Newman's article, ‘On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine’, which appeared in the Rambler in July 1859, has become a natural reference point when people consider the sensus fidelium. It is helpful, therefore, to know how the article came to be written and important to be clear about what it actually said. Newman was not supporting some loose exercise in democracy, but was pointing to a vital process for the health of the Church, and encouraging the lay faithful and their pastors to work together. There are lessons too to be learnt from the way people behaved in the aftermath of the controversy. The episode may also be seen as illustrating Newman's life in a nutshell.

This paper argues that the record of theological dissent at Trent and Vatican I are positive and fruitful sources of theological reflection on the sensus fidelium. Not only do these “minority” voices (minority in the literal sense of opposing a majority group or opinion) help us to accurately interpret the drafts and final documents of these councils, but these minority figures can sometimes preserve the sensus fidelium through their calls for various concessions from the majority.

First, I revisit Trent's decree on Scripture (1546). Due to the interventions of two Italians (Nacchianti, the Bishop of Chioggia, and Bonuccio, the General of the Servites), the question of the relationship between scripture and tradition was left open – that is, the “two‐source” partim‐partim theory was not dogmatically enshrined. This was an important episode wherein a tiny minority gained a critical concession. I argue that this minority intervention bore fruit not only in a final Tridentine document that better echoed the faith of the ages, but also bore fruit centuries later at Vatican II in Dei verbum.

Second, I argue that the minority at Vatican I protected the Church from extreme ultramontanism. This relatively large and intellectually powerful minority, many of them rooted in Gallicanism, played a key role in tempering a dogmatic proclamation that was further balanced and interpreted a century later in Lumen gentium and Christus Dominus.

I conclude by suggesting theologians should look for ways in which the minority at Vatican II could serve future generations of Catholics in unforeseen ways.

Canon law has had a negative press for many years and is often seen as insensitive, unnecessary or static. This article looks at the origins and sources of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, what it covers, and who is expected to hear it. It considers to what extent canon law finds a resonance in the minds and hearts of the People of God, ways in which the echo is heard or not, and the response of the supreme legislator to this. The idea of ‘law in theory’ and ‘law in action’ is explored in relation to a particularly neuralgic issue today, that of governance, and then three issues are considered where there continue to be particular problems of reception.

The potential unwieldiness of popular religiosity and devotional spirituality and their ambiguous relationship with the liturgy have made them objects of perennial ecclesiastical concern. More recently, magisterial discussion of popular religiosity has come to value more positively its cultural and anthropological value and its spiritual content. The reforms of Vatican II were followed by a significant demise in devotionalism amongst Northern European and North American Catholics, yet demographic change and other factors have resulted in the resurgence of popular religious devotions. Manifestations of grassroots faith may express valuable convictions and important insights, including the value of the collective and the non‐verbal. However, these values may be easily dismissed by social elites for aesthetic reasons, or by academic theologians for reasons of the cultural milieu and preferences of academia. Given the preference of the theological tradition for lexical intelligibility, and the symbolic and the physical nature of many kinds of popular religiosity, how the sub‐disciplines of theology may now responsibly and respectfully treat these perduring phenomena is not clear. A healthy relationship between the fides qua and the fides quae demands taking seriously the sensus fidelium, understood as a broad experience that embraces the daily lives and local circumstances of Christians as well as their worship. The contemporary construal of the discipline of Christian Spirituality, understood as the study of Christian experience, promises to provide a multidisciplinary approach that can address the topic of popular religiosity and devotional practice.

Popular devotion to the Virgin Mary can often be understood as implying a doctrine of deification, that is, of becoming perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. The Mother of God herself is the primary example of the deified person, and she in turn assists her devotees in their own process of becoming deified. The doctrine of deification articulated by Maximus the Confessor and John Scotus Eriugena provides an account that explains particularly well the theology implicit in much Marian devotion, and this is illustrated by two sets of examples, namely, devotional texts concerning the in partu virginity, and devotional practices at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The article begins by making a connection between the theme of the sensus fidelium and theological hermeneutics, proposing the theology of Edward Schillebeeckx as a resource for weaving together the distinctive – and complementary – contributions to the development of doctrine made by the magisterium and by theologians. This helps to articulate an account of ‘the faithful’ that is inclusive, and can overcome the separation between the teaching Church and the learning Church that was so firmly in place between Vatican I and Vatican II. The ecclesiological image of the people of God is then explored, using two newly translated sources from Schillebeeckx's later works. This links the theological voice back to the magisterium and, drawing on the teaching of Pope Francis, the idea of ‘integral ecclesiology’ is proposed as part of the inclusive approach being recommended. Such an ecclesiology needs to draw the image of the people of God into a fruitful interaction with that of communio, and the article takes a pneumatological turn in order to do this. Using a metaphor from Pope Francis of the Holy Spirit as the source of harmony in the symphony of the church, a proposal is voiced that is retrospective and prospective at the same time, drawing the two hermeneutical strategies for the interpretation of Vatican II into a relational dialectic with each other. It also offers the possibility of a theological diversity that leads the church into greater union, and into ever deeper communion with the living God.

Recent scholarship has reflected upon the relationship between sensus fidelium and scripture, but the Old Testament appears marginalized in this undertaking. This essay argues that the church can learn from Israel's faith for the concept of sensus fidelium. It presents the ‘canonical approach’ as an exegetical tool to bring the church as a reading community into conversation with many generations of believers in Israel and its own tradition. Furthermore, it provides one example of how a contemporary interpretation of an Old Testament text might deepen the understanding of the infallibility of the whole church in relation to its failures and sins.