How did the Second Vatican Council come about? What caused Pope John XXIII to convene the Council? What were his motivations and aims? What was the Roman Catholic Church like, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council? How did the Council function? Who were the major players at the Second Vatican Council, and how did they interact? What did the various documents of the Council, the Constitutions, Decrees, and Declarations, contain? What did the Council Fathers intend to happen with these documents? What have been the effects of the Second Vatican Council? All these topics and more are covered in this translation into English of Otto Hermann Pesch's Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil. First published in German in 1993, the German work has gone through several editions, a testimony to its popularity. Professor Pesch (1931-2014), was a well-known and highly respected Roman Catholic theologian who taught systematic theology at the University of Hamburg from the mid-1970s until the late 1990s. He research, lectured, and taught on a variety of topics, including Martin Luther, ecumenism, Thomas Aquinas, and, of course, the Second Vatican Council. A member of the Dominican Order at the time of the Council, Professor Pesch writes from the heart about Vatican II. His work, intended for a German audience, will be useful to anyone who wishes to learn more about this important moment in the history of the Church. (Back cover).