Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church: A 2,000-Year History (Hardcover)

~ H. W. Crocker III (Author) "POMPEY'S SWORD WAS DRAWN as he entered the Holy of Holies..." (more)
Key Phrases: state supremacy, papal lands, clerical appointments, Holy Roman Empire, Middle Ages, Pope Leo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Catholics who tire of histories critical of their church will find much to love in Triumph, by the journalist and novelist H.W. Crocker III. With the enthusiasm of a convert, Crocker (formerly an Anglican) tells a story spanning 2,000 years, concentrating on the most heroic and adventurous chapters of church history. Crocker writes clear, crisp sentences ("Origen severed his genitals," begins one chapter; "A little looting goes a long way," opens another), and his version of Catholic history is one amazing scene after another. Triumph reads more like a historical novel than most other church histories, and that quality makes the book one of the most accessible historical surveys for younger readers. Theologically, however, Crocker is so eager to depict the church in a positive light that he's all but blind to its flaws. There's a lot of catechism here, but not much probing into the complexities of the church's involvement in the Inquisition or in World War II, or contemporary controversies such as the ordination of women. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

If history, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, then writer and novelist Crocker (Robert E. Lee on Leadership) obviously liked what he saw when he looked at the 2,000-year life of the Catholic Church. A convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism, Crocker has produced an exhaustive, thoroughly sourced narrative which reflects his love for his chosen faith. Although his accounts of episodes like Christianity's East-West split and the Inquisition will be seen by some as mere defenses of the Roman church, Crocker has made a creditable attempt to place events in a more balanced context, providing details that are typically downplayed by or absent from more critical chronicles. For example, he acknowledges that tortures and executions occurred during the Inquisition and does not excuse them, but he also observes that they were miniscule compared to the bloody conflict that was to follow as a result of the Protestant Reformation. Crocker's treatment of reformer Martin Luther seems unnecessarily harsh at a time when relations between Lutherans and Catholics have been steadily improving, as witnessed by the 2001 signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. In discrediting Luther and his purposes, Crocker dredges up a multitude of the reformer's personal flaws, calling him an "ill-tempered, unbalanced, and unhappy monk." He is much kinder to reformer John Calvin, whom he deems "undoubtedly the finest theologian the Protestant churches ever had." Readers interested in a detailed history that minimizes criticism of the Catholic Church will most appreciate this work.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles; 1st edition (November 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761529241
• ISBN-13: 978-0761529248
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #390,658 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 132 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, April 25, 2002

By	Kevin Beckman (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It took guts to write a book like this. With the Catholic Church currently being demonized on a scale not seen since Nero's Rome, Crocker has written a panoramic 2000 year history of the Church that makes no - absolutely no - apologies, or concessions to its critics.

It is an astonishing act of defiance.

Crocker lashes into pagans, atheists, heretics, Saracens and Byzantines with a passion that could have come from a thirteenth century scriptorium.

Among other surprises, Crocker reveals that Catholic dogma has never called for a strictly literal interpretation of scripture. "Aha!" cry the born-agains, "More proof the pope is the Antichrist!" Not so fast. Consider Exodus 19:4. God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites, "You yourself have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings, and brought you to myself." Everyone knows the Hebrews walked out of Egypt. Exodus 19:4, and many other passages, are meant to be interpreted metaphorically. But how are we to know when the Bible speaks literally and metaphorically?

The Catholic Church provided a hierarchical, orderly system of learned doctors and priests who spent lifetimes pondering that question. The masses were given a simpler faith. The Church recognized that some people simply are smarter than others, and better equipped to handle subtle ideas. The system worked for centuries.

But then came Martin Luther, a man whose own writings reveal him to be a violent, hate-filled, anti-semitic person constantly tormented by visions of the devil. Luther encouraged Christians to read the Bible and draw their own conclusions. In the chaos that followed, a phantasmagoria of Protestant sects emerged, some advocating a nightmare version of Christianity, such as Calvinism, which outlawed singing, dancing, jewelry, pictures, etc. Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas in England because it wasn't in the Bible. Witch burnings, rare in Catholic countries, rose to genocidal proportions in Protestant lands. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," says Exodus 22:18.

Eventually many people realized that if one interprets everything in the Bible literally, a lot of it doesn't make sense. Forced to choose between this confusion and common sense, many people gave up on the Church altogether and other gods rose to take its place. French revolutionaries promised to make the State the new religious cult. Kings and emperors used to fear excommunication, but in the 20th century, blasphemous madmen such as Hitler and Stalin laughed in the Church's face.

There is hope for the future though. The moral relativism of our age is beginning to wear thin. The Church will survive its current scandal, and as Crocker says in his book, Catholicism, led by good men, will rise from its catacombs to astonish the world.

108 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warning: This Book is F-U-N, December 28, 2001

By	Terrence J. Sexton "Terrence Sexton" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tired of seeing the Catholic Church pilloried by malcontents, defectors, and detractors? Longing for a sweeping, well-written overview of the Church's unparalleled achievements over the last two millennia? If so, you will really enjoy this book. I received it for Christmas and could not put it down.

Crocker will, predictably, be criticized by those who wish that the Church was not so wedded to the objective, immutable, hard truths preached by the Apostles and St. Paul. But the critics must ask themselves why, if the Church is really the decrepit, bankrupt institution they depict it to be, they expend so much time, effort and ink attacking it?

This is not revisionist history; Crocker readily admits that the Church is a divine, infallible institution made up of human, fallible creatures. Far from exposing the Church as a fraud, these excesses and failures of the past only reinforce its divine character. Indeed, only a Church that received the protection promised in Matthew 16:18 could endure some of the scandals to which the Barque of Peter has been subjected.

Moreover, Crocker goes a long way toward debunking some of the viciously unfair myths which have been spread about the Church, e.g., that it was complicit in the face of Nazi genocide. John Cornwell, Garry Wills and their ilk should be very uneasy about the release of this book, which does an excellent job of unmasking their shoddy research and analysis.

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Napoleon, read this book! . . . (if circumstances allow), June 23, 2003

By	"zenoofelia" (victor, new york) - See all my reviews

Critical reviews of this book rightly point out that it's not a dry, exhaustive analysis of all issues related to the Catholic Church over 2000 years. It is not written for a handful of other professional historians tucked away in academia somewhere. The book is not an autopsy.

But frankly, it's high time someone wrote a book like Crocker's.

First, by any neutral criteria, the Catholic Church is the most interesting institution that has ever existed (see below) and as such it deserves a treatment like Crocker's written with the attitude that people might actually find the subject interesting.

Second, it is remarkable how ignorant most of us are about the Catholic Church, even though it is clearly the most important human institution in the history of the world.

Third, the vast majority of stuff one hears about the role of the Church in history is complete myth. (Tiny example I hear constantly, exploded admirably by Crocker: "The Church led those nasty crusades trying to stamp out Islam"--completely wrong. The crusades (a)came along many centuries after Islam arrived on the scene--the Muslims were left in peace for 500 years, (b) were not against Islam, but against the blood-thirsy Ottoman Empire, a bunch that slaughtered babies on bayonets before their mothers' eyes and beheaded infidels for sport (and as such was completely deserving of the crudades) (c) were not all led by the Church (indeed, e.g., the ridiculous Children's Crusade was condemned by the Church).

So Crocker is right to have a somewhat polemical attitude here, as there is much to be corrected. And his lack of sympathy for certain acts and attitudes attributable to Protestantism is appropriate in the context of his historical narrative. Crocker recognizes that ideas have consequences, even religious ideas, and one cannot write history without thinking critically about ideas. He brings to life how certain Protestant institutions have strenuously endeavored to exaggerate the foibles of the Church or even create myths to justify their rejection of the Church and their own claims to authority (which can be a bit thin, depending upon the brand of Protestantism). (See, e.g., history according to the Brits: Henry VIII literally murders a whole bunch of his wives, lots of respected members of his court, thousands of Catholics, some of them, including middle-aged women, being slowly crushed alive to serve as particularly nasty examples to others who dare remain true to their beliefs . . . but it's the Pope, any Pope, that's a power-hungry despot, while the great patriot Henry is honored as the founder of the dear ol' Church of England. Talk about your revisionist history!)

Crocker's account vividly portrays an amazing story that should astound anyone with a brain, no matter what they think about God, Jesus, religion or Catholicism. The Church is the most long-lived institution the world has ever known, and there is no close second. It survived the persecution of Rome, the embrace of Rome (worse), the fall of Rome, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment (so called), the Age of Revolution, and the Age of Totalitarianism. Almost every age was dominated by smart and powerful folks that predicted the prompt demise of the Church and worked to hasten it.

Crocker's history is all the more important in light of the current role of the Church. It might shock most Americans to know that today the Catholic Church is larger and stronger today than it has ever been. (American Catholics only make up about 6% or the Church.) It is far and away the largest religious institution in the world (with no close second). It is the largest charitable institution in the world (with no close second), the largest educator of people in the world (with no close second), the largest provider of health care in the world (with no close second), the largest and most vigorous defender of human rights in the world (with no close second)--every year dozens of nuns and priests are martyred in places like Liberian, Sierra Leone, Colombia, and East Timor for standing up to government and/or rebel thugs. The Church has fostered the most fertile intellectual tradition the world has ever known-from Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, and Bonaventure, to Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Conner, Graham Greene, Jacques Maritain, and Etienne Gilson.

Crocker is right to reflect in his narrative that this ought to astound people--if the Church were tops in only 2 of these categories, it would still be the most amazing institution around. The Church's growth, vigor, vitality and strength continue to confound those in every age who either pledge to destroy it (as did Napoleon and Hitler, for example) or confidently predict its extinction if it doesn't change with the times (i.e., lighten up and say it's okay if folks sleep around).

Regardless of what one believes, that is a truely astounding story, and an immense story. Crocker has done an very admirable job of capturing most of this story in one very readable volume. It's quite a remarkable accomplishment.