Research database on the reception and non-reception of the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council in the documents of the revision of the Code (1965-1983)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Meckel
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 552315473

The research project explores the question of the reception and non-reception of the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council in the period of the revision of the Code from 1965 to the promulgation of the Codex Iuris Canonici in 1983 (= CIC/1983). For this purpose, a public research database will be created, which will make the documents of the revision of the Code digitally available to researchers worldwide and processed according to the research question. The established database can also be constantly expanded as part of further research projects to include content analyses on canonical and further theological issues. As the legislator makes clear in the promulgation bull "Sacrae Disciplinae Leges" of 25 January 1983, the Second Vatican Council is the hermeneutical key for the understanding of Canon law and the interpretation of the CIC/1983. The study of the reception and non-reception of Conciliar ecclesiology at the time the CIC/1983 was drafted therefore has particular relevance for the areas of the theological foundation of Canon law, the most recent ecclesiastical legal history and the interpretation of current Canon law, and forms the basis for subsequent research questions in these areas. The research subject and central source material of the project are the documents of the revision of the Code of the "Pontificia Commissio Codici Iuris Canonici Recognoscendo", which are published in print from volume 1 (1969) in the journal "Communicationes". The documents currently comprise about 6000 pages, mostly in Latin. Based on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the ecclesiology developed there, which is expressed in various pictorial terms, phrases and concepts, the documents of the revision of the Code are examined chronologically and systematically for the reception or non-reception of these ecclesiological lines. The processing and analysis of the documents of the revision of the Code on this question, which will be carried out within the framework of the project, will be made accessible to researchers by means of a public research database. The documents of the revision of the Code are digitally available there, fully searchable and prepared using various search parameters for Council documents, specific Council passages, ecclesiological terms and discussions. Provided that the documents of the revision of the Code for the "Lex Ecclesiae Fundamentalis" project are also published in the planned project period in addition to the documents that are now almost completely available in printed form, these will also be processed. This makes it possible for the first time to examine the documents of the revision of the Code with regard to the lines of reception and non-reception of Conciliar ecclesiology over the entire period of revision work, across all fields of law and Code Commission study groups. The planned research database is thus a fundamental working tool for researchers, especially in the field of Canon law studies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants