Timeless: A History of the Catholic Church

An excellent compilation with great footnotes and references.The author’s subjectivity makes it more believable somewhat without catholic bias, of which we are all guilty.Well done! Now to get my children to read it.

Steve Weidenkopf's book contains an overview of the entirety of Church history. He begins by examining the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the apostles' subsequently spreading this Good News to various parts of the world. Then, he gives an overview of early Church history including persecution until the time of Constantine, subsequent clashes with emperors, theological issues, and teachings of the Church Fathers. Then, he explores the Church's role in European society in the Middle Ages, including teachings of prominent theologians and the building of Cathedrals. Further, he examines the effects of the Protestant Revolution upon the Church, as well as issues such as the Galileo trials. Lastly, he explores the role of the Church in the modern world, including Vatican II, the Church's response to modern heresies, and the role of recent popes on the life of the Church.I enjoyed reading this book because it is easy to understand and reads like a narrative. Although there isn't enough room in this book to cover each aspect of Church history in great detail, Weidenkopf still does an excellent job giving a fair and balanced overview of each topic that he covers. I would therefore recommend this book for anyone starting to learn about the history of the Catholic Church.

A nice and interesting overview of Church history without getting lost in detail. A good starting point to uncover the topics I want to dive deeper into.

A must read about the history of the church from the perspective of its primary movers and shakers. It helped me understand the motivation behind many important events and I’m happy it didn’t go off on tangents that are not relevant to the church’s goals at the time. Events don’t always go as planned, but it is refreshing to hear about the good intentions of many past church leaders. Every Christian should find this compact history worthwhile as a means for understanding the basic tenants of Christ’s church.

This is a great read. I must admit I am so glad I did not notice in the product details that lists the pages of this book 256 pages. My copy is 538 pages. I would not have purchased a book of 256 pages. This will be a great read again at some point if the good Lord wills it. Learned a ton of facts that I did not know, especially about the Crusades, heresies and more. Thanks to the author.

Easy read for the Catholic and non-Catholic alike. I’m a cradle Catholic and love chronology, as it helps me understand and see things in perspective. I have just started the book and will do a full review once I’m done. I was too eager to start reading and had to comment.

Beggining St Peter to Pope Francis, a very detailed, and documented history book. Lots to learn on the Church, world history and the important influence of the church in the evolution of our world history.

As a student of Biblical and Church History, this book was interesting to read. As a Protestant, it is important for me to read and listen to those who criticize my own faith tradition.At the outset, the Biblical grounds cited by the author for Petrine Primacy are highly suspect at best. To describe Paul’s encounter with Peter at Antioch and described in Galatians as a “fraternal” disagreement embellished by Protestants is not only questionable, but really betrays the skew and bias of the entire book throughout when the author gives Rome and the Pope pass after pass even while claiming to be self-critical.This is also true of the Jerusalem Counsel in Acts 15 as well as Peter’s profession about Christ in Matthew 16. I was even more convinced after reading this book that the establishment and evolution of Petrine primacy in the Roman Catholic Church is an unbiblical development conveniently emerging over the years in Church history and without warrant from Scripture itself.It is like a quilted approach of the book’s whole cloth narrative patching stories together as it progresses from one historical moment (and Pope) to another. The author proffers criticisms of Roman Catholicism, which become occasions for excuse making, blame shifting, and light criticism while the heavy criticism is saved for opponents, so even the criticisms seem to become back-handed complements as they unfold.The development of early church fathers was fascinating to read despite selective self-serving narratives. And there were certainly great stories as well.The analysis of the Protestant Reformation (“revolution” according the author) and the “Reformation” at the Council of Trent (which couldn’t be a “counter-Reformation” because the “Protestant Reformation” wasn’t a “Reformation” but a “Revolution”)—as well as the leaders of the Protestant Reformation—was poorly done in my estimation. This is an area I’ve studied for decades. The response from the Counsel of Trent seemed thin and a poor response to Luther, Calvin, and the reformers.In sum, it seems to me that the historical pursuit of assurance of salvation—or I should say the absence of assurance except through the Roman Catholic church— and the rejection of justification by faith alone is a most tragic biblical error from the beginning of Catholicism (Biblically speaking and not merely starting with Luther) and ultimately leads to all sorts errors and attempts by Christians who long for assurance of salvation, and end up leading generations of people into wearing all sorts of hair shirts in various attempts to earn God’s approval and the Popes acceptance.After reading this history, I am more convinced than before that justification by faith alone is the hinge on which the church stands or falls.

I wanted to read about the history of the Catholic church from the point of view of Catholicism instead of from the point of view of the proliferation of protestant writers who damn it according to the history of Elizabeth I. I am really really loving reading this book. It confirms that Catholicism is deeply rooted in history rather than simply a religion. I feel so passionate about where Catholicism has come from and how it's been persecuted over the last 2,000 years.