"{Pennington's} separate chapters gloss the major documents and cite largish chunks of them. . . . What he has to say about the conciliar documents is usually at the level of appreciation and exhortation but provides little that has not been said many times before at greater length by other writers. . . . The best we can say about books like Pennington's is that they reflect a great sense of faith in the Spirit's guidance of the church. As a theological meditation, however, this little book, written in the readable style one expects from this prolific monk-writer, spends too much time looking in the rear-view mirror." - Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal