The Bokenkotter book is not bad overall, but it
does have some serious issues. From page 432 of the Revised edition:
“Of course there is another possibility – that the authorities themselves will take the initiative and end the shortage by doing away with the requirement of celibacy and ordaining women.”
Um, no, that is
not a possibility (well, eliminating the celibacy requirement is a possibility, but ordaining women is not). There are several other quotes in the book that speak of the deep “anti-female prejudice in the Church” (p. 466). At least Bokenkotter doesn’t hide his biases.
I would recommend
Church History by Fr. John Laux as a better alternative, though Laux’s book only goes up through about 1944.
If you’re looking for short, sweet, and to-the-point, then you can’t do better than Dr. Schreck’s
The Compact History of the Catholic Church (as someone already suggested).
If you’re looking for a very readable, somewhat humorous account of Church History, H. W. Crocker’s
Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church is excellent.
If you’re looking for a super swanky, full color church history book with maps and pictures galore, you can’t do better than
The History of the Church textbook that is part of the original Didache Series. This title may be going out of print soon as the publisher (
Midwest Theological Forum) is now producing a Didache Semester Series, which will include a
Semester edition of this church history textbook due out in early 2010.
There’s plenty of other good stuff, but these are always my top recommendations.
Hi,