Catholicism
A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis
8 December 2023
Description
A magisterial history of the centuries-long conflict between "progress" and "tradition" in the world's largest international institution
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 mesmerising 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 evangeliser of egalitarianism. McGreevy documents the hopes and ambitions of European missionaries building churches and schools in all corners of the world, African Catholics fighting for political (and religious) independence, Latin American Catholics attracted to a theology of liberation, and Polish and South Korean Catholics demanding democratic governments. He includes a vast cast of riveting characters, known and unknown, including the Mexican revolutionary Fr. Servando Teresa de Mier; Daniel O’Connell, hero of Irish emancipation; Sr. Josephine Bakhita, a formerly enslaved Sudanese nun; Chinese statesman Ma Xiaobang; French philosopher and reformer Jacques Maritain; German Jewish philosopher and convert, Edith Stein; John Paul II, Polish pope and opponent of communism; Gustavo Gutiérrez, Peruvian founder of liberation theology; and French American patron of modern art, Dominique de Menil.
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 decolonisation 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.
Reviews
"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 throug" — Enda Delaney, The Irish Times
"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." — John Borelli, The Tablet
"[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." — Tim Egan, The New York Times
"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." — James Carroll, author of The Truth at the Heart of the Lie
"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." — Jeremy Adelman, coauthor of Worlds Together, Worlds Apart
Also By: John T. McGreevy 
Catholicism and American Freedom: A History
E Book, 2013
"A brilliant book, which brings historical analysis of religion in American culture to a new level of insight and importance." —New York Times Book Review
Catholicism and American Freedom: A History
Paperback, 2005
"A brilliant book, which brings historical analysis of religion in American culture to a new level of insight and importance." —New York Times Book Review
