History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium
"For years, James Hitchcock has been our premier historian - a dissident from conventional wisdom, well-armed and solid. Here he pioneers a new method for presenting a long sweep of history: an orderly and altogether fascinating series of vignettes - of arguments, movements, distinctive persons, and concrete events. There is just enough narrative in these sequences to carry the reader along, but without involving her in excessive interpretation. This book provides both a great resource for easy reference, and a stimulating definition of a Christian humanism that holds in tension the transcendent and the down to earth, the holy and the sinful. This is a tension which Hitchcock maintains throughout." --Michael Novak"A remarkable achievement that synthesizes a lifetime of learning, James Hitchcock's History of the Catholic Church is also a signal service to twenty-first century Catholicism, a religious community in which controversy and contention are often the by-products of severe amnesia. The Church of the New Evangelization has to know its own story, and that story is told here in full." --George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C"James Hitchcock has a well-earned reputation as an outstanding scholar, insightful commentator and lucid, accessible writer. All of these skills come together and shine in his History of the Catholic Church. It's a masterwork: exhilarating in scope and a joy to read. If you want an unforgettable account of the fullness and drama of the Christian story, read this book." --+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia