The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform Audiobook (Free)

A powerful new interpretation of Catholicism’s dramatic encounter with modernity, by one of America’s leading intellectuals

Throughout a lot of the nineteenth century, both secular and Catholic leaders assumed the Church and the modern world were locked inside a battle to the death. The triumph of modernity wouldn’t normally only finish the Church as a consequential player in world history; it would also lead to the loss of life of religious conviction. But today, the Catholic Church is far more vital and consequential than it was 150 years back. Ironically, in confronting modernity, the Catholic Church rediscovered its evangelical substance. In the process, Catholicism developed intellectual tools with the capacity of rescuing the imperiled modern project.

A richly rendered, deeply learned, and powerfully argued account of two centuries of profound change in the chapel and the globe, The Irony of Contemporary Catholic History reveals how Catholicism presents twenty-first century essential truths for our success and flourishing.