The story of Roman Catholicism has never followed a singular path.
Finally, Mcgreevy addresses the challenges faced by Pope Francis as he struggles to unite the over one billion members of the world\'s largest religious community..
Conflicts with political leaders and a devotional revival in the nineteenth century, the experiences of decolonization after World War II and the Second Vatican Council in the twentieth century, and the trauma of clerical sexual abuse in the twenty-first all demonstrate how religion shapes our modern world.
Throughout this essential volume, Mcgreevy details currents of reform within the Church as well as movements protective of traditional customs and beliefs.
Josephine Bakhita, a formerly enslaved Sudanese nun
Chinese statesman Ma Xiaobang
French philosopher and reformer Jacques Maritain
German Jewish philosopher and convert, Edith Stein
John Paul II, Polish Pope and opponent of communism
Gustavo Gutiérrez, Peruvian founder of liberation theology; and French American patron of modern art, Dominique de Menil.
Servando Teresa de Mier
Daniel O\'Connell, hero of Irish emancipation
Sr.
He includes a vast cast of riveting characters, known and unknown, including the Mexican revolutionary Fr.
Mcgreevy documents the hopes and ambitions of European missionaries building churches and schools in all corners of the world, African Catholics fighting for political (and religious) independence, Latin American Catholics attracted to a theology of liberation, and Polish and South Korean Catholics demanding democratic governments.
Through powerful individual stories and sweeping birds-eye views, Catholicism provides a mesmerizing assessment of the Church\'s complex role in modern history: both shaper and follower of the politics of nation states, both conservator of hierarchies and evangelizer of egalitarianism.
Mcgreevy chronicles the dramatic upheavals and internal divisions shaping the most multicultural, multilingual, and Global institution in the world.
Beginning with the French Revolution, extending to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, and concluding with present-day crises, John T.
In no time period has this been more true than over the last two centuries.
The story of Roman Catholicism has never followed a singular path
