A must-read for practicing Catholics and anyone interested in religious studies.
A sweeping history of modern Catholicism.
McGreevy, a professor of history at Notre Dame and author of three books on Catholicism, examines the past two centuries. The author begins his authoritative survey with the French Revolution, noting that no series of events since the Reformation had so thoroughly rocked the Catholic landscape. The excesses of the Revolution and the upending of Catholic authority in France led to the global “ultramontane revival” movement. “At the revival’s core,” writes McGreevy, “was a deepening attachment to the institution of the church.” This attachment would add significantly to the powers of the pope and the Roman ecclesiastical structure. The revival’s “triumph” was the First Vatican Council, in 1869-1870, which confirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility and severed voices of dissent, modernism, and reform. “To signal church independence,” writes the author, “Pius IX decided against inviting any monarchs or heads of state, a decision that for the first time eliminated lay participation in an ecumenical council.” However, the church was already fighting nationalist movements around the world. As nationalism bumped up against the interests of the church, a new infrastructure was created to safeguard Catholic society and culture: “the Milieu,” an unending series of social welfare organizations, movements, missions, and other initiatives. The Milieu spread across the 19th and 20th centuries and became a public and sometimes-pugnacious face for Catholicism. After decades of social upheaval, Pope John XXIII changed the course of Catholicism by calling the Second Vatican Council in 1959. The ensuing decades were marked by liberation theology; the monumental papacy of John Paul II; and, of course, the destructive onslaught of sexual abuse scandals, to which the author appropriately devotes an entire chapter. Throughout the text, McGreevy, a skilled historian and storyteller, provides a wealth of detail about the church and the changing world to which it has been reacting for the past 200 years.
A must-read for practicing Catholics and anyone interested in religious studies.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-324-00388-5
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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