Turmoil & Truth: The Historical Roots of the Modern Crisis in the Catholic Church

Rating:
Summary: This book confirms one's suspicions
Review: In Turmoil & Truth Philip Trower gives a nice succinct description of what has shaped Roman Catholicism in the early 21st century. Trower vividly describes how some Catholic thinking is routed in Kantian philosophy and that the chaos we see today started long before Vatican II. The names of the usual suspects appear throughout the book Tyrrell, deChardin, Kung, etc. I appreciated how the author pointed out that so-called "progressive" Catholic thinking developed along the same lines as that of its older Protestant brother "higher criticism." It just tagged along, like an unwanted younger sibling. In other words, Liberal Catholicism is just a new wedding band playing the same old tunes. If you want a book that describes the history of the confused state of current Catholic practice, this is the one. But, it also holds out hope because it shows that the future of the Church is a bright one, as the "progressives" have not abandoned their 19th century roots. It is those faithful who, building upon Vatican II, that are the Church not of the world, or even against it, but in the world.

Rating:
Summary: This book confirms one's suspicions
Review: In Turmoil & Truth Philip Trower gives a nice succinct description of what has shaped Roman Catholicism in the early 21st century. Trower vividly describes how some Catholic thinking is routed in Kantian philosophy and that the chaos we see today started long before Vatican II. The names of the usual suspects appear throughout the book Tyrrell, deChardin, Kung, etc. I appreciated how the author pointed out that so-called "progressive" Catholic thinking developed along the same lines as that of its older Protestant brother "higher criticism." It just tagged along, like an unwanted younger sibling. In other words, Liberal Catholicism is just a new wedding band playing the same old tunes. If you want a book that describes the history of the confused state of current Catholic practice, this is the one. But, it also holds out hope because it shows that the future of the Church is a bright one, as the "progressives" have not abandoned their 19th century roots. It is those faithful who, building upon Vatican II, that are the Church not of the world, or even against it, but in the world.

Rating:
Summary: A Unique and Helpful Study
Review: Philip Trower has studied the 19th and 20th-century efforts of the Catholic Church and her intellectuals to deal with the challenges of advancing secularism and its impact on Christians. In doing so, he has sought to explain the crisis of faith which emerged in the Church after Vatican II, and which has not yet been resolved.

Trower's approach transcends the usual conservative and progressive viewpoints and their oversimplifications. His book manifests the fruit of very wide reading. So far as I can judge, he is a careful and sound scholar--a journalist who does a better job of reporting and interpreting Church history than most theologians and historians have been doing.

To get the most out of this work, readers will need to be familiar with the documents of Vatican II.

Potential readers also should know that, although Trower's work is useful, it is limited. He does not begin to consider the deeper roots of the present crisis, which extend back to the middle ages--for instance, the persisting influence of neo-Platonism, pervasive clericalism, and the ongoing involvement of popes and bishops in this-worldly, especially political, affairs. Nor does he discuss the widely recognized problems with the functioning of the supreme authority of the Catholic Church, namely, the disfunctional Roman curia and the need, acknowledged by Pope John Paul II himself, to develop a new and better way of exercising the papal office.

Rating:
Summary: A scholarly and thoroughly researched presentation
Review: Turmoil & Truth: The Historical Roots Of The Modern Crisis In The Catholic Church is a meticulous analysis by Philip Trower of the diverse woes besetting Catholic Church today and the roots of this modern church turmoil. Delving for answers into the previous centuries, and introducing the reader to critical historical events which caused ripples far outside their era, Turmoil & Truth is a scholarly and thoroughly researched presentation seeking to understand the origin of corrosive divisiveness found within the Roman Catholic Church today in America, Europe, and Australia.

Rating:
Summary: A scholarly and thoroughly researched presentation
Review: Turmoil & Truth: The Historical Roots Of The Modern Crisis In The Catholic Church is a meticulous analysis by Philip Trower of the diverse woes besetting Catholic Church today and the roots of this modern church turmoil. Delving for answers into the previous centuries, and introducing the reader to critical historical events which caused ripples far outside their era, Turmoil & Truth is a scholarly and thoroughly researched presentation seeking to understand the origin of corrosive divisiveness found within the Roman Catholic Church today in America, Europe, and Australia.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening!
Review: Very enlightening! This book was written with compassion and understantding. It helped to give me perspective. Also, now I think I understand better what is going on in the Catholic Church that I embraced five years ago. In order for me to convert to the Catholic Church from devout Protestantism I had to come to a realization of the necessity of submission to the authority of the Church and the successor of St. Peter. Once I was convinced intellectually of this authority, I was dismayed to find so many Catholics in open rebellion against it. I didn't get it. Philip Trower's book has helped me get a perspective on the turmoil in the Church I love and respect.