendo at the end of the long and fruitful career of Fr. Jacques Dupuis, SJ (1923-2004) and during the CDF investigation of his magnum opus, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (1997). Dupuis argued in favor of de iure religious pluralism, seeing other religions as complementary to the Church, albeit maintaining a “constitutive” Christology. I wish to put Dupuis’ propositions in critical dialogue with another Catholic theologian, Gavin D’Costa, who shares many of the same concerns with Dupuis (including a commitment to interreligious dialogue and interreligious prayer), but rejects de iure pluralism. While the “Dupuis debate” has been considered from a number of angles, I propose that it is in differing Trinitarian theologies that we can locate the initial fault-lines that lead to acceptance or rejection of de iure pluralism. Dupuis and D’Costa both have robust Trinitarian theologies that make innovative moves to respond to religious pluralism. I will argue that Dupuis’ moves ultimately result in a regnocentric soteriology that occludes the ecclesial mystery in the salvation of the non-Christian, while D’Costa’s scheme succeeds in upholding both Kingdom and Church in the Trinitarian order of salvation.
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In this paper, I examine the various ways in which evocations of the condemned Synod of Pistoia (1786) functioned at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). In 1786, the Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, Scipione d’Ricci, held a diocesan... more
In this paper, I examine the various ways in which evocations of the condemned Synod of Pistoia (1786) functioned at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
In 1786, the Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, Scipione d’Ricci, held a diocesan synod under the protection of the enlightened despot Peter Leopold, Archduke of Tuscany. The Synod, which was rooted in a complex cocktail of Enlightenment-era Catholic reformist ideals – from international Jansenism to Josephinism to the more moderate Italian reform typified by Muratori – proposed a wide range of radical reforms. The Pistoians declared vernacular liturgy licit and the necessity of scriptural study by the laity. The Synod also aimed at weakening the power of the Pope and the Roman Curia, and the “restoration” of original rights to local bishops. Pope Pius VI condemned this attack on his authority in the Bull Auctorem Fidei (1794), censuring 85 propositions of the Synod.
However, Vatican II took up many of the same concerns as the Synod of Pistoia nearly two hundred years later. While continuing to respect the authority of Pius VI’s Bull, the Council Fathers found innovative ways to respond to the concerns of the Pistoians, even enacting some of their proposed reforms. Through an examination of the debates on the council floor, chiefly the controversial relatio of Bishop Carli of Segni, I argue that a close contextual reading of Auctorem Fidei and a burgeoning historical consciousness amongst the majority of the bishops were necessary for asserting the new doctrinal affirmations surrounding episcopal collegiality.
In 1786, the Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, Scipione d’Ricci, held a diocesan synod under the protection of the enlightened despot Peter Leopold, Archduke of Tuscany. The Synod, which was rooted in a complex cocktail of Enlightenment-era Catholic reformist ideals – from international Jansenism to Josephinism to the more moderate Italian reform typified by Muratori – proposed a wide range of radical reforms. The Pistoians declared vernacular liturgy licit and the necessity of scriptural study by the laity. The Synod also aimed at weakening the power of the Pope and the Roman Curia, and the “restoration” of original rights to local bishops. Pope Pius VI condemned this attack on his authority in the Bull Auctorem Fidei (1794), censuring 85 propositions of the Synod.
However, Vatican II took up many of the same concerns as the Synod of Pistoia nearly two hundred years later. While continuing to respect the authority of Pius VI’s Bull, the Council Fathers found innovative ways to respond to the concerns of the Pistoians, even enacting some of their proposed reforms. Through an examination of the debates on the council floor, chiefly the controversial relatio of Bishop Carli of Segni, I argue that a close contextual reading of Auctorem Fidei and a burgeoning historical consciousness amongst the majority of the bishops were necessary for asserting the new doctrinal affirmations surrounding episcopal collegiality.
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First, I explore the development of the doctrine extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, noting some key theological categories that made the judgement of Lumen gentium 16 possible. Second I examine the passage in its context among the wider... more
First, I explore the development of the doctrine extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, noting some key theological categories that made the judgement of Lumen gentium 16 possible. Second I examine the passage in its context among the wider soteriological and missiological data of Lumen gentium. I will argue that this ‘relation’ or ‘ordering’ or ‘ordaining’ [ordinantur], which is rooted in Aquinas’ discussion of the headship of Christ, is one of potentiality and not actuality. This is a positive and hopeful appraisal, but also calls for vigorous missionary efforts. Thirdly, I will draw on the work of several theologians to sketch a current theology of the necessity of the Church as the means of salvation that explores the question of how, concretely, different groups of non-Christians are ordinantur to the Church. These explorations will take the de facto situation of religious pluralism seriously through an openness to ‘a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men’ (Nostra Aetate, 2), especially in the Abrahamic faiths. Finally, given that Lumen gentium establishes this foundation of hope for the salvation of non-Christians, I will conclude with a gesture to the theories which seek to solve the concrete soteriological question. I will suggest that Gavin D’Costa’s retrieval of the patristic notion of ‘the limbo of the fathers’ is the theory that best retains the instrumental causality of the Church in the salvation of all.
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Research Interests: History and Ambivalence
The name of Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1672–1750) does not often enter discussions of the Second Vatican Council. On one hand, it is understandable that most scholarship on Muratori concerns his impressive historiography, his discovery of... more
The name of Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1672–1750) does not often enter discussions of the Second Vatican Council. On one hand, it is understandable that most scholarship on Muratori concerns his impressive historiography, his discovery of the “Muratorian Fragment” in the Ambrosian library, and his moral philosophy and political thought.1 But Muratori also composed a rich corpus of theological writing that advocates deep reform in the Catholic Church—through Christocentric renewal, liturgical rejuvenation, and regulated devotion to Mary and the saints. These are some of the same key areas targeted at Vatican II for reform and revitalization. I intend to consider Muratori’s writings on Church reform alongside the reforms implemented by Vatican II—chiefly in the Constitutions Sacrosanctum Concilium, Lumen Gentium, and Dei Verbum. A retrieval of Muratori’s theology can shed light on current debates over continuity and discontinuity, ressourcement and aggiornamento, and contribute to the genealogical question of when key ideas began germinating which came to fruition at the Council. My goal is not to suggest a certain hermeneutic for the Council or contribute to a specific postconciliar debate—it is rather
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Research Interests: Sociology, Philosophy, Theology, Faith, Proclamation, and 3 moreHoly See, Dissenting Opinion, and Decree
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Research Interests: Philosophy and Synod
This article explores the evocations of the Synod of Pistoia (1786) at Vatican II, arguing that Pistoia was a “ghost” on the council floor, that is, a key moment in the Church’s collective memory which influenced drafting and debate. This... more
This article explores the evocations of the Synod of Pistoia (1786) at Vatican II, arguing that Pistoia was a “ghost” on the council floor, that is, a key moment in the Church’s collective memory which influenced drafting and debate. This is apparent in Bishop Carli’s evocation of Auctorem Fidei (the 1794 bull condemning Pistoia) during debates surrounding the theology of the episcopacy. This article concludes by arguing that the historical contextualization of Pistoia by figures like Cardinal Silva Henríquez was ultimately successful, as Auctorem Fidei did not exert a strong “controlling function” over Vatican II’s ecclesiological debates.