A renewed approach to the critical study of the event and documents of Vatican II, necessary for responding to the challenges facing today’s church.   Packed with new insights from some of today’s most highly regarded voices on the Second Vatican Council, The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis enacts the living tradition of the church by proposing a richer history to be told sixty years from its celebration, and a broader theology to inspire our work today.     Vatican II did not anticipate our contemporary challenges, nor do its documents provide specific guidelines or step-by-step instructions for addressing them. But that does not make the council irrelevant. As a touchstone of the church’s magisterial tradition, the Second Vatican Council remains foundational for the life and mission of the Catholic Church today. However, like any monument of the tradition, the council requires ongoing investigation, critical analysis, and constant reconsideration from a diversity of contemporary perspectives if it is going to contribute to the living tradition of the church.   Through historical and theological lenses, the contributors aim to rediscover forgotten voices and overlooked moments of Vatican II that may have something even more important to say today. Each chapter promises to surprise, enlighten, inspire, and teach in fresh and unexpected ways. The contributors offer readers striking insights on the council’s teaching related to the sexual abuse crisis, antiracism, politics, the Synod on Synodality, and much more. By reexamining the teaching of Vatican II from the perspective of our present ecclesial crisis, readers will have a better understanding of how its legacy and limits affect the ongoing reform of the church in a much-changed theological, ecclesial, and social landscape. Contributors: Matteo Caponi Catherine E. Clifford Kristin M. Colberg Agnès Desmazières Massimo Faggioli Theresa Gardner Edward P. Hahnenberg Timothy Hanchin Tuan A. Hoang Mary Kate Holman Jaisy A. Joseph Florian Klug William Kuncken Josephine Laffin Martin Madar Evgeniia Muzychenko William I. Orbih Bernard G. Prusak Daniel A. Rober "This welcome collection aims to bridge the distance between Vatican II and the diverse contexts in which the council unfolded and continues to be received. The essays engage critically with the council as part of the church’s living tradition, which contributes to pastoral, ethical, and ecclesiological questions while also being notably, even disastrously, silent on issues the church continues to face today. The volume insightfully highlights the need to learn from Vatican II’s contributions as well as its lacunae in the hope of responding more actively to concerns such as racism, colonialism, sexual abuse, and misogyny in the church and world today." Amanda C. Osheim, PhD, Professor of Practical Theology, Loras College Published On: 2025-01-06 "Vatican II didn’t quite join all the dots of its teaching; nor could it have anticipated the crises and new perspectives that have emerged during its reception. But it did give its receivers some direction on how to do so, especially by reading the signs of the times. This book acknowledges that, like every general council of the church, Vatican II’s interpretation and adaptation in new contexts requires honest attention to its shortcomings and postconciliar challenges, by attending to the overall vision of the council. This book presents an important advance in Vatican II research." Rev. Dr. Ormond Rush, Associate Professor, Australian Catholic University Published On: 2025-01-06 "A significant fresh contribution to the vast literature on Vatican II, shaped by four distinguished scholars deeply committed to the historiography and ecclesial reception of the council. Its freshness is in going beyond such concerns to ask after the lacunae in the council’s focus, narration, and implementation, and what it means to bring its trajectories into conversation with the crises, concerns, and possibilities of today’s Catholic church in diverse global contexts. Its significance lies not just in the stimulating set of studies it gathers together but in the direction and character of the conversation it opens." Paul D. Murray, Professor of Systematic Theology, Durham University Published On: 2025-01-16 Massimo Faggioli is professor of historical and contemporary ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College Dublin and the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, and a contributing editor for Commonweal . He is an internationally-established scholar in the area of Vatican II and the papacy especially, and a renowned public commentator on church affairs. Among his books with Liturgical Press are The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis (2025) ; True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in  Sacrosanctum Concilium (2012); Pope John XXIII: The Medicine of Mercy (2014); and Sorting Out Catho