The Future Of The Catholic Church With Pope Francis

The New York Times bestselling historian takes on a pressing question in modern religion—will Pope Francis embrace change? Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, offers a challenge to his church. Can he bring about significant change? Should he? Garry Wills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, argues provocatively that, in fact, the history of the church throughout is a history of change. In this brilliant and incisive study, Wills describes the deep and serious changes that have taken place in the church or are in the process of occurring. These include the change from Latin, the growth and withering of the ecclesiastical monarchy, the abandonment of biblical literalism, the assertion and nonassertion of infallibility, and the erosion of church patriarchy. In such developments we see the living church adapting itself to the new historical circumstances. As Wills contends, it is only by examining the history of the church that we can understand Pope Francis's and the church's challenges.

A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs in a book that is “must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of the West and the future of global Christianity” (Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option). Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In his “concise, rhetorically agile…adroit, perceptive, gripping account (The New York Times Book Review), Ross Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies. “A balanced look at the struggle for the future of Catholicism…To Change the Church is a fascinating look at the church under Pope Francis” (Kirkus Reviews). Engaging and provocative, this is “a pot-boiler of a history that examines a growing ecclesial crisis” (Washington Independent Review of Books).

A study of the most important document from Pope Francis to date exploring key components of his agenda for the church.

"A historical analysis of the ways in which Francis's papacy is unusual and thus open to greater possibilities than many of his predecessors"--

Prizewinning historian Garry Wills argues that changes have been the evidence of life in the Catholic Church. It has often changed, sometimes with unwanted consequences, more often with good. In this brilliant and incisive study, he gives seven examples of deep and serious change that have taken place (or is taking place) within the last century. As Wills contends, it is only by examining the history of the Church that we can understand Pope Francis's and the Church's challenges.

The New York Times bestselling historian takes on a pressing question in modern religion?will Pope Francis embrace change? Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, offers a challenge to his church. Can he bring about significant change? Should he? Garry Wills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, argues provocatively that, in fact, the history of the church throughout is a history of change. In this brilliant and incisive study, Wills describes the deep and serious changes that have taken place in the church or are in the process of occurring. These include the change from Latin, the growth and withering of the ecclesiastical monarchy, the abandonment of biblical literalism, the assertion and nonassertion of infallibility, and the erosion of church patriarchy. In such developments we see the living church adapting itself to the new historical circumstances. As Wills contends, it is only by examining the history of the church that we can understand Pope Francis's and the church's challenges. From the Hardcover edition.

"Two veteran Catholic journalists, one based at the Vatican and the other in the U.S., collaborate to explore the unprecedented papal election of Pope Francis ... [drawn] from conversations, interviews, inside information and the Pope's own writings and talks"--Page 4 of cover.

Pope Francis has thoroughly re-engaged the Catholic Church with the modern world, by tackling the difficult and urgent questions that we face as a civilization, in order to illuminate the path to change. French sociologist Dominique Wolton interviewed Pope Francis regularly over the course of a year, and their open, warm dialogue builds a detailed picture of how Pope Francis became the most popular leader the Catholic Church has ever seen. The Pope’s clarity, humility and humanity are brought to the fore by Dominique Wolton’s engaging and relevant questions. As well as revealing fascinating insights into his early life, Pope Francis freely addresses the major issues of our time: peace and war, politics and religion, globalization and cultural diversity, fundamentalism and secularism, Europe and migrants, ecology, family, time, trust and joy.