For my purposes in the present essay, I would also call your attention to Ong's fascinating essay "Voice and the Opening of Closed Systems" in his 1977 book Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture (pp. 305-341). Briefly, ancient and medieval chirographic culture and then modern typographic culture (also known as print culture) in our Western cultural history tended to favor closed systems, but our contemporary secondary oral culture tends to favor open systems.
Because the history of the Roman Catholic Church encompasses ancient and medieval chirographic culture as well as modern typographic culture and, more recently, our contemporary secondary oral culture, we can also extend Ong's 1977 characterizations of closed-system and open-system thought to church history. Within this large conceptual framework, we can see the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the Roman Catholic Church as adopting open-system thought, after centuries of advancing closed-system thought - most notably in the Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae) and the Declaration on the Church's Relation to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate).
For a selection of the documents promulgated at the Second Vatican Council, see Vatican II: The Essential Texts, edited by Norman Tanner, S.J. (2012). In this paperback book, Tanner includes fresh English translations of six key documents of Vatican II: (1) the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium; pp. 29-78); (2) the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum; pp. 79-99); (3) the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium, pp. 100-188); (4) the Pastoral Constitution on the Church (Gaudium et Spes; pp. 189-298); (5) the Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae; pp. 299-318); and (6) the Declaration on the Church's Relation to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate; pp. 319-328).
For an informed account of what happened at the Second Vatican Council, see the American Jesuit church historian John W. O'Malley's What Happened at Vatican II (2008).
Concerning the ongoing interpretation and reception of the documents promulgated at the Second Vatican Council, see The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, edited by Catherine E. Clifford and Massimo Faggioli (2023). This massive 800-page book includes three useful indices: (1) "Index of Names" (pp. 755-766); (2) "Index of Subjects" (pp. 767-772); and (3) "Index of Vatican II Documents" (pp. 773-777).
For all practical purposes, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the Roman Catholic Church and the papacies of Pope John-Paul II (1978-2005), Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013), and Pope Francis (2013-) occurred during our contemporary secondary oral culture.
I have profiled the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis in my widely read OEN article "Pope Francis on Evil and Satan" (dated March 24, 2019):
Even though Pope Francis is undoubtedly conservative doctrinally, he has provoked the wrath of certain conservative American Catholics. The Italian philosopher and papal biographer Massimo Borghesi discusses them in his book Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis, translated by Barry Hudock (Liturgical Press Academic, 2021; orig. Italian ed., 2021).
I reviewed Borghesi's 2021 book in my OEN article "Massimo Borghesi's New Book Catholic Discordance" (dated January 5, 2022):
Now, I will boldly suggest here that the outspoken anti-Francis American Catholics tend to prefer their nostalgic and idealized view of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1950s as a closed system.
Somehow, perhaps in many ways, the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis has prompted them to feel that their nostalgic and idealized view of the church in the 1950s as a closed system is under siege.
Now, I will also boldly suggest here that Trump's most ardent MAGA supporters feel that their nostalgic and idealized view of postwar American culture in the 1950s as a closed system is under siege.
Of course, I hasten to add that I am here, in both cases, adding the specification "in the 1950s as a closed system."
Now, what Ong refers to as our contemporary secondary oral culture engendered by the communications media that accentuate sound appears to be here for the foreseeable future. If I am correct in suggesting that what Ong refers to as open systems thinking is fostered by our secondary oral culture, then those conservative Americans who view the 1950s nostalgically are going to continue to feel under siege for the foreseeable future.
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