The inspiration for public theology lies in the Catholic belief that the church has a role in transforming the wider society under the influence of the Gospel. The Second Vatican Council set the agenda for public theology in expounding its belief that church and world are co-related and, according to the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,” that they serve one another.
Among the major achievements of public theology in the United States in the post–Vatican II era were “The Challenge of Peace” and “Economic Justice for All,” the U.S. bishops' pastoral letters of the mid-1980s, notable for the open, dialogical fashion in which they were drafted.
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