Whereas Concilium authors such as Edward Schillebeeckx, OP, and Karl Rahner, SJ, tended to approach the documents of the Council with what Ratzinger called a “hermeneutic of rupture,” making every pre-Conciliar belief and practice questionable, the Communio authors such as Joseph Ratzinger, Henri de Lubac, SJ, and Hans Urs von Balthasar offered a “hermeneutic of reform.” In his Christmas Address to members of the Roman Curia in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI made explicit reference to the concept of a “hermeneutic of reform” to describe his preferred approach to interpreting the documents of the Second Vatican Council. A key feature of his hermeneutic (consistent with the approach of Blessed John Paul II) is a strong Trinitarian Christocentrism or tendency to read the Conciliar documents with a Christocentric accent. This is especially so of the most highly debated document of the Council, Gaudium et Spes.
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