Dialogue Ad Extra: The Relevance of Unitatis Redintegratio and Nostra Aetate
Rafael Vázquez Jiménez
San Pablo Higher Center for Theological Studies, Loyola Andalucía University , Spainhttps://orcid.org/0009-0001-7550-8496
Abstract
This article addresses the issue of dialogue ad extra based on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, especially the decree on ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio and the declaration Nostra aetate on interreligious dialogue, grounding the analysis on paragraph 8 of the constitution Lumen gentium in particular. To this end, we use the conciliar texts, with references to the history of the drafting of the documents, as well as to the problems that arose during the period of reception of the Council, and how some documents on ecumenical and interreligious dialogue have addressed them. We develop this question by first elaborating on religious pluralism, to which the Council attempts to respond. Secondly, we study the ecclesiological background that made the opening to dialogue possible, taking into account particularly ecumenical dialogue and interreligious dialogue. The study allows us to affirm that Unitatis redintegratio and Nostra aetate are concretizations and extensions of the constitution Lumen gentium. Therefore, without the ecclesiological background proposed by the constitution, dialogue ad extra as proposed by the Council and developed in the postconciliar period would not have been possible.
Keywords:
ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, ecclesiology, Lumen gentium, Unitatis redintegratio, Nostra aetate, dialogue ad extraReferences
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San Pablo Higher Center for Theological Studies, Loyola Andalucía University
Rev. Rafael Vázquez Jiménez, Doctor in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology at the San Pablo Higher Center for Theological Studies (CESET) and the San Pablo Higher Institute of Religious Sciences (ISCR) in Málaga. He serves as Vice-Director of both CESET “San Pablo” and ISCR “San Pablo” in Málaga, and as a Visiting Professor at the San Vicente Ferrer Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of Valencia. His areas of specialization include dogmatic theology (particularly ecclesiology), the Second Vatican Council, and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. He also serves on the Episcopal Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Episcopal Subcommittee for Interconfessional Relations of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. Some of his most recent publications are Widening the Circles of Dialogue: Paul VI and Interreligious Dialogue after 60 Years of Ecclesiam suam: Religions 2025, 16 (2) 246 (https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020246); Sacramentality, a Necessary and Permanent Dimension of the Church and its Implications for Ecumenical Dialogue: Religions 2024, 15 (2) 245 (https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020245); Comentario teológico a los documentos del Concilio Vaticano II. Unitatis redintegratio, Dignitatis humanae, Nostra aetate (vol. II), Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid: BAC 2024.
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