Catholic Progressives in England After Vatican II. By Jay P. Corrin. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. x + 523 pp. $49.00 paper.

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Catholic Progressives in England After Vatican II . By Jay P. Corrin . Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press , 2013. x + 523 pp. $49.00 paper.Book Reviews and NotesWhen John XXIII announced his intention in January 1959 to convene an ecumenical council, the reaction within the Roman Catholic Church ranged from apprehension and suspicion on the part of conservatives to expressions of joyful anticipation and hope from Catholics who realized that their church must adapt to the demands of the modern world. The death of John XXIII in 1963 did not disrupt the momentum of Vatican Council II, which convened in 1962. His successor, Paul VI, continued the work of the council which addressed many issues such as ecumenism, liturgy, social justice, and the role of the laity, and when the council ended on December 8, 1965, it was apparent that changes would take place within Roman Catholicism. In this important book, Jay P. Corrin, Professor of Social Sciences at Boston University, examines the reactions of the English Catholic New Left to the council and how this group worked to implement its decrees, especially in the area of social issues, in the life of the Catholic Church.Corrin divides his book into three distinctive but complimentary sections. The first, "The English Cultural Setting," examines the conservative and ultramontane nature of English Catholicism. Irish immigration and the existence of old recusant families fostered an atmosphere unfriendly to change. The author describes the nature of Catholicism up to the 1960s as "insular, apolitical or at least politically conformist, highly authoritative, and out of touch with what was transpiring among Catholic theologians on both the Continent and in the United States" (19). But there had been hints of radical thought earlier in the century in the Distributist movement associated with G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. The author presents the thoughts of these two individuals and the importance of the Distributists on later radicalism in a concise and informative manner. By the end of World War II, however, a conservative spirit still dominated English Catholicism, but Corrin points out that Catholics, in particular the clergy, were slowly emerging out of a ghetto culture and forsaking the traditional siege mentality. By the early 1960s, a new breed of Catholic intellectuals emerged and began to question accepted social and theological standards.Part Two, "The Reformers," is an objective and well-balanced account of Vatican Council II and the important role played by John XXIII. To emphasize the revolutionary nature of the council, the author first reminds the reader of the conservative and reactionary ethos of Catholicism which had been enforced by the ultramontane papacy. Liturgical reform, the "New Theology," which called for a reappraisal of the relation of the church to society, the insights of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and the worker-priest movement posed serious threats to the orthodoxy and traditions of the Catholic Church, but the election of John XXIII and the council initiated changes favored by progressive thinkers. Corrin's discussion of this pope's vision for the church, his encyclicals, and the criticism he faced serve as an appropriate background for a brief but perceptive discussion of the council and its impact on English Catholicism. …