Concise History of the Catholic Church

by Thomas Bokenkotter

Book Overview

This critically acclaimed history covers the events and doctrines that have shaped Catholic thought and action over the past two millennia. A singularly useful reference book, updated and expanded for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385130147
• ISBN13: 9780385130141
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 431 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A fine introduction to the long, rich history of the Catholic Church

As a Protestant who has long been perplexed by Catholicism, I finally picked up this history, and am giving it a read. This excellent book has clarified so many areas where I was confused about the origin of a tradition or doctrine in the Church. Particularly helpful is the way Bokenkotter traces the threads of the development of Catholic dogma. While it is extremely brief (2000+ years of history...430 pages), and undoubtedly omits or skims many important issues, it is a fine introduction. Bokenkotter does not espouse to be complete or lengthy in his history, and provides many references for further reading, should the reader desire a deeper understanding of an event or time period. I appreciate Bokenkotter's respectful treatment of Protestantism, and his recognition of both beautiful and inglorious moments in the Catholic Church's history (for surely no church is perfect!). This history has brought me to greater respect of and appreciation for the Catholic Church, and I highly recommend it.

Bit of an update

The 2005 edition of TB's "Concise History of the Catholic Church" basically adds a very brief chapter on the final illness and death of John Paul II, and the election of Benedict XVI. TB writes that little update from the fullness of the moment when the world watched the events of the passing of one pope and the election of another on live broadcasts, so his two-page insert has the freshness of the immediate. That little chapter is more of a chronicle than a historical reflection. The 2005 edition of "Concise History", other than the above-mentioned little piece, reproduces untouched the 2002 version of TB's best-seller. The novelty of that 2002 edition had been his appraisal of the long pontificate of John Paul II leading across the threshold of the Third Millennium. That appraisal, published in time for the pope's silver jubilee on the chair of Peter, presents a type of "point of arrival" rather than a conclusion to the ongoing story of the Church. TB's book is, after all, a survey of 2000 years of Church history, so it is interesting that the last quarter of the 20th Century should get so much attention. Yet, that is the time in which most of TB's reader's were born and have lived, so that special attention makes sense. The "Concise History" is a solid text that can be used in college and seminary courses of Church history. I've used it as a text and resource for survey courses that I've taught at grad level for students of theology. It is highly readable, solid and sober in tone, informative and synthetic. In short, the book works, edition after edition. My students always seem to appreciate "Bokenkotter", as they call the book. Their appreciation is one of the reasons that I continue to make use of this resource when asked to speak of the history of the Church.

An excellent overview

This book gives the best one-volume introduction to the history of the Catholic Church that I know. One cannot of course always agree with the author's opinions or appreciate his choice of historical materials, but he gives an integrated and interpretive survey of the subject. Particularly interesting is the way in which he interprets Church history since the French Revolution. He shows the Church structure challenged by both secular and religious liberalism in the 19th century; he chronicles the rejection of this challenge by the Vatican power structure in the Church, and then the return of the ever vital "liberal" forces to the surface in the Second Vatican Council. His coverage of Church history since 1965 is by necessity tentative, but he effectively shows the push and pull of political and spiritual forces within the Church since that date. The author obviously believes that the Church is an institution that has to make adjustments to the times (one only has to look to St. Paul to understand why he thinks this). The Catholic Church is currently launched on a great adventure to find a new balance after leaving behind the previous model bequeathed to the modern world by the Council of Trent. This book is an excellent introduction to this effort.

A must-read

As you look through the reviews here, you will see that many people do not like this book, particularly those who adhere to the current view of conservatism in the Roman Catholic Church. However, whether one likes the book or not, and whether one gives it one star or five, this is an important book to deal with on a substantive level, and a book that will help to define the Roman Catholic Church for some time to come. The grand project of the book is to seek to clarify both the ways in which the Church and the Christian faith have remained constant and the ways in which they have changed; this is a task too daunting for any single work, and any given chapter can be faulted for a lack of detail or attention, but the book itself produces a compelling framework. We will all find flaws somewhere. I personally thought the book could have spent more time on the rift with the Orthodox faith and that it likely overemphasized the claims of the early Popes to primacy (as well as the degree of deference of the other Primates). This is particularly true in a time when Pope Benedict has emphasized that reconcilation with the Orthodox faith is a high priority for the Church, as that reconciliation will require considerable understanding and analysis of the underlying rift, and means an inevitable re-visiting of the two most divisive issues that split the churches one thousand years ago -- Papal primacy and the vow of celibacy. While the discussion of Luther and Calvin and both their politics and their theology was compelling and convincing, the full diversity of the various protestant strains and the pre-Protestant heretics could have used more attention. The story presented focuses on the institutional failings of a Church too bound up in Italian politics and Popes too involved in earthly distractions. Yet, there were political and economic strains that drove the Protestant reformation as much as the internal institutional ones, and many of the Protestant churches shared the same institutional intertwinment with political forces and the same material concerns. I believe the "corruption" of the institions may be over-emphasized in this history, and the political and economic causes underemphasized. A bit more of the context of the reformation and the pre-reformation battles with heresy would have helped deepen the book. Similarly, the emphasis on a liberal/conservative split over the last two hundred years likely masks a much more complex dynamic, and the full complexity of views within the Church is really only dealt with in full with respect to the last fifty years, and not the preceding 150. Finally, I would love to see additional material on substantive Church doctrine; the brief discussions of Augustine and Aquinas were enlightening and well-done, but still at a very high level and without as much detail as I'd like, especially given the importance of the two figures. However, given the task at hand, Bokenkotter has accomplished a great dea

Concise but Comprehensive

Bokenkotter's book supplies a comprehensive, albeit "concise," description of how the Catholic Church reached the status that it has currently achieved. It is an impressive and important book, integrating a detailed knowledge of Church history with anecdotes that give life to that history. As I read the other reviews, I see some criticism that appears to arise from a perception that Bokenkotter is failing to present the "true" history of the Church, apparently because he frankly describes things that some people wish weren't part of the history of the Church: for example, bad popes, changes in doctrine, and disagreements among Catholic theologians today. My response is that this information is accurate and valuable, no matter what your allegiance or feelings may be. Understand the facts of history; be grateful for that understanding; and then use that understanding as you see fit. The author obviously is deeply devoted to his Church and is unintimidated by historical accuracy, and he wants to share this frank but very human story of Church history with his readers. I, for one, am grateful for his efforts. The final chapter, which at 62 pages is substantially longer than other chapters, attempts to update church history since the publication of the second edition of the book in 1989. While I found it to be extremely interesting, this final chapter shows less evidence of editing than the previous chapters. Instead of the coherent focus that was the hallmark of earlier chapters, this chapter appears to be a loose conglomeration of short essays of uneven quality on a wide range of topics.