The Catholic Church through the Ages, Second Edition: A History

by John Vidmar OP

Overview

The Catholic Church through the Ages, now in its second edition, is a one-volume survey of the history of the Catholic Church from its beginning until (and including) the pontificate of Pope Francis. The book explains the Church's progress by using Christopher Dawson's division of the Church's history into six distinct "ages," or 350-400 year periods of time, each cycle beginning with great enthusiasm and advancement and ending in decline and loss. Writing with the experience of thirty years of teaching, the author has fashioned an ideal text that combines substance with readability.

Undergraduates, graduates, and interested lay people have given the author an idea of what topics should be emphasized. As a result, he has emphasized such areas monasticism, the Crusades, medieval theology, the Inquisition, Reformation, French Revolution, the nineteenth century, and the Church in the United States. And he has added material on the Oxford Movement, John Henry Newman’s contributions to the Oxford Movement and to the Catholic intellectual tradition, and the Catholic literary revival that took place in several countries in the early twentieth century, as well as on the last three popes.

As a supplement to each chapter, the author has included an updated the recommended readings and bibliography, as well as the audio-visual materials.
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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809149049
Publisher:	Paulist Press
Publication date:	11/03/2014
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.20(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	vii
I	The First Age of the Church (30-330 AD)-The Early Church	1
A	Jewish Sources of Christianity	1
B	Roman Sources of Christianity	5
C	Influence of Jewish and Roman Sources on Christianity	7
D	Christian Sources	9
E	Paul	20
F	Attacks on Christianity	25
G	Rival Religions	31
H	The Life of the Early Church	36
I	The End of the First Age	42
J	Recommended Readings	43
K	Notes	44
II	The Second Age of the Church (330-650 AD)-The Age of the Fathers	46
A	The Fathers of the Church	46
B	The Papacy	51
C	The First Christological Councils	55
D	St. Augustine (354-430)	64
E	The Veneration of the Saints	72
F	The Rise of Monasticism	76
G	The End of the Second Age	84
H	Recommended Readings	85
I	Notes	86
III	The Third Age of the Church (650-1000)-The Dark Ages	88
A	Islam	90
B	The Byzantine Church and the Eastern Schism	96
C	The Barbarians	104
D	The Papacy (955-1057)	111
E	The End of the Third Age	115
F	Recommended Readings	117
G	Notes	117
IV	The Fourth Age of the Church (1000-1450)-The Middle Ages	119
A	The Crusades	119
B	The New Religious Orders	132
C	Scholasticism	138
D	Medieval Mysticism	141
E	The Medieval Inquisition	142
F	The Spanish Inquisition	150
G	Innocent III	152
H	The Decline of the Papacy	154
I	The End of the Fourth Age	162
J	Recommended Readings	162
K	Notes	163
V	The Fifth Age of the Church (1450-1789)-Protestant and Catholic Reformations	165
A	The Renaissance	165
B	The Reformation on the Continent	177
C	The English Reformation	204
D	The Reformation in Scotland	227
E	Protestantism	231
F	The Catholic Response	233
G	The Missions (1500-1800)	241
H	The End of the Fifth Age	252
I	Chronology of the Reformation	252
J	Recommended Readings	254
K	Notes	255
VI	The Sixth Age of the Church (1789-Present)-The Modern Age	258
A	The Enlightenment or the Age of Reason	258
B	The French Revolution	266
C	The Aftermath of Revolution	276
D	The Catholic Church in the United States	289
E	Social Catholicism	301
F	The Revival of the Missions (1800-2000)	307
G	War and Dictatorship	310
H	Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church	316
I	Post-World War II Catholicism	334
J	The End of the Sixth Age	340
K	Recommended Readings	341
L	Notes	343
	Chronological List of the Popes	346
	A Select Bibliography	353
	Index	357