The Church at the Turning Points of History

Having survived 2,000 years of attacks, emperors, kings, traditions and philosophies, and heresies and schisms, the Catholic church and its place in history are the focus of this compelling chronicle. This miracle of constant regeneration, the book explains, is both the mystery of the church for nonbelievers and the confirmation of the truth for Catholics. Concise, erudite, and intelligent, the analysis provides a firm grasp and understanding of this longstanding religion's complex history.

About the Author :
Professor Kurth was a leading Belgian Catholic historian of the second half of the nineteenth century. Indeed his renown was such that the prestigious Catholic Encyclopedia featured more than a dozen contributions from him on a range of subjects within his professional expertise. He completed his education at l'Ecole normale des Humanités de Liège (1868) and thereafter served as Professor of French at l'Athénée de Liège (1869-1872). Eventually he succeeded Adolphe Borgnet at the Chair of Medieval History and the History of Belgium at the State University of Liege (1872-1906), during which time (1873) he received his special doctorate in historical sciences. He was the Secretary of the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome (1906-1916). He was a member of the Academy of the Catholic Religion in Rome; a member of the Royal Society of Literature in London; a member of the Dutch Literary Society in Leyden; a member of the Madrid Historical Academy; he was the President of the Board of Administration of the Royal Library. These are only a few of his many titles. He was also a Commander of the Order of Leopold and a Knight of the Order of Pius IX. He was the author of some 20 books, many of them multi-volume, and a number of which ran to five and more editions. Dr. Patrick Foley is a well-known Catholic historian, with numerous publications and other scholarly activities. He is editor emeritus of Catholic Southwest: A Journal of History and Culture; serves on the editorial board of Boletin, journal of the California Mission Studies Association; and is consulting editor for the Catholic Social Science Review. Among his approximately 140 publications are three books on Catholic history, forty-four contributions to books; forty-five articles; and almost fifty book reviews. He wrote the official essay on the history of the Church in Texas, which was sent to Pope John Paul II for his study in preparing for his 1987 pastoral visit to Texas; he was awarded a papal medallion for the effort. Among his many other awards, Dr. Foley, on 20 April 2006, received the Texas Historical Foundation's Journalistic Achievement Award of Merit for Excellence in Print Media. He was named a Fellow of the Texas Catholic Historical Society in 1990; a Fellow of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University in 1997; and in 1995 he received the Texas Catholic Historical Society's distinguished Carlos Eduardo Castaneda Award. Currently retired as Professor Emeritus from Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, he is an adjunct professor of Columbia College of Missouri, where he teaches, among other subjects, the senior level History of Christianity courses. In the past Dr. Foley has served on the faculties of the University of San Francisco; Chaminade University of Hawaii; the College of Notre Dame, Belmont, California; the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico; the College of Saint Thomas More in Fort Worth; and the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Foley earned his B.A. in history from Chico State College in California, his M.A. in history from Santa Clara University, and his Ph.D. in history from the University of New Mexico.

Review :
Kurth writes not from the crimped secular perspective so typical of modern historians, but instead looks for the eternal and the transcendent. -James Bruen, Culture Wars