About this title: Bokenkotter's massive undertaking offers readers the major historical and theological events that have shaped the Catholic Church over the past 2000 years. CONCISE HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH presents encapsulations of the Church's history and its interaction with various governments, its response to wars, and its negotiation of splinter ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780385411479ISBN:0385411472
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Rev ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Galilee Book
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780385130158ISBN:0385130155
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Pristine condition unused and unmarked book. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 480 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ] [ Underlining/Highlighting: SOME ] [ Writing: NONE ] [ Torn pages: NO ] [ Broken Seams: NO ] cover and adjacent pages worn, does not interfere with print. Publisher: Galilee Trade Pub Date: 8/7/1979 Binding: Paperback Pages: 480. read more
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Description: Good. Only lightly used. Book has minimal wear to cover and binding. A few pages may have small creases and minimal underlining. Book selection as BIG as Texas. read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Description: Good. Light shelving wear with minimal damage to cover and bindings. Pages show minor use. Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read. Recycle and Reuse! read more
"This book is both extremely dull and appallingly biased. Bokenkotter has no knack for historical narrative and the text is uninteresting even by the low standards of college textbooks. He also has gone so far off the deep end in defending the Catholic Church that the book bears no traces of objectivity. Missionary practices in the new world and Africa are covered as heroic triumphs over savagery. The pedophilia scandal is covered in depth, only so that Bokenkotter can inform the reader that the statistics are not as horrible as some claim, that it is in many ways a media witch hunt, and that besides, many of the children were over 12, so by some semantic wrangling, it's not technically pedophilia. The whole section is grotesque.
I read this book only due to being trapped on a train all day with nothing else. That said, it is debatable if my time wouldn't have been better spent staring off into space."
"The Catholic church has influenced so much of our world's history that I thought I would learn more about it. I carefully searched to try and get a history that wasn't written by someone who was against the catholic church. This book was apparently written as a textbook to be used in college classes teaching Catholics about the history of their own church.
Because the book was written for Catholics, and I am not a Catholic, I had to decipher a lot of terminology and learn about a lot of Catholic beliefs and practices. This is okay, it was part of the purpose of reading, but this book didn't really explain these things (because it was written for an audience that already knew them) and so I had to search for help understanding elsewhere and most often I just figured it out from context after reading about something over and over again.
It was a very thorough history, even though it was "concise." While it was concise in reference to two thousand years of history, it was perhaps not quite as concise as I had hoped.
That said, I did learn a lot about the Catholic church and how it has influenced society. I finally understood where the science vs. religion debate originates from (I've never seen why there has to be a debate... for me the two can more or less complement each other). Most interesting to me was the way that Catholic policy and doctrine was continually being changed by movements that came from the bottom up in the hierarchy, instead of as a decree from the pope. I also learned about the struggle over whether the Pope or the Council should be in power.
I was surprised by how little or no claim was made to revelation as an important part of the leadership of the church. I'm not sure if that was just this author's view or if it reflects the general view.
The most interesting part for me was when the Catholic church was reaching for, attained, and fell from being the most powerful European influence during the medieval times.
While there are many areas where I do not agree with the Catholic church, I do see that there are many good people within it trying to figure out what God wants and follow it. It is pretty amazing that the Catholic church has survived all it has gone through, especially the simple passage of so much time."
"Well - I found the first half of the book extremely interesting (the struggles between monarchs and the popes, between popes, between churches (Lutheran, Calvinism, Eastern Orthodox). I found MOST of the second half much slower as it was more about stuggles of interpretations of various theologies within the church. While important, it's hard to make those interesting without providing fuller explanations which is hard to do in a 430 page book that covers 2000 years. The last few chapters are interesting as well.
I find this a must read for those that wish to see the evolution of the Catholic Church or even how others came to be. If you are Catholic and thought that some of the things you believe were always present, then think again. Immaculate Conception? Slightly over 100 years old..for example.
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