Modern Papacy, 1798-1995
By Frank J. Coppa
Oct 1998
Pearson Education / Longman
ISBN: 0582096308
304 pages, Illustrated
$62.50 Paper original
OUT OF PRINT
This ambitious survey launches a major new five-volume series. It explores the response of the papacy, one of the world's longest-enduring institutions, to the multiplying challenges of the modern age. It runs from the French Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union, ending with the pontificate of John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since 1522. Frank Coppa examines the impact of major events like the Napoleonic conquests, Italian unification, two World Wars and the Cold War.
He explores the attitudes of the papacy to such issues as liberalism, nationalism, fascism, communism and the modern, secular age; he examines the growing concern of the popes for the Catholic world beyond its traditional European home; and he tackles, objectively and judiciously, contentious topics like the "silence" of Pius XII. Engrossingly readable, the book offers a fresh and invigorating perspective on international relations across the past two centuries, and on the political and ideological emergence of the modern world, as well as its specifically papal concerns.
Contents
1. Introduction: The Papacy in an Age of Ideologies.
2. The Chair of Peter Confronts the French Revolution, 1789-1799: A Turbulent
Decade.
3. The Papacy and Napoleonic France: From Compromise to Confrontation, 1800-1814.
4. Rome: From Restoration to Revolution, 1815-1831.
5. The Holy See and the First Crisis of Modernization, 1831-1846.
6. The Holy See in a Turbulent Decade, 1846-1856.
7. Papal Intransigence and Infallibility in an Age of Liberalism and Nationalism.
8. Rome's Attempt at Accommodation with the Modern World, 1878-1903.
9. The Vatican's Condemnation of Americanism and Modernism.
10. Papal Diplomacy and the Quest for Peace During and after World War One.
11. The Vatican Between the Democracies and the Dictatorships in the Interwar
Period.
12. The Diplomacy and `Silence' of Pope Pius XII During World War Two.
13. The Holy See and Cold War in Transition.
14. Aggiornamento and the Opening of Vatican II: Reconciliation of the Papacy
with the Modern World.
15. The Papacy in the Age of Transition: The Pontificate of Paul VI.
16. The Year of Three Popes and Beyond: The Contemporary Papacy.
17. Conclusion: Past, Present and Future Prospects for the Papacy.
Endnotes.
Bibliography.
Features
• launches a major new five-volume series, in parallel to the familiar
Longman History of Italy. When complete the books will cover the whole span
of the Papacy from early times to the present, exploring both its development
as one of the world's longest-enduring institutions, and also its impact on,
and reactions to, the changing world around it
• offers an intriguingly fresh vantage point from which to assess the
ebb and flow of modern politics and international relations across two centuries
• illuminates the parallel histories of Italy, Europe, and the wider
world.