Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church, a 2000-Year History [Hardcover]

 

 

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I am not going to get into much of full blown scholarly review of this book here, there are other excellent reviews which have already done so. The point of my posting my review is simply to quickly provide a potential reader with my evaluation of this book. This book is really nothing more than one long emotional diatribe, usually against Protestantism. The author's main thesis is something along this line, "if it's Catholic than it's good, and anything else is horrible". The book is highly emotional, and is full of ad hominem attacks against Protestantism. The author never cites primarry historical sources (meaning the actual writings from the time periods to which he is writing about), and instead he relies far too heavily on the works of Will Durant, as well as the work by William Manchester, whom ironically has been thoroughly refuted and whose book does not even include footnotes. Crocker also has an understanding that there existed during the middle-ages and dark ages a seperation between church and state, a view which is simply laughable and a is a gross misunderstanding of church history and the history of western civilization. What Crocker does not like is that instead of a union of church and state with the Roman Church as the highest political authority (as it was during the middle-ages), and that after the Reformation the church became subject to the state, in which case there still existed a union of church and state. The only people during the time of the Reformation who did not believe in the union of church and state was the anabaptist movement, not the Roman Catholic Church. The first government to truly impliment this anabaptist concept was the United States, and it should ironically be noted that the Roman Catholic Church had little involvment is the establishment of the United States which was brought about by "barabarian" Protestants. This does not mean that there were no individual catholics who did not greatly participate in the establishment of this country, there certainly were, but the institution of the Roman Catholic Church was no where to be found in it's involvement (just a little something that fans of this book should take notice of). Crocker simply is not a historian and he he does not understand the rules of historical inquiry, this is book written by someone who has recently converted to a religion and currently possesses a glowing enthusiasim for his faith, but the drawback is that his enthusiasim has simply blinded him to some of the problems that his church has caused throughout history. It should also be noted that no denomiation has a spotless past, either Roman Catholic or Protestant. If someone wants to read a good work on Church history than I suggest the two volume work by Justo Gonzales entitled "The Story Christianity".

I purchased "Triumph" believing it to be a serious, sympathetic history of the Roman Catholic Church. I regret to inform prospective readers I have been disappointed in every respect. I found virtually no factual material here that is not easier to find in other popular and more informative sources. Indeed, there is little evidence from either the infrequent citations or the bibliography that author H. W. Crocker consulted any but popular works like Paul Johnson's "A History of Christianity" and unreliable secondary sources like Russell's "History of Western Philosophy". I would recommend that readers with little background in the history of the Catholic Church start with a work such as Johnson's, which contains far more actual history than "Triumph".

As a college philosophy professor, I find the scholarship and the argumentation in "Triumph" astonishingly poor. As one born and raised Roman Catholic, I am deeply offended by Crocker's relentlessly insulting tone towards Protestants, past and present.
In support of my negative opinion of the scholarship and argumentation, here is a small sample of the serious omissions, misrepresentations, outright factual errors and controversial claims asserted with no argument I have found in "Triumph": (1) Crocker misrepresents Pope John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor as a mere reaffirmation of Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae (p. 421), when in fact in Veritatis Splendor John Paul II engages several current movements in moral theology and defends the natural law tradition. (2) Crocker does not even mention Pope Pius XII's Divino Afflante Spiritu, which sparked more new work in Catholic theology than any other papal document of the 20th century. (3) Crocker devotes a single short paragraph to the achievements of the Second Vatican Council (pp. 414-415), neglecting to mention that this council began by ratifying the First Vatican Council (which had been interrupted by war) and that the conciliar documents declared Mary to be the Mother of the Church. (4) Descartes is labeled a secularist who "drove a spike between faith and reason (p. 311)", when in fact Descartes was a faithful Catholic who explicitly stated that his Meditations would provide an irrefutable defense of core Roman Catholic doctrines., (5) William of Ockham is described as one who believes that "only tangible objects are real. (p. 199)"., when Ockham undeniably believed that God and angels are real and intangible. (6) Crocker says nothing regarding St. Thomas Aquinas' monumental intellectual contributions to the Church, save to assert that they are monumental (pp. 167-168). (7) While he rightly observes that Spain was Europe's safest country from the years 1551-1600, Crocker claims the Spanish Inquisition was the cause of this relative safety (pp. 228-229 - Was Germany the safest country in Europe from 1938-1942 because of the Gestapo?)., (8) Crocker asserts that Rousseau was "quite obviously insane (p. 339 - If this is true, how did Rousseau live such an amazingly productive life?).", (9) Crocker asserts that the documents of Vatican II were "hijacked by invokers of the "spirit" of Vatican II to enact sweeping "reform" that the documents themselves did not necessarily call for (p. 415 - How do the changes in the mass Crocker lists as examples here count as the results of "hijacking" when the pope and bishops approved of and even required these changes?)

Incidentally, Crocker has a habit of dropping the names of intellectual giants such as Anselm, Aquinas, Ockham, Descartes, Hobbes and Rousseau without saying anything of substance about them. Presumably the reader is supposed to figure out for herself why these people were important figures in the history of the Catholic Church. (They were, and one can learn about them by consulting Father Frederick Copleston's "History of Philosophy", a central work missing from Crocker's mediocre bibliography.)

Crocker's misrepresentations of Protestants and Protestantism are too numerous to even begin to describe in a short revue. But it may help prospective readers to know that without exception, Protestants are portrayed here either as mentally unbalanced, evil, or both.

In short, I found the main body of "Triumph" glaringly inaccurate and incomplete, and written more like a lengthy, petulant tabloid editorial than a serious work of history. (Crocker can expect far more critical reviews than mine from professional historians.) But I am particularly disappointed by Crocker's short Epilogue, titled "A Few Good Men (pp. 425-427)". Here Crocker takes a final opportunity to sneer at Protestantism, and expresses hope that the Catholic Church will be reinvigorated by "a few good men --- or many good men" who will join the ranks of the Catholic priesthood. I take offense at Crocker's insinuation that the Catholic priesthood is not already filled with many good men. Beyond this, Crocker simply ignores the contributions that other religious and lay people might make towards renewal in the Church. The Church needs many good women just as much as it needs many good men, even if Crocker won't acknowledge it.

After being force-fed books by ostensibly Catholic authors all through my ostensibly Catholic education that savaged the Church's history and traditions, it was indeed a welcome change to read this excellent history by Mr. Crocker. It would not be a stretch to call this a two-fisted history, written with flair and retaining an engaging wit throughout. Mr. Crocker obviously knows his stuff and staunchly defends episodes in Church history which are commonly mischaracterized and used as points of attack by the enemies of the Church. He even defends the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the men of the Fourth Crusade!

Perhaps the greatest strength of the book is that the author is not afraid to go after Luther, Calvin and the "reformers" with hammer and tongs. For a Catholic brought up in the "eccumenical" days of the 1970s & 80s, this section contained a great deal of information that I had never heard before--and was very amusing to boot. Who knew that Luther was so obsessed with bodily functions?

All in all, I heartily reccomend this book. It's a good antidote to the anti-Catholic "conventional wisdom" that exists in society today, and is an incredibly fast and enjoyable read.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Could be subtitled: "The Apostles Screed"
It's hard to decide how to view this book. It starts out well enough, as a lively, engaging and thought provoking discussion about the Church. Read more

Published on Jan 21 2004 by R. Rasmussen

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit too much assumption
This book is very colorful and easy to read for an historical text. I am enjoying it, but I have a few problems with how the author is presenting some of the material. Read more

Published on Dec 30 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars History with Passion
In a time when so many Catholics write with a guilt-laden conscious it is indeed refreshing to read a history of the Church that is not full of self-remorse. Mr. Read more

Published on Dec 17 2003 by D. M. Childs

5.0 out of 5 stars A Popular History of the Church...
If you've read a high school history text book, you know only part of the story of the Catholic Church. Read more

Published on Dec 9 2003 by bill_the_great

5.0 out of 5 stars Impossible to read this and stay Protestant
This book proves what every person who has studied both history and theology has learned - that any prayerful and open-minded study of the history of Christ's Church, in concert... Read more

Published on Oct 11 2003 by Jason M. Asbell

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and for most people, good to read
I didn't give the book 5 stars because it lacks a more removed and scholarly look at the history of the Catholic Church. Read more

Published on Aug 8 2003 by Marcel LeJeune

5.0 out of 5 stars A Treatise on Church History
H.W.Crocker has done an indepth and scholarly review of Christianity. He begins with Christ himself and Pentecost, the start of the Church. Read more

Published on July 15 2003 by robert mcdonald

5.0 out of 5 stars Napoleon, read this book! . . . (if circumstances allow)
Critical reviews of this book rightly point out that it's not a dry, exhaustive analysis of all issues related to the Catholic Church over 2000 years. Read more

Published on Jun 23 2003 by zenoofelia

5.0 out of 5 stars History without being "retouched".
The history of the Church is the history of western civilization - in spite of what revisionist "historians" may say. Read more

Published on Jun 6 2003 by Mac D. Culver

4.0 out of 5 stars A Protestant even likes it.
Even though I'm a Protestant, I loved the book for the first century and a half of Church History. The treatment of the Reformation is quite disappointing but enlightening to a... Read more

Published on Jun 4 2003 by Jared J. Nelson

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