Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue: Unitatis Redintegratio, Nostra Aetate (Rediscovering Vatican II)

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Vatican II, Paulist Press has created a groundbreaking 8-book series, Rediscovering Vatican II, that places the Council in dialogue with today's church and her people and focuses on what today's Catholics need to know, not just historically. The first volume, Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue: Unitatis Redintegratio, Nostra Aetate, looks at the relationship of the Catholic Church with other Christian churches and other great religions. Cardinal Cassidy devotes part one of his book to Unitatis Redintegratio, the decree on Restoring Christian Unity, which brought the Catholic Church into the modern ecumenical movement. And in part two, Nostra Aetate (the Declaration on Interreligious Dialogue), he looks at the relationship of the Catholic Church with other world religions. This work, and indeed the entire series, which is the only one of its kind at this level and organization, will prove valuable for religious educators, theologians, church historians (of all faiths, especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), undergraduate and graduate students, as well as readers who have heard much about Vatican II, but who have never sat down to understand certain aspects of it. †

Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy holds a doctorate in Canon Law from Lateran University. In 1989, he was appointed as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and he became at the same President of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. Now retired, he lives in Australia.