As a middle-of-the-road conservative in seminary, I would frequently say things like, “Vatican II did not change Catholic doctrine, but it did change how we package it for the post-modern mind.”  Or, perhaps I would say, “Dogma can’t change but how we explain it can change.”  Phrases like this demonstrate the hermeneutic of continuity we clung to.  We believed the Catholic Church before 1963 was the same as the Church after 1963.  We just had to return to “the early Church” in order to “get back to the sources” if we wanted to square the circle, if we just lined up the stars correctly between the teachings of Pope St. … Continue reading Hermeneutic of Continuity or Hermeneutic of Rupture?