The Church Through the Ages

The Catholic Church Through the Ages was written by John Vidmar, OP and was published by the Paulist Press in 2005. This book was assigned for the ILM course titled History of the Church, although I'll admit I didn't complete this reading assignment. It's not that I found the book uninteresting; it's that the class only lasted two days and it just moved too quickly. "Church history is the record of the Christian family and is one of the most vital (and interesting) subjects we can study. Our Church, as the German theologian Walter Kasper tells us, is no more than Christianity taking on flesh and blood."

The back cover says; "Renowned Catholic historian Christopher Dawson divided the history of the Catholic Church into six "ages" or 350-400 year periods that each began with great vitality and ended in decline and loss. In The Catholic Church Through the Ages Father John Vidmar surveys the history of the church, from its beginnings up to Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate. He writes with enthusiasm and a down to earth quality born of years of teaching. Each chapter ends with an annotated list of readings and audio-visuals, and even includes historical novels to help convey a feeling for an age."

Father John Vidmar was ordained a Dominican priest in 1980 and earned a doctorate in theology from the University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) Rome, in 1991. He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels and lectured extensively on church history for the Smithsonian Institution. The author of English Catholic Historians and the English Reformation and a bicentennial history of his Dominican province, he is currently archivist for the Dominican Province of St. Joseph and associate professor of theology of Providence College, Rhode Island.