The aim of the project is the development of an intercontinental and intercultural understanding of the Council, its paradigmatic orientation and motivation for the theologies of the 21st century. The project has not in view a simple reconstruction of the past, the council and the reception up to now. Its emphasis is the future: What are the fundamental options to be taken now, according to letter and spirit of the council? This aim cannot be reached without a thorough new analysis of the Council and of reception on a global scale and on the different continents. The precondition for the intercontinental and intercultural development of the Council in the sense of he project is the active history of reception in the different continents and cultural areas. The post-conciliar Projetos de pesquisa transformation processes in society, church and theology, in which the Council proved to be a stimulating factor of efficiency, are to be raised. In collegial interactions with experts from the fields of philosophy, economics, social sciences, history and theology, depending on the choice of the study groups, the epochs of the reception process in the continents are differentiated and the responses of the regional churches analyzed for the challenges of political, cultural and social transformation processes to determine today’s opening perspectives and upcoming challenges of the signs of the times.
