The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission and Progress: A Textbook in Church History [Paperback]

George Johnson (Author), Jerome D. Hannan (Author), Sister M. Dominica (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1980

George Johnson, Sr. M Dominica, Jerome Hannan Originally published in 1935 and reprinted many times.  A famous textbook in Church history woven around the lives of the famous, influential saints who labored heroically in every age to spread the Kingdom of Christ.  7th through 12th grade level.  Copiously illustrated.  A wonderful introduction to Church history for anyone.  Simple, yet covers a lot!  Includes a list of Popes and a chronological table.  A must in every Catholic home and school.

Product Details

• Paperback: 596 pages
• Publisher: Tan Books & Pub (June 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089555156X
• ISBN-13: 978-0895551566
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of Catholic Church history, June 30, 2004

By 

Joseph Kimball (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission and Progress: A Textbook in Church History (Paperback)

The copy I have was printed in 1935, and is a hardback book. The cover is orange with purple. The paper is fairly thick, and the printing is larger than is typical for a history book. There are a lot of black-and-white pictures, with many of them being reproductions of artwork. There are a handful of maps and a few photographs. The binding is fairly robust since it was intended as a book for elementary age kids.

The subject of the book is the history of the Catholic Church from its founding to 1935. Given the intended audience (Catholic elementary school kids in the United States), the book fulfills its intention quite well. The broad historical setting of the centuries it covers conforms to the stuff I learned in my world history classes in school, while the details relating to the Catholic Church were provided in more detail than were in my history classes.

The book is written from the point of view of an active Catholic historian, so the writing style (word choices, sentence construction, etc.) and choice of events to cover take on a distinctly pro-Catholic tone. Despite being overtly pro-Catholic, it covers many events in a surprisingly even-handed way. A quote from p.131 illustrates this (referring to the nations which had taken over Europe after the fall of Rome): "Though these new nations were known as barbarians, we must not think of them as savages. They had a culture all their own, which, though not as advanced as that of the Greeks and Romans, had produced much that was noble and beautiful."

The book takes an unsurprisingly negative tone towards the Reformation and the era of the Enlightenment. On the other hand, the split with the Eastern arm of the Church in 1438 is approached as a series of unfortunate misunderstandings compounded by certain people with political intentions.

There are some sections of the book specifically referencing the growth and (then) current status of the Church in the United States. This is material that is typically glossed over or ignored in typical history texts.

Overall, if you are interested in a history of the Catholic church written by a Catholic for the teaching of Catholic children, this is a well-written book. There are enough details to encourage additional research if one of the references proves intriguing, but not so many that the flow gets bogged down. In particular, the coverage of a large number of Saints through the years, and why they were important is something that a secular history book has little or none of.