2015_12_15 TEO ISCR DERCAN News University professors edit the Theological Dictionary of the Second Vatican Council.

The publishing house Eunsa has published the Diccionario Teológico del Concilio Vaticano II, a work directed by Prof. José Ramón Villar, which gathers together 50 voices dedicated to great conciliar themes, which have been prepared by 29 professors from the Schools of Theology and the University of Navarra. Canon Law of the University of Navarra.

On December 8, 1965, Pope Paul VI solemnly closed the Second Vatican Council. During these fifty years the Council has determined the life of the Church and remains in force as a "compass" for the Church in the future, as St. John Paul II affirmed.

"The Council was, without exaggeration, the greatest religious event of the 20th century, which gave a powerful impetus to the internal renewal of the Catholic Church and to changes in its relations with the other Christian Churches, with other religions and with society. These words of Cardinal Ricardo Blázquez in the prologue to the "Theological Dictionary of the Second Vatican Council" justify the importance of knowing the Council documents. After the closing of the Council, its texts were the object of reading and application in the life of the Church, and had a notable influence on contemporary theology.

In spite of this, today there is a risk that Vatican II will become just another in the list of councils, or a vague historical reference letter . For this reason, it is very convenient to facilitate access to the conciliar teaching . As Cardinal Blázquez comments "this work is not written for specialists who know the issues involved in the conciliar magisterium. It is a work written by specialists, professors of the School of Theology of the University of Navarra, but addressed to non-specialists. It is precisely here, in my opinion, where its value and interest lie (...) We are grateful for the effort that has been put into these pages to offer a high knowledge dissemination of the Council, without losing depth and attention".

The voices present a theological synthesis of the main contents of the Council, as a preliminary step for a more specialized analysis. Bibliographical references allow for a more in-depth study of each topic. In this way, the Dictionary aims to be a theological initiation accessible to a wide public, to facilitate the reading staff of the conciliar texts or the preparation of sessions, courses or seminars on Vatican II, whose documents contain theological aspects that could escape a first reading.

Precisely by virtue of this simple and accessible style," Cardinal Blázquez comments, "the reader could miss the latent potential in many of these texts which, in their apparent simplicity, were thought out, written and discussed down to the last comma, with a theological finesse worthy of admiration. It is, therefore, very opportune the intention that animates this volume that the reader has in his hands. Its goal is to introduce the reader to the great themes dealt with by the Council, revealing the theological significance of its texts. Especially the younger generations born after Vatican II could read these texts today without realizing the scope of their affirmations, or it could go unnoticed that many of the ideas of the conciliar texts that today seem connatural and even obvious, in reality, presupposed an impressive theological reflection that the council assumed and integrated into the living current of Tradition".