Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church, a 2000-Year History

by H.W. Crocker III

Book Overview

For 2,000 years, Catholicism--the largest religion in the world and in the United States--has shaped global history on a scale unequaled by any other institution. But until now, Catholics interested... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761529241
• ISBN13: 9780761529248
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles
• Length: 499 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Don't judge it for what it is not.

If you expect this to be an academic, critical history of the Catholic Church, then you need to read the title again. Crocker is not a professional historian, and he doesn't pretend to be. However, as a man's honest interpretation and commentary of true historical events, the book is excellent. This is history through the eyes of a faithful, orthodox Roman Catholic, in the historico-apologetic tradition of Hilaire Belloc, Christopher Dawson, and G.K. Chesterton. Crocker is clearly indebted to them for his understanding of the Church and its development as it struggles against numerous foes, secular and religious. Of particular interest to Western Christian readers is the second half beginning with the Reformation. Like Belloc, Crocker wants to locate the rampant secularism of today within the principles of the Reformation -- such as in this memorable quote: "The result [of sola scriptura], over time, was that in Protestant countries, theology was no longer 'the queen of sciences' but only one source of knowledge, subject to individual interpretation, and was separated from secular inquiry. Because secular inquiry was seen as objective it eventually gained overweening predominance and prestige over doctrinally subjective Protestant religious thought -- an intellectual development that has been the major factor in secularizing the Western world" (240). Whether one agrees or not, such issues are worth pondering, and this book is a worthwhile chance to do so with a dedicated Catholic.

Previous Reviewers have verfiable Agenda

I like to note that the reviewer below who signed "Orthodox Theologian (MTh) student of the late Dr. J.S. Romanides, Harvard and U. of Athens professor" is particularly biased. The author of Hitler's Pope wrote in 1993 in THE HIDING PLACES OF GOD (Less than Five years before publishing Hitler's Pope) "human beings are morally, psychologically, materially better off without a belief in God" He writes as an ex-catholic who quit the seminary and remarks in 1993 "I took delight in attempting to undermine the beliefs of my fellow seminarians..." The publication of HITLER"S POPE shows a picture the man who became Pius XII with a few soldiers. This is only the tip of the iceberg, but this hardly one who can write objective history. Therefore, trashing Crocker's TRIUMPH: THE POWER AND THE GLORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH based on a comparison to Hitler's Pope is hardly credible. Its been several years since I read TRIUMPH but the one point that stayed with me Mr. Crocker's dictum that most of the heresies began in the east. A quick consultation of any encycopedia can confirm this fact. One must also keep Crocker wrote this in response the NYT bestseller CONSTANTINE'S SWORD hailed by liberal (and liberal Catholic's) as greatest thing sliced bread which is bitter attack ob the church by one of the so-called "PRACTICING ROMAN CATHOLICS...". I have just one thing to ask: those self-riteous pundits who pile on in attacking Mr. Crocker's rejoinder, Where we they when CONSTANTINE's SWORD was published?

An Unlikely Triumph

If you buy only one historical overview of the Roman Catholic Church, buy Triumph. The book has an easy style for such a weighty survey. Crocker, a convert to the Catholic Church might have titled his book Unlikely Triumph. Whether intended or not, the book shows how the Roman Catholic Church has a miraculously solid record on faith and morals and a spectacularly flaky record in politics and statecraft. The Catholic Church is the living proof that Christ's kingdom is not of this world. Crocker's book is timely inasmuch as the present-day catholic hierarchy makes some of the same colossal errors when departing from the topic of faith and morals. For example, if you follow the editorials in the Vatican Newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, and the pronouncements of Vatican diplomats like Cardinals Martino and Etchegaray, you quickly see that the Vatican has chosen sides in the War on Terrorism and they've chosen the wrong side. They've chosen the terrorists, leaving even middle-of-the-road lay people scratching their heads. Crocker's book helps put this awkward episode in context: the Princes of the Church have a habit of bungling statecraft. The Catholic Church manages to survive all its self-inflicted wounds and even thrives-an Unlikely Triumph.

Finally, something good about the Church

As a convert from Lutheranism, I found the book most enjoyable and an eye-opener into the Catholic view of the Reformation. The text was easy to read and understand and the humor was appreciated. While the Church's leaders have never been perfect, they weren't as bad as I was led to believe during my Protestant upbringing. Finally something uplifting about The True Faith.

The sweep of history comes alive

To write a history of the Roman Catholic Church overthe course of two millennia is a daunting task, butonce again, H.W. Crocker has done it. "Triumph" readslike the great narrative histories of Sir WinstonChurchill, or Shelby Foote's Civil War masterpiece. The reader is not bogged down in minutiae, or cheatedout of certain epochs due to an editor's pen, butinstead receives a complete and fair overview of thisfascinating topic. And perhaps most importantly, Crocker's writing style accomplishes what has becomeso elusive within academic historical circles; Heentertains. "Triumph" is a triumph.