Following the Great War's devastation, innovative movements in France offered competing visions of a revitalized national body and a new world order. One of these was the postwar Catholic revival or renouveau catholique. Since the church had historically been the dominant religious force in France, its turn of the century separation from the state was especially bitter. For many Catholics, the 1914-18 sacrifices made on the Republic's behalf necessitated its postwar 're-Christianization.' However, in their attempt to reconcile Catholicism with culture, revivalists needed to abandon old...

Pope John XXIII prayed that the Second Vatican Council would prove to be a new Pentecost. The articles gathered here appeared originally in a series solicited by and published in Theological Studies (September 2012 to March 2014). The purpose of the series was and remains threefold: --To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council --To assist in appropriating the reform envisioned by Pope John XXIII --To help readers more fully appreciate the council's significance not only for the Catholic Church itself but also for the entire world that the Church encounters in...