Looking For Solid Church History Books

[tinytherese]

Over the past year or so I've been interested in church history, particularly defending it. This is even a problem in catholic schools these days. I sometimes hear or read anti-catholic remarks about moments in the church's history, sometimes exaggerating them or flat out lying about them. I'd like to know if anyone knows any rock solid Church history books. Some hot topic issues I've noticed are

1. Indulgences

2. Martin Luther's Breakaway from the Church

3. World War II (supposedly Church cooperating with Nazis or being Silent about the Horrrific Injustices
that the Nazis Committed)

4. Accusations that the Church is Anti-Semitic (Gospel of John Supposedly Very Much Anti-Semitic)

5. Crusades

6. Pope Joan?

7. Church Being Very Misogonist

8. Spanish Inquisition

9. Conversion By the Sword (Charlemagne)

10. Treatment of Galileo

I'm also curious if anyone knows any solid books about what really happened during Vatican II and what it teaches, particularly regarding the celebration of the liturgy.

[Maria Faustina]

I think I remember my teacher saying that Triumph is a good Church History book. She's a Dominican, so she would know. She recommended it while we were writing Church History research papers. I don't know what topics it covers. I'm not sure who its by, but I know I have seen it in all of the Catholic boookstores I have been to, and even in Barnes and Noble. Sorry, this probably wasn't helpful at all.

In Christ,

Maria Faustina

[CatholicCid]

[quote name='Maria Faustina' post='1583510' date='Jun 25 2008, 11:57 PM']I think I remember my teacher saying that Triumph is a good Church History book. She's a Dominican, so she would know. She recommended it while we were writing Church History research papers. I don't know what topics it covers. I'm not sure who its by, but I know I have seen it in all of the Catholic boookstores I have been to, and even in Barnes and Noble. Sorry, this probably wasn't helpful at all.

In Christ,

Maria Faustina[/quote]

I'd recommend "Triumph" as well... I recieved it from a Priest/teacher and read through it... It's good, and covers a general history of the Church for it's entirity. You'll have to do more research on specific topics, but it's a good resource for a general idea on the history of the topic. Not very long, around 600 pages.
My only complaint was that it could be a little dry at times, but it's a history book, so that's expectable. Speaking of which, I lent mine to a friend who just moved away... I don't think I'll be getting it back

Edited June 26, 2008 by CatholicCid

[tinytherese]

Thanks for the suggestion. I go to a secular college and my history professor of western civilizations (who made it apparent that he was not Catholic and highly unlikely that he is Christian) said some stuff in class that troubled me.

Spiderman has his "spider-sense" but I have a "church-sense" that sometimes goes off. Instead of sensing upcoming danger I sense that "that doesn't sound right according to the Catholic Church." This professor is well-known for saying stuff in his classes about God that irritate Christians. I know one girl who dropped it because she couldn't take it anymore. I'd like to get my facts straight from a reliable source.

Edited June 26, 2008 by tinytherese

[CatholicCid]

Well, if you have any specific questions, you can always ask them here. That's what I generally tend to do.

You might also check your Newman Center to see if they have a lending library... Ours has an entire room full of books.

Edited June 27, 2008 by CatholicCid

[tinytherese]

I wish my school had a Newman Center.

[CatherineM]

A book you could try is "Dissent From The Creed: Heresies Past and Present," by Richard M. Hogan. It's published by Our Sunday Visitor's publishing company. It's really good at explaining the difference between heresy and schism, and is very thorough. It is written where you can quickly find something particular.

[tinytherese]

Thanks. I'll look into that.

[Brother Adam]

A Compact History of the Catholic Church by Dr. Alan Schreck
Church History by Father Laux

Are also two great books on Church History. Belloc also has wonderful short works on many of the topics that you mentioned. I'm not a big fan of Triumph because it is often a bit over the top and....triumphalistic. I definitely would not bring Triumph into an ecumenical discussion anymore than I would want a Baptist to bring Boettner into a ecumenical discussion with me.

[Chiquitunga]

Definitely anything by [url="http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Christopher%20Dawson&page=1"]Christopher Dawson[/url] ([url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=73696"]thread[/url] on him) or [url="http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Warren%20H.%20Carroll&page=1"]Warren H. Carroll[/url] (professor at Christendom) particularly his 5 volume set on the history of the Church

Also the Didache High School Textbook Series is supposed to be great. I'm a few years past high school, but I like books like this for their clarity (and pictures ) and there's one on the [url="http://www.amazon.com/History-Church-Didache-Peter-Armenio/dp/1890177466"]History of the Church[/url]. God bless!

Edited July 1, 2008 by Margaret Clare

[N/A Gone]

Triumph is good, but sensational.

The Belloc books are very good, I have them and I enjoyed them.

[goldenchild17]

Regarding Church History, anything by T.W. Allies is really good. For example, his [url="http://www.archive.org/details/formationofchris01alli"]Formation of Christendom[/url] series

Also[url="http://www.archive.org/details/generalhistory03darruoft"]
"A general history of the Catholic church : from the commencement of the Christian era until the present time" by Joseph Épiphane Darras [/url] is really good too, at least that's what I'm told from people I trust. I haven't had time to finish it yet.

search on archive.org for Allies and you should find quite a bit of good stuff from him.

also I'd second Bro Adams suggestion of Fr. Laux's Church History. Don't know if any of these books answer the questions you pose in particular, but they are the best that come to mind about Church history, ,and most anything by Belloc should be pretty decent. peace

Edited July 11, 2008 by goldenchild17

[fides quarens intellectum]

[quote name='CatholicCid' post='1583726' date='Jun 26 2008, 09:55 AM']My only complaint was that it could be a little dry at times, but it's a history book, so that's expectable.[/quote]

[Apotheoun]

"A History of the Church," by Monsignor Philip Hughes is a good book.

For an Eastern Christian perspective on Church history almost any book written by John Meyendorff, Andrew Louth, or Aristeides Papadakis is worth reading.

[Brother Adam]

If you want to go more scholarly and comprehensive Jaroslav Pelikan's 5 volume The Christian Tradition is truly excellent. He is Orthodox, but his writing is none the less above par and he is used by most apologists and lay educators.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Brother Adam' post='1598269' date='Jul 11 2008, 07:03 PM']If you want to go more scholarly and comprehensive Jaroslav Pelikan's 5 volume The Christian Tradition is truly excellent. He is Orthodox, but his writing is none the less above par and he is used by most apologists and lay educators.[/quote]
He was a Lutheran when he wrote that, but he did convert to Eastern Orthodoxy in 1998.

[Apotheoun]

Monsignor Hughes also has a good multivolume work on the Reformation in England.