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Roman Catholic Theology and Contemporary Culture

            In this essay, I will look at the significance of the Vatican II. I will address the need for Catholic theologians to address specific issues challenging the Roman Catholic Church and will also debate the rethinking of Catholic theology by Rahner and Kung who worked towards developing a new Catholic theology that would be pertinent to contemporary culture. I will explain any lessons learned with concern as to how theology needs to respond to the changes in culture. In January 1959, Pope John XXIII organized a church council almost a hundred years since the last one was held. The Vatican II council was a meeting of the religious chain of command explicitly for the purpose of executing judicial and doctrinal works. They met at St. Peter's Basilica and discussed issues in four sessions held between 1962 and 1965. Pope John XXIII aspired to generate an atmosphere where the church would participate in all the facets of the current cultures. It was Pope John XXIII who chose both Hans Kung, a Swiss Roman Catholic theologian and Karl Rahner, a German priest and theologian as expert advisors to the Second Vatican Council. He would later be picked as one of the theologians to aid in developing the unbending clarification of the Church creed because his impact was ground-breaking at Vatican II Council was extensive. Pope John XXIII died before the council ended and Pope Paul VI would finish.
             During World War II, the past was becoming just that - the past - and culture was coming to an end gave way to a call for a coming together with in the church. It was important for the Church to find a way to make the message of faith more applicable to everyone. The Vatican II council successfully allowed the Church the ability to be able to reach out to all the people on earth and perform God's work. The Second Vatican Council voiced the mentality of the Church for the future. Quite a few of the original teachings had been masked by the Vatican endorsing biased understandings.


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