Priests, Prelates and People: A History of European Catholicism since 1750 / Edition 1

by Nicholas Atkin, Frank Tallett

Overview

Nicholas Atkin and Frank Tallett offer the first one-volume historical overview of European Catholicism from the 18th century to 2002. The authors record the Church struggling to adapt to the new political landscape ushered in by the French Revolution and show how the formation of nation states and identities was both helped and hindered by the Catholic establishment. They portray the Vatican increasingly out of step in the wake of world war, Cold War, and the massive expansion of the developing world, with its problems of population growth and under-development. This is not the story of the Church in all its glory, but one of adaptation and change, of decline and resilience as the Church has responded to social, political, and cultural changes over the last 250 years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195219876
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/01/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Nicholas Atkin (1960-2009) was Professor of Modern European History at the University of Reading. Frank Tallett was, until his retirement, Head of the School of Humanities at the University of Reading.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Catholicism in Retrenchment:the Eighteenth Century
The religious geography of Europe
Established churches and Erastianism
The Latin theocracy
The sociology of the Church: the secular clergy
The sociology of the Church: the regulars
Belief and practice
Conclusion:Catholicism in rupture

Part 2: Catholicism in Revolution: 1789-1815
The rupture, 1787-90
Catholicism and counter-revolution
War and dechristianisation
The revolution abroad
Rome and revolution:the last Pope?
Napoleon and religion
Napoleon and Europe
Conclusion:revolution in retrospect

Part 3: Catholicism Restored: 1815-50
A new religious geography of Europe
The age of con- cordats?
Catholics under non-Catholic rule
Reaction in theory and practice
A religious revival?
Pius IX and the revolutions of 1848
Conclusion: restoration reviewed

Part 4: Catholicism Retuned: 1850-1914
Ultramontanism and the papacy
Identity and nationalism: the anti-Catholic onslaught
The Catholic intellectual world: modernism versus integralism
Secularisation
Catholicism overseas
Conclusion:a Church in the Pope 's image

Part 5: Catholicism and Reaction: 1914-45
The First World War and its aftermath
Catholics and dictators
Catholics and the liberal democracies
Catholics and belief during the inter-war years
The Second World War
Conclusion:change and continuity

Part 6: Catholicism Revised: 1945-2002
Catholics and Cold War: Eastern Europe
Catholics and Cold War: Western Europe
The Second Vatican Council
The challenge of a new secularisation
John Paul II: 'a living cult'
Conclusion

Part 7: Conclusion:Catholicism Reviewed