History, Hope, and Tradition

a dialogue between Vatican II and Michel de Certeau

Abstract

The contemporary reception of the Second Vatican Council remains challenging, generating diverse interpretations regarding the relationship between Tradition and renewal. In this context, the present article proposes a dialogue between Michel de Certeau and Vatican II, using Certeau's notion of "absent presence" as a hermeneutical key. The general objective is to analyze how Certeau’s conception of History and Tradition can offer an interpretive framework to understand the aggiornamento of the Council. Specifically, the article aims to: present Certeau’s critique of historical writing and his proposal of a historiography mediated by absence; highlight how this perspective shapes his understanding of Tradition as a performative reality; and articulate these categories with the theology of the Council, particularly in light of the documents Dei Verbum, Gaudium et Spes, and Sacrosanctum Concilium. Emphasizing the tension between continuity and discontinuity, presence and absence, the article argues that Tradition, far from being a static repetition, constitutes a dynamic listening to the past in openness to the new. Certeau’s "hermeneutics of absence" proves fruitful for interpreting the Church’s mission in history and understanding the creative fidelity that characterizes post-conciliar ecclesial renewal. It concludes that Tradition, when mediated by alterity, ceases to be a conservative burden and becomes a space of listening, discernment, and hope.