The topic is "Art and Church in the 20th century. The reception of the Second Vatican Council".

The volume presents a historical overview of 290 international texts of the Catholic Church’s teaching about art and artist (1903–2007), confronted with 250 works of modern sacred art and architecture. The appendix comprises a selection of 98 colour illustrations and 71 texts of the Magisterium of the Church.

The author presents his topic in four substantial chapters: the first one discusses the relationship between the Church and the arts between 1800 and the eve of the Second Vatican Council (pp. 41-207); the second one analyses the Council’s pronouncements on art and artists (pp. 215-251); the third chapter is concerned with the turbulent period of the postconciliar liturgical reform between 1964 and 1985 (pp. 253-400); the fourth chapter reflects upon the situation of art in the Church between 1985 and the present, a period that has been marked by a more mature reception of the Council (pp. 401-626). The author’s concluding reflections (pp. 627-647) are followed by a very helpful appendix with documents of the Magisterium about art, ranging from Pius XII’s Encyclical Mediator Dei (1947) to Benedict XVI’s Postsynodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (2007), an exhaustive bibliography, and 98 coloured illustrations (Uwe Michael Lang, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Rome, in: Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum 40, 2008, 238-240).

Ralf van Bühren's comprehensive and fastidiously researched study ... examines the difficult relationship between the Church and the arts from 1800 to the present age. ... The book is published in the prestigious series 'Konziliengeschichte', and this seems appropriate because of the pivotal role of the Second Vatican Council had in this aspect of the Church's life. ... Van Bühren rightly insists that the iconoclasm of the post-conciliar period finds no justification in the conciliar documents or in subsequent ecclesiastical legislation. ... Ralf van Bühren’s wide-ranging study provides a wealth of material that will help to analyse the roots of the present crisis and to find ways for its remedy (Uwe Michael Lang, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Rome, in: Antiphon. A Journal for Liturgical Renewal 13, 2009, p. 182-184).