The core of Vatican II's theological theory is "Christocentrism". It runs through all the documents of the meeting, from which all other theories are derived. In order to highlight Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Eucharist and the Virgin, which are closely related to Christ, are also highly valued.
Christocentrism greatly revised the traditional theology of Catholicism;
First, we no longer think that Christ abandoned the world and went to heaven, but just waited for the end of the world. On the contrary, we preach that Christ stayed in the world in an unknown way through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christ is not only the king in heaven, but also the center of the world, avoiding the neglect of the world by traditional theology.
Secondly, he advocated that Christ appeared in the church and always played a role through the Holy Spirit and Eucharist, which overcame the gap between the first arrival and the second arrival of Christ in traditional theology. It is pointed out that Christ has always remained in the church and the world in a mysterious way through the Holy Spirit and Eucharist, which is the key to Christocentrism. This innovation is called "the first achievement" of deepening theory by Pope Paul VI.
Third, we no longer think that Christ is only combined with the baptized believers, but with all mankind and everyone, opening the church to everyone, and the church has become an organization that everyone-"God's people" (or "God's people") should aspire to and participate in, expanding Christ's "salvation" and eliminating the narrowness of redemption in traditional theology.
The secular purpose and practical significance of this Christcentrism mainly lies in the following aspects:
First, because Catholicism has always preached that God is the master of all things, it has to admit the status and value of human beings, but it can't agree with the materialistic philosophical proposition that "man is the highest essence of human beings", so it is necessary to find a transitional intermediate between God and human beings, a substitute of * * *, and a junction connecting the two ends. Vatican II found the "only intermediary" between God and man-Christ.
Second, although Vatican II claimed that the Catholic Church had nothing to do with any social and political theory and system, in fact, the church had its own political attitude.
Third, the Vatican's second meeting reshaped the image of the church by relying on Christ, and compared the "incarnation" of the church with Christ, proving that it is necessary for the church to exist in the world and go deep into secular life.
Fourth, the Catholic Church has always attached importance to the tradition of the church, while the new church has put more emphasis on the authority of the Bible.
In a word, the core of Vatican II theology is Christocentrism, and the discussion of all other issues is the expansion and extension of Christocentrism. The theological creed of the Roman Catholic Church is "there is no salvation outside the church". The Roman church has always believed that only Catholicism is the only way to salvation, which not only belittles and denies life and secularism, but also denies other religions, sciences and other ideologies. Ordinary believers in the church are also in a helpless position. They have no right to read the Bible or explore ideas other than orthodox Catholic theology. They can only obey the instructions of the clergy and the leadership of the church authorities. In the long history of Christianity, the Second Vatican Council explicitly declared for the first time that there are "true, good and correct things" in the secular world, and said that it would learn from the world and even benefit from opponents.
Since the Second Vatican Conference, the Roman Catholic Church has changed its consistent position of evaluating itself and others in the past, at least in theory, giving up what does not belong to it, giving up its monopoly on "world truth", "religious truth" and "Christian truth", ending the denial of mankind, the world, science, other Christian churches and other religions for thousands of years, and also changing from atheism-materialism. However, unlike some critics, Vatican II abandoned the "triumphalism" and "perfectionism" positions that the Roman church has always adhered to and severely criticized. The second Vatican meeting can make a positive evaluation of the world because it put forward a new theory about the world as a theological basis. The new theology of Vatican II's conference on the world focuses not only on the close relationship between the world and God, but also on the close relationship between the world and Jesus Christ.
The second Vatican meeting praised mankind and the world, their autonomy, their wisdom and the progress of world civilization. After all, it praised God and Christ. It is precisely because of the creation of God and the incarnation of Christ's redemption that the existence of the world is of sacred significance, and the world has a kind factor of heavenly truth. Therefore, in Vatican II's view, man's achievement is God's achievement, and praising man means praising God and Christ. The Vatican's second meeting announced surprisingly: "According to God's will, there has been a factor of the kingdom of heaven in the world. The kingdom of heaven has appeared in the world, but it is not perfect." This new theory about the kingdom of heaven is an important theoretical development. The kingdom of heaven mentioned by the Vatican II Conference, which already exists in the world but is still hidden in mystery, is not a material entity, but an "eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of virtue and grace, a kingdom of justice, holy love and peace", which is an inner and spiritual entity beyond time and space.
In fact, if the future prospect of Jehovah's intervention to save exiles and establish a new Israel is the core of the message that Jewish prophets want to convey in the Old Testament, then the Declaration of the Kingdom is the core of the message conveyed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. However, the Old Testament never mentioned the possibility of the future appearing in the present. Israel refuses to materialize and visualize God's eschatology and curses those who do. By reinterpreting the information conveyed by all the relevant materials in the Old Testament and the New Testament, Vatican II came to the conclusion that God and Christ actively intervened in the life of the world from beginning to end, and God's final intervention in the life of the world had been realized in advance through the incarnation of Christ. Although the kingdom of God has existed before the present, it is, after all, the last great event in the future, and it is destined to fully reveal its reality at the end of the world. As for the final perfection of the kingdom of heaven, that is, the perfection and end of time, Vatican II believes that it is impossible for Christ to know the final arrival time of the kingdom of heaven, because it is the secret of the Holy Father.
Vatican II believes that in the Old Testament and the New Testament, there is a lot of information about God's desire and concrete actions to intervene in the world. In particular, Christ has clearly explained why the kingdom of heaven exists in this world. It's just that people have turned a blind eye and turned a deaf ear to such rich information in history, which has caused long-term misunderstanding. Tracing back to the source, the concept of "redemption" originated from the ancient Israelis, which is closely related to the concepts of "original sin" and "new sin of breaking the contract", and is a summary of the specific historical experience of the Israelis in subjugating their country and becoming slaves. After the birth of Christianity, the Christian New Testament continued to write the history of redemption, but traditional Christian theology has always been critical of Judaism's view of redemption. Christian theologians believe that the Jewish concept of redemption has always been crucial.
As for the Christian concept of redemption itself, it is more extensive than the Jewish concept of redemption. Christianity's concept of salvation has got rid of the shackles of legalists, and no longer judges whether it can be saved by observing all the laws and all the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. Of course, Israel who strictly abides by the law and the Ten Commandments will no longer be regarded as the object of God's redemption, thus breaking the myth that "Israel is God's chosen people". Compared with the Jewish view of redemption, the Christian view of redemption emphasizes salvation by faith, and does not distinguish between nationalities and customs. In this way, God changed from the national god of Israel to the world god. This is the first expansion of the concept of God's salvation. However, the expansion of the Christian concept of redemption does not mean that it is tolerant.
The Grand Council of Trent held in 1545 after the Reformation emphatically reiterated the belief that there is no salvation outside the church. It must be pointed out that at this time, the word "church" in this creed has specifically referred to the Roman Catholic Church, that is, only Catholics can be saved, and Christians in other Christian churches are excluded from being saved. This is a narrowing of the concept of salvation. Judging the situation, the Roman Catholic Church gave up the narrow concept that only Catholics who participated in the Roman Catholic Church could be redeemed by God at the second Vatican meeting. In the long history of Christianity for nearly two thousand years, it was solemnly declared for the first time that God's plan is to save all mankind, not only those who believe in Christ, but all people are the objects of God's redemption and may be saved.
On the basis of various arguments, the Vatican II conference reduced the commandment that must be observed in order to be rescued to one: "... any other commandment is included in this sentence, that is, love your neighbor as yourself ..." The Vatican II conference attributed this universal humanitarian spirit, which is essentially the same as many other religions and ideologies, to the exclusive right of God's law from Christianity and Jesus Christ, thus extending the salvation to all mankind indefinitely. This is a very prominent and far-reaching theological innovation implemented by the second Vatican meeting.
However, the second Vatican meeting also solemnly declared that there is only one kind of person who cannot be saved. These people who are excluded from salvation are those who "know" that the Catholic Church is the only way to be saved, those who are unwilling to join or stick to it in the church, and those who have joined the church but don't stick to their love, but are outside the church.
If we only observe the Roman Catholic universal salvation theology from the inside of Catholic belief, it seems that it is a new theological system with clear logic, rigorous structure, orderly argumentation and convincing teachings. In fact, this expanded new concept of redeeming divine grace caused a shock in the theological circle within the Roman church, and even caused a heated debate among the senior clergy of Vatican II. However, this new concept finally won the support of most bishops who are eager for Roman Catholicism to adapt to the times, and was passed by voting and appeared in the conference documents. The Roman church does not intend to abandon the overall characteristics of Catholic liturgy, and its etiquette reform is limited. The Roman church doesn't want to confuse its own worship ceremony with the worship of other Christian churches, knowing that only its own worship can have its own believers and its own church, so the Roman church still has to exist in the world with its own unique face and appear in the dialogue with other churches. Therefore, after the reform, the Catholic liturgy still maintains the original basic spirit, basic procedures and basic contents, and maintains all the laws and regulations of Catholic festivals and celebrations. Such Catholicism is far from the impartial image of "universal religion". However, the reform of the Second Vatican Conference broke the long-standing etiquette deadlock, endowed the etiquette rules with certain flexibility and diversity, simplified some procedures, relaxed some restrictions, and made the Catholic liturgy open to a great extent. These reform measures will undoubtedly achieve certain results in improving the image of the church among believers, easing the contradiction with reformists seeking innovation and change in the church, promoting dialogue with other churches and reducing their inadaptability to the contemporary world.