Customer Reviews

An Illustrated History of the Popes: Saint Peter to John Paul II.

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As a lifelong Catholic and an avid reader of history,I thought this book would be very interesting and helpful in understanding history of the last 2000 years.
First ,the book ,in no way describes each pope,nor does it suggest it does. It really covers only 50 which the author has chosen to show the overall history of the popes .
The one thing that does come through very clear is that the history of the popes is extremely complicated and there is much more to it all than even hinted at in this book.
The book deals mainly with trying to show the popes chronologically from Peter to the present;and how and why they were "chosen". And even at that,it leaves much more unanswered than answered.
Without doubt,the Papacy affected and was affected by the power,governments,wars,and whatever else was going on at the time;but the author does very little analysing causes and effects,and simply moves on from one pope to the next.
Just as a for instance,one of the greatest impacts on the history of Europe had to be The Black Death in the mid-13th Century,when nearly 1/3 of the population died and society was dramatically changed by it;is not even mentioned.
While I expected to find this book enlighting;I simply found it long and arduous to read.It has a lot of names and dates but not in the leaast fulfilling in helping to under the history of the popes and the Church and the impact they had on history or what history had on them.