Van Slyke

What theological shifts, it may be asked, led to the new understanding that entailed the wholesale rewriting of the Ritual’s blessings? David Stosur reasons that, in the absence of sustained attention given to blessings in and of themselves, “a contemporary theology of blessings . . . must simply be extrapolated from approaches that theologians since Vatican II have taken to the sacraments and to the liturgy in general.”48 He proceeds to do this, appealing particularly to reflections on the liturgy by Otto Semmelroth, Edward Schillebeeckx, and Karl Rahner.

- Daniel G. Van Slyke, "The Order for Blessing Water: Past and Present," Antiphon 8, no.2 (2003), 18.

Dr.Van Slyke's analysis of the theological shift after the council helps me to understand which aspects of the classical theology of blessing are important.