Trent and Vatican II: Two Styles of Church

Abstract This chapter explores the points of continuity and discontinuity between the Council of Trent and Vatican II. It is argued that Trent and Vatican II are emblematic of two fundamental, interrelated, but notably different traditions of the Western Church. Those traditions are the juridical or legislative-judicial and the poetic-rhetorical. They both have their origins in the Greco-Roman world of antiquity and antedate the advent of Christianity. They worked their way into the Christian fabric, and have continued to color it in the present. The Tridentine style, the Vatican II, and the dramatic shift in style at Vatican II are discussed.