John W. O'Malley's 2019 Book on Modern Church Councils and Walter J. Ong's Thought

Abstract

In this 6,200-word review essay, I discuss the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) and the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and church historian John W. O'Malley (born in 1927; Ph.D. in history, Harvard University, 1966), with passing discussion of the Canadian Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) and the Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984). O'Malley's 2019 book is titled When Bishops Meet: An Essay Comparing Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II. But I also discuss, in passing, O'Malley's 2013 book on the Council of Trent (1545-1563), his 2018 book on Vatican I (1869-1870), and his 2008 book on Vatican II (1962-1965). I highlight O'Malley's use of R. G. Collingwood's terminology about "substantialism" -- which O'Malley says characterized past thinking about the church, but not the thinking of Vatican II about the church.