Catholicism - Church History

 
The Catholic Church Through
The Ages
by John Vidmar
The Catholic Church through the Ages is a one-volume survey of the history of the Catholic Church from its beginning until (and including) the pontificate of John Paul II. 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 twenty years of teaching, the author has fashioned an ideal text that combines substance with readability.
 

 
Padres: The National Chicano
Priest Movement
by Richard Edward Martinez
From the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the 1960s, Mexican American Catholics experienced racism and discrimination within the U.S. Catholic church, as white priests and bishops maintained a racial divide in all areas of the church's ministry. To oppose this religious apartheid and challenge the church to minister fairly to all of its faithful, a group of Chicano priests formed PADRES (Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos y Sociales, or Priests Associated for Religious, Educational, and Social Rights) in 1969. Over the next twenty years of its existence, PADRES became a powerful force for change within the Catholic church and for social justice within American society. This book offers the first history of the founding, activism, victories, and defeats of PADRES. At the heart of the book are oral history interviews with the founders of PADRES, who describe how their ministries in poor Mexican American parishes, as well as their own experiences of racism and discrimination within and outside the church, galvanized them into starting and sustaining the movement.
 

 
How the Catholic Church
Built Western Civilization
by Thomas E. Woods Jr
Engaging and engrossing.... A mine of information on the debt we owe to Catholic life and thought

 
Mary In the Middle Ages
by Fr. Luigi Gambero
In his book Mary and the Fathers of the Church, Fr. Luigi Gambero presented a comprehensive survey of Marian doctrine and devotion during the first eight Christian centuries. Mary in the Middle Ages continues this journey up to the end of the fifteenth century, surveying the growth of Marian doctrine and devotion during one of the most important eras of Christian history: the Middle Ages.
 

 
Monks and Markets
by Miranda Threlfall-Holmes
The institutions of the middle ages are generally seen as tradition-bound; Monks and Markets challenges this assumption. Durham's outstanding archive has allowed the uncovering of an unprecedented level of detail about the purchasing strategies of one of England's foremost monasteries, and it is revealed that the monks were indeed reflective, responsive, and innovative when required. If this is true of a large Benedictine monastery, it is likely to be true also for the vast majority of other households and institutions in Medieval England for which comparable evidence does not exist. Furthermore, this study gives a unique insight into the nature of medieval consumer behaviour, which throughout history, and particularly from before the early modern period, remains a relatively neglected subject. Chapters are devoted to the diet of monks, the factors influencing their purchasing decisions, their use of the market and their exploitaiton of tenurial relationships, and their suppliers.
 

 
The Habit
by ELIZABETH KUHNS
Even though relatively few Catholic nuns actually wear the distinctive uniforms today, the habit still fascinates and disconcerts Catholics and non-Catholics alike. This "wearable sacramental" sums up much about Catholic spirituality and history, and Kuhns does a workmanlike job of taking readers back to the habit's early origins, through its myriad medieval variations and up to its conflicted present. Along the way we are reminded of the many roles that religious women have played in the development of Catholicism and of Western society, roles that were reflected in the clothing they wore, from peasant simplicity to elaborate creations of silk. Kuhns pays particular attention to the complex interplay between social class and the life of the cloister-different orders drew their membership from distinct social strata. Unfortunately, aside from a deftly written introductory chapter that examines the habit's contemporary fascination, much of the book sorts dutifully through too much history, without a clear story line to keep the reader's interest. [...] Kuhns is strangely neutral on the question, still hotly debated, of whether the habit is a liberating or oppressive force today.