Product Description

Drawing on his years of experience as a Catholic writer, Philip Trower offers a long view of how the Catholic Church arrived in its present modern crisis. Whereas many analyses take the Second Vatican Council as their starting point, Trower turns his gaze back towards the previous centuries, searching out the roots of modern conflicts over authority within the Church, the nature of Scripture, the relationship with the secular world, and more.

His central thesis is that the positive movement for reform, and the negative movements of rebellion against the Church’s authority, grew up intertwined in the years preceding Vatican II, and that it was only in the period following the Council that the division between the two became clearer. His analysis introduces a host of persons and movements whose legacies endure.

Philip Trower’s accessible style of writing and his attention to detail offer the reader a clear understanding of where the Church has come from in its recent past. Turmoil and Truth is essential reading for all who wish to understand the present and future direction of the Catholic Church.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #570193 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 210 pages

From the Publisher
Philip Trower is a British writer and journalist who covered five episcopal synods in Rome from 1980 to 1990. He is also the author of the novel, A Danger to the State, about the 19th century suppression of the Jesuits.

Customer Reviews

Enlightening!
Very enlightening! This book was written with compassion and understantding. It helped to give me perspective. Also, now I think I understand better what is going on in the Catholic Church that I embraced five years ago. In order for me to convert to the Catholic Church from devout Protestantism I had to come to a realization of the necessity of submission to the authority of the Church and the successor of St. Peter. Once I was convinced intellectually of this authority, I was dismayed to find so many Catholics in open rebellion against it. I didn't get it. Philip Trower's book has helped me get a perspective on the turmoil in the Church I love and respect.

Insightful Summary
The author does an admirable job of summarizing the cultural and theological divisions that reached the boiling point at Vatican II, and how these divisions continue to distort and confuse the meaning of the Council. Going back to the 19th century, he shows how various theologians, in response to and/or sympathy with the secular tide, began to challenge Church structures and advocate all sorts of novel, and often heretical, theological positions. Some were motivated by a sense of social justice in the here and now, stressing the Church's earthly mission almost to the exclusion of its eternal one. Others, believing democracy to be the only just form of government, sought freedom from the authority of Rome. Still others, affected by rationalist study of the Bible ("higher criticism"), began to see the Bible as something less than divine or outright folklore.

The cumulative effects of all this, according to Trower, were a devaluation of Christianity to a natural, as opposed to revealed, religion; overactivity in politics on the part of clerics; and a growing unease with (the now decidedly counter-cultural) Catholic moral teachings.

By Vatican II, many Church thinkers and leaders were in open revolt against Church dogma. The flock, having been exposed to contradictory teachings for decades, were by then confused and insecure in their faith--a condition which continues to afflict the Church throughout the West. (I think one of his most interesting points is how important it is now, and always has been in the Church, for bishops to be strong, orthodox and united in their teaching. Without that, parishioners can hardly remain strong, orthodox and united.)

In only 200 pages, Trower ties together all these developments, giving us with a fairly clear picture of how and why Catholic unity eroded. Not only that, he makes a strong, persuasive, and insightful argument for orthodoxy and unity: he not only helps us understand the past, but what to do now.

This book confirms one's suspicions
In Turmoil & Truth Philip Trower gives a nice succinct description of what has shaped Roman Catholicism in the early 21st century. Trower vividly describes how some Catholic thinking is routed in Kantian philosophy and that the chaos we see today started long before Vatican II. The names of the usual suspects appear throughout the book Tyrrell, deChardin, Kung, etc. I appreciated how the author pointed out that so-called "progressive" Catholic thinking developed along the same lines as that of its older Protestant brother "higher criticism." It just tagged along, like an unwanted younger sibling. In other words, Liberal Catholicism is just a new wedding band playing the same old tunes. If you want a book that describes the history of the confused state of current Catholic practice, this is the one. But, it also holds out hope because it shows that the future of the Church is a bright one, as the "progressives" have not abandoned their 19th century roots. It is those faithful who, building upon Vatican II, that are the Church not of the world, or even against it, but in the world.