[.ca] A Concise History of the Catholic Church (ISBN 0385516134)

The Standard:
I remember reading this in college almost 20 years ago and bought a copy of this new edition as a gift for a friend and enjoyed re-aquainting myself with it before passing it along. I must say it holds up even a little better than I remembered, and I'm glad that there are now illustrations through-out the book. Despite the grandeur of the subject, it's still a breezy read. I can better see now how many subjects are only quickly examined, but it's necessary in a work of this scope.

Needs more history and less editorializing:
This book is an interesting although deeply flawed look at Church history over the past 2,000 years. It is less a history than a collection of moments in time without a true feel for the flow of events. In addition, many prominent events are simply ignored or passed over with barely a mention. Let me give a few brief examples. Little is said of the collapse of the Church in North Africa where it was thriving (Saint Augustine was a bishop in Hippo) until it was replaced by Islam. The Crusades are barely discussed and their effects on relations with the peoples of the Middle East aren't discussed at all. The Thirty Years War is given a single paragraph. This is surprising because this war turned Europe from a continent of nations based on religion into a continent of nations where national loyalties were more important than religious loyalties. The loss of power of the religious leaders in Europe can be traced to that war. This is fairly typical of the book. It discusses many prominent people such as Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome in some detail but fails to put their lives into a perspective of overall Church history. The flow of the book is often interrupted by jumps ahead and then back again so sometimes it is confusing because it isn't clear as to what events have occurred and which are still to come. There is also a tendency in the book to move too fast at times and introduce characters with a sentence and then never mention them again. All that being said, the book is not a complete failure. Taken from a Catholic viewpoint, the book is an acceptable, although incomplete, introduction to Church history. The author does not try to hide the bad acts of the Church that led to the Reformation, for example, and instead points out the critical failures of the Church. His discussion of some key Protestant leaders such as Luther and Calvin will enlighten those who knew little of their lives. In fact, the book is at its best when the author ignores trying to write a history and instead gives us short biographies of key figures in Church history. The last part of the book covering the period since Vatican II was the most disappointing to me. The author abandons any attempt to write a history and instead turns the book into an editorial about the Church's failure to become "modern" in the last 40 years. Strangely, this is the longest part of the book. I'm not sure how a book claiming to be a history can discuss 1,960 years of Church history in 400 pages and then the remaining 40 years are given more than 100 pages. Overall, the book is fair as an introduction to Church history until about 1900 but a failure as an editorial on the current Church.

Balance is the Name of the Game:
Tom Bokenkotter's "Concise History of the Catholic Church" provides a brief but balanced view of the whole of Catholic Church history. The author has, in the mind of this reviewer, managed not only to enter deeply into the malestrom of each era but then also to step back and offer a nuanced, sensitive, intelligent evaluation of the time described. There is no "black and white" view offered. There are good and bad in each era and these the author admits and demonstrates, remarkably so given the vast amount of time covered. He freely admits the limitations of such an effort, but the results truly are first class. Perhaps this balance is best demonstrated in the author's treatment of the 19th and 20th centuries. His command of the issues in these two centuries really shines. His review of the latter part of the twentieth and the first few years of the present century in this revised edition show a remarkable acquaintanceship with the major issues of the day. Perhaps the balanced posture of this fine work is best summed up in the closing line of the book: "A tragic optimist, as an intelligent Catholic chould be, would only say, 'Wait, pray, and see.'"

An open, non-defensive account:
Bokenkotter reviews the issues and decisions of Catholic church history in a fair, non-defensive way. He gives balanced time to the losers in contests over orthodoxy, and doesn't assume the temporary victors are always right. In explaining the choice to ban families for priests in 1074, he honestly shows the arguments in play. The difficulties of controlling priest's wives showed no sign of going away, and the hierarchy's patience ran out. The great Gregorian reform for priestly chastity gathered force because the mainly monastic higher leadership realized how greatly marriage assimilated its clerics to Western women's values. (p. 141) The other defining moments in church history, from the codifying of orthodoxy under Constantine, the turn to holy war and persecution against infidels, the great "counter-reformation" revival of service vocations, or the conflicts over modernity, all receive an honest, open treatment.

A good starting point...:
But certainly not the end all. Even still I'm giving it 5 stars because I think this is a wonderful way for readers new to the topic to get their first grasp on such a tremendous topic. As to some readers' concerns that the author is "liberal", well I have yet to find an historian, author, or human being who doesn't have a perspective. It is most strange to me that people should becomes so vitriolic about the fact that Thomas Bokenkotter comes from a social justice perspective. Don't worry--It's a good thing!