Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis

by John T. McGreevy Narrated by Jonathan Yen

Overview

The story of Roman Catholicism has never followed a singular path. In no time period has this been more true than over the last two centuries. Beginning with the French Revolution, extending to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, and concluding with present-day crises, John T. McGreevy chronicles the dramatic upheavals and internal divisions shaping the most multicultural, multilingual, and global institution in the world.



Through powerful individual stories and sweeping birds-eye views, Catholicism provides a mesmerizing assessment of the Church's complex role in modern history: both shaper and follower of the politics of nation states, both conservator of hierarchies and evangelizer of egalitarianism.



Throughout this essential volume, McGreevy details currents of reform within the Church as well as movements protective of traditional customs and beliefs. Conflicts with political leaders and a devotional revival in the nineteenth-century, the experiences of decolonization after World War II and the Second Vatican Council in the twentieth century, and the trauma of clerical sexual abuse in the twenty-first all demonstrate how religion shapes our modern world. Finally, McGreevy addresses the challenges faced by Pope Francis as he struggles to unite the over one billion members of the world's largest religious community.

Editorial Reviews

The Atlantic - Paul Elie

"[McGreevy] is well placed to offer perspective on the Church as an institution at once teetering and thriving...[he] approaches it with an evenhandedness rare in the field."

History Today - Daniel Ray

"Catholicism: A Global History does justice to the vast scope and influence of this multicultural and multilingual creed… it covers vast ground with disciplined concision."

The Times Literary Supplement - Piotr H. Kosicki

"Beautifully written… a sweeping study that casts into relief, on a global stage, the paradoxes and contradictions of Roman Catholicism… This book reads beautifully, and even the seasoned expert in Catholicism will learn a great deal."

Enda Delaney

"One of [Catholicism’s] many strengths is the confidence to range across the world from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa. Intellectually this would be a challenge for any historian, though McGreevy effortlessly guides us with a steady hand through this complex history over the last two centuries and more."

National Review - Nicholas Frankovitch

"McGreevy’s explanation of how the recession of Catholicism here in the West is being offset by rapid growth in the Global South offers hope for the future of the Body of Christ in a world that needs it."

Felipe Fernández-Armesto

"If you want to understand the world, don’t ignore the history of its most global institution. John T. McGreevy exposes the paradoxes of the Church: an institution surprisingly adaptable to different cultures, riven by faction, yet called to common action. With admirable candor, impartiality, elegance, and economy, he tells a story of failings and faith."

New York Times - Tim Egan

"[McGreevy] does a remarkable job of explaining how the epic struggle between reformists and traditionalists has led us to the present moment in the Roman Catholic Church."

The Tablet - John Borelli

"In this appealing, easily readable and amply noted volume, McGreevy identifies phases in the development of Catholicism over the past two-and-a-half centuries with the overriding interests, themes or controversies for each period in his view… a truly engaging and substantially reliable narrative on how Catholicism has arrived at its current phase as a global Church."

Newman Review - Shaun Blanchard

"This new survey of global Catholic history achieves what its ambitious subtitle promises. It is a remarkable accomplishment for a single text of such digestible length…It is to be hoped that this kind of nuanced and graceful treatment of church history can help displace both the naïve triumphalism and bitter cynicism that has taken root in contemporary Catholicism, especially in the United States."

National Catholic Reporter - Michael Sean Winters

"This is an excellent book that thoroughly lives up to its ambitions. Given the hyper-specialization of so much academic history these days, the accomplishment here is even more notable: a readable, thorough and judicious treatment of a global institution over more than two centuries."

James T. Kloppenberg

"Through vivid portraits and nuanced analysis of Catholic traditionalists and reformers, John T. McGreevy shows how persistent divisions within Catholicism have shaped as well as mirrored central conflicts in modern world history. Catholicism reveals why the Catholic church generates intense hatred and fierce loyalty, enraging conservatives by changing so much while frustrating progressives by changing so little. A landmark book."

Sister Helen Prejean

"For those of us pained by how political divisions manipulate and distort Catholicism today, John T. McGreevy offers essential perspective and the mixed consolation that this is nothing new. His book unfolds an epic drama as power contends with democracy, authority with diversity, world with spirit"

James Carroll

"The power, the glory, the sin, and the sorrow—the whole Catholic saga is here, a cross-cultural story essential to modernity and to Faith itself."

Jeremy Adelman

"In an epic about moral globalization since the French Revolution, John T. McGreevy narrates a quest for understanding and conversion, a tale of diasporas and missions. This is truly a majestic book."

First Things - Richard Rex

"McGreevy’s achievement is undeniable. The narrative has a magnificent, magisterial sweep that really delivers the 'global history' promised in the subtitle. A global history in five hundred pages can hardly be exhaustive, but McGreevy’s method, to color and flavor his lucid and well-conceived survey with telling vignettes picked out in finer detail, gives readers a genuine insight into the historical processes at work."

James Chappel

"A gripping story of how one of the world’s most important institutions has evolved over the past two centuries. McGreevy spans the globe, from the Philippines to Indonesia to Canada, providing welcome polyphony to a story that can often feel hermetically European. We hear the voices of those who dedicated their lives to the poor; we hear the voices, too, of those who suffered at the hands of the Church. This is, by far, the best single-volume history of the modern Church currently available."

New York Times

[McGreevy] does a remarkable job of explaining how the epic struggle between reformists and traditionalists has led us to the present moment in the Roman Catholic Church."

James Kloppenberg

"The Catholic Church, although threatened by secularization and rocked by scandals, remains the largest nongovernmental institution in the world, with more than a billion members, two thirds of whom live in the Global South. Through vivid portraits and nuanced analysis of Catholic traditionalists and reformers, McGreevy shows how persistent divisions within Catholicism have shaped as well as mirrored central conflicts in modern world history. Catholicism reveals why the Catholic church generates intense hatred and fierce loyalty, enraging conservatives by changing so much while frustrating progressives by changing so little. A landmark book."

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2022-07-13
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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175226981
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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