A History Of Catholicism Since The French Revolution Is An Ambitious Volume Worth Reading
(REVIEW) There are plenty of books out there that tackle history. Most of them are ambitious projects given the span of time they cover. I embarked on such a project two years ago when I wrote about soccer’s World Cup. It was no easy task.
Another book that embarks on an ambitious project — more so than any history book connected to religion that’s come out this fall — is John McGreevy’s “Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis,” published by W.W. Norton and Company. Indeed, a book that covers a period of 230 years can only be defined as ambitious.
Extremely well researched and skillfully put together, McGreevy’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in the planet’s largest Christian denomination. Catholicism is the largest branch of Christianity, with 1.3 billion adherents worldwide.
READ: Beyond The Abortion Debate, Author Joshua Prager Explores ‘The Family Roe'
How this came to be is among the questions McGreevy, who serves as provost and history professor at the University of Notre Dame, answers in his volume. In fact, there is no institution that is as multicultural, multilingual and global in scope as the Catholic Church.
McGreevy’s research — 66 pages of the book alone are dedicated to footnotes — is extraordinary, making this the definitive book on the history of the Catholic Church since the 18th century. How the church came to be so large in size and influence is fascinating. McGreevy, in explaining why he wrote the book, said that “a better understanding of Catholicism enhances our grasp of the modern world.”
For those who think the church has lost its influence, McGreevy adds, “Only a pope, as Francis did when visiting Manila in 2015, can attract six million people, perhaps the largest crowd in human history, to attend Mass in a driving rainstorm.”
While all religious faiths have lost much of their power in the West, Catholicism is growing in the Global South. McGreevy points out that in 1910, a little more than 100 years ago, it was Europe that was home to two-thirds of the world’s Catholics. In sub-Saharan Africa, by comparison, there were only one million Catholics. “These ratios,” McGreevy notes, “would flip over the course of the 20th century; by its end, most Catholics would live in the Global South.”
McGreevy’s book is written chronologically. I found the sections covering the Americas in the early 1800s, Europe in the early 1900s and the finale covering the clergy sex-abuse crisis (and its “cover-up,” as McGreevy calls it) to be some of the most fascinating.
The book starts with the French Revolution, a time that fueled reflections on the notion of a political and cultural space now dominated by the creation of nation states. This political evolution grew across Europe, but colonization of the Americas — mostly by the Spanish and Portuguese — helped spread Christianity and kept the papacy’s power largely intact.
The book, while ambitious to research and write, is equally difficult for readers. It’s not because of the language — McGreevy uses everyday language, not jargon — to retell the story of the church, but it’s length. At 513 pages, it is not a breezy read. Thankfully, it is so well written that the subject remains engrossing.
The book isn’t just sectioned off by era but also told through the notable people of those periods who help bring this work to life. Some are very famous — including Jewish philosopher and convert Edith Stein, as well as St. John Paul II — and others who aren’t so familiar, such as Servando Teresa de Mier, a Mexican priest and revolutionary, and Sister Josephine Bakhita, a formerly enslaved Sudanese nun.
Born in 1869, Bakhita was kidnapped by Arab slave traders as a child. In 1883, she was sold to the Italian Vice Consul Callisto Legani. He took her from Sudan to Italy, where she was given away to another family as a gift and served as a nanny. She was eventually baptized in 1890 and took the name Josephine Margaret and Fortunata, which is the Latin translation for her Arabic name, Bakhita. She became a nun six years later.
During World War II, the people of the Italian village of Schio, where Bakhita lived, regarded her as a protector. While bombs fell on the town located near the city of Vicenza, not one person was killed. Bakhita’s life connects the church from Rome to Africa, part of the global influence Catholicism had and continues to have. Bakhita was canonized a saint in the year 2000 by the pope at the time, John Paul II. She is now the patron saint of Sudan. Her feast day is celebrated on Feb. 8.
It’s stories such as these that make this book a wonderful collection for anyone who wants to learn more about Catholicism’s global impact, its centuries-old history and why it remains relevant in the lives of so many millions of people.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor at Religion Unplugged and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. He is the author of “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest Sporting Event.” Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.