Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction

1. Preconciliar Vota and their Background. The Belgian Example
1. The Antepreparatory Vota
2. Background: Five Decades of Debates

2. The Preparatory Theological Commission
1. Composition
2. Establishment and Presidency
3. Electing Members and Consultors

3. The Schema Compendiosum (1960)
1. First Draft
2. Background and Reactions

4. The Constitutio de fontibus (January 1961)
1. A Roman Controversy
2. Constitutio de fontibus: Redaction

5. The Constitutio de fontibus revelationis (June 1961)
1. Background
2. Reactions to the January Draft
3. A Subcommission at Work (April – June)

6. Reception of the June Draft
1. The Theological Commission
2. The Central Preparatory Commission
3. The Schema on the Sources: A Compromise Draft

Conclusions
1. Some Notes on the Opening Days of the Council
2. Opening of Vatican II: A Schema Rejected
3. An Ill-Reputed Text
4. A Renewed Appraisal

Archival Sources and Selected Bibliography
Index of names

About the Author

Karim Schelkens, Ph.D. (2007) in Theology, Catholic University of Leuven, has studied in Leuven and at the Université Laval, Canada. He has published extensively on the history of the Second Vatican Council, including an edition of the Carnets conciliaires de Mgr. Gerard Philips (Peeters, 2006).

Reviews

Winner of the Charles De Clercq Award of The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.

"This book is a remarkable piece of scholarship both in terms of its depth of analysis and its conclusion ... Especially helpful is the historical background that S. provides throughout to contextualize the debates. The result is a new discovery."
Michael Attridge, University of St. Michael’s College Toronto. In: Theological Studies 73 (2012), p. 249.

"Cet ouvrage bien documenté nous impose de réfléchir à nouveaux frais, et c’est ce que l’on attend d’un bon livre." Gilles Routhier", Université Laval. In: Laval théologique et philosophique, Vol. 67, No. 2 (June 2011), pp. 362-366.

“For defining the battle lines within the Catholic community and suggesting the dissonance with other contemporary interpretative frames, this is a very useful book.”
James P. McCartin, Seton Hall University. In: Church History, Vol. 81, No. 4 (December 2012), pp. 1033-1034.

“While the book is a technical marvel in many ways, Schelkens does not forget that he is telling a story and in so doing records some of the major shifts in Catholic theology during the period in question.”
D. Minch. In: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, Vol. 88, No. 4 (2012), pp. 537-538.