Catholic Book Club

The esteemed church historian John W. O’Malley, who is currently a professor of theology at Georgetown University, is no stranger to readers of America and members of the Catholic Book Club. Publishing about year after Eamon Duffy’s Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy (our March 2009 CBC selection), A History of the Popes is an engaging narrative chronicling the 265 “saints and sinners” who have led the Catholic Church over the past two millennia.

O’Malley’s scholarship and profound grasp are in clear evidence throughout the book. The writing is both reverent and critical, exploring controversies as well as legends with lively analysis. The book is divided into six sections (periods): From the Margins to the Center of the Roman World; Bringing Order Out of Chaos; Development, Decline, Disarray; Renaissance and Reformation; Into the Modern Era; and The Papacy as a Global Institution.” O’Malley did not set out to supplant lengthier histories, but rather to synthesize papal history for a broad readership. In a forthcoming review of the book for America, Rev. Anthony D. Andreassi extols the author’s clarity, perception and authoritative writing on a “vast and complicated topic,” reasons why he “rightly deserves the title of dean of American Catholic church historians.”

Purchase A History of the Popes: From Peter to the Present from amazon.com.