The Modern Papacy, 1798-1995This ambitious survey launches a major new five-volume series. It explores the response of the papacy, one of the world's longest-enduring institutions, to the multiplying challenges of the modern age. It runs from the French Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union, ending with the pontificate of John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since 1522. Frank Coppa examines the impact of major events like the Napoleonic conquests, Italian unification, two World Wars and the Cold War; he explores the attitudes of the papacy to such issues as liberalism, nationalism, fascism, communism and the modern, secular age; he examines the growing concern of the popes for the Catholic world beyond its traditional European home; and he tackles, objectively and judiciously, contentious topics like the "silence" of Pius XII. Engrossingly readable, the book offers a fresh and invigorating perspective on international relations across the past two centuries, and on the political and ideological emergence of the modern world, as well as its specifically papal concerns. |
Contents
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| 7 | |
The chair of Peter confronts the French Revolution 17891799 | |
from compromise to confrontation 1800 | |
from restoration to revolution 18151831 | |
18311846 | |
18461856 | |
Papal intransigence and infallibility in an age of liberalism and nationalism | |
The Vaticans condemnation of Americanism and modernism | |
Papal diplomacy and the quest for peace during and after the First World | |
The Vatican between the democracies and the dictatorships in the interwar period | |
The diplomacy and silence of Pope Pius XII during the Second World | |
The Holy See and the cold war in transition | |
reconciliation of the papacy with the modern world | |
the pontificate of Paul VI | |
the contemporary papacy | |
Romes attempt at accommodation with the modern world 18781903 | |
the modern papacy in historical perspective | |