Progressive Participation and Transnational Activism in the Catholic Church after Vatican II

The Dutch and West German Examples

Bibliographic Data

ID10073549
AuthorsChris Dols (Radboud University, The Netherlands, corresponding author), Benjamin Ziemann (0000-0002-2075-1931, University of Sheffield)
Year2015
Volume50
Issue3
Pages465-485
Publication date2015-01-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022009414555710
OpenAlexW2014906709
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This article examines transnational connections, perceptions and imaginations of bottom-up contention in the Dutch and West German Catholic Church. It not only analyses how the Second Vatican Council fuelled participatory practises launched by the bishops of both countries in order to keep their institute viable, such as opinion polling, but also focuses on the ways in which the Dutch Pastoral Council influenced Church reform in West Germany. Furthermore, it highlights Latin American liberation theology as a powerful new intellectual and spiritual framework. Especially from 1968 onwards, figureheads of the priestly activist groups Septuagint and the Freckenhorster Kreis tapped into the neo-Marxist notions of institutionalised violence and oppression in their quest for participation. The transfer of these notions took place in both a north-south and south-north direction. Special attention goes to the 1970 international ‘Church in Our Society’ conference in Amsterdam

Bishops · Citizen journalism · German · Holy See · Liberation theology · Marxist philosophy · Media studies · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Gender Studies · History · Law · Religious studies

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