Spectacular History – The Church and the Middle Ages {Review}

The Church and the Middle Ages by Steve Weidenkopf
Series: Reclaiming Catholic History
Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2020 (December 25))
eARC (192 pages)
Via: NetGalley
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Read 2020

Synopsis

Few periods of history are more maligned and misunderstood than the Middle Ages—three-hundred years of division, shifting centers of power, and tensions both within the Church and also between the Church and the secular rulers of the time.

In an engaging and easy-to-understand style, historian and author Steve Weidenkopf highlights some of our greatest saints—Francis, Dominic, Anselm, Aquinas, and Catherine of Siena—and dispels nine commonly accepted misconceptions about the era, which was an exciting period of enduring faith, reform, cultural achievement, as well as defeat and division.

With vibrant accounts of pivotal events and inspiring stories of the people who shaped the Church during the eleventh through fourteenth centuries, Steve Weidenkopf provides a clearer picture of an era where critics used events such as the Crusades and the relocation of the papacy to France to undermine the Church. The period also provided the hallmarks of Christian civilization—universities, cathedrals, castles, and various religious orders.

Weidenkopf also chronicles the development of Christian civilization in Europe and explores the contributions of St. Bruno, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Bridget of Sweden.

In The Church and the Middle Ages, you will learn that:

• Most Crusaders were motivated by piety and service, not greed.
• Heresy was both a church and civil issue and medieval inquisitors were focused on the eternal salvation of the accused.
• The Church preached against the mistreatment of Jews.
• Priestly celibacy was practiced long before the twelfth century.
• Serfs were never kept as slaves.

Books in the Reclaiming Catholic History series, edited by Mike Aquilina and written by leading authors and historians, bring Church history to life, debunking the myths one era at a time.

Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon

My Review

Wow. I enjoyed this book so much! I know I am one of those people who really likes Church History, so that is not surprising. However, this book is much more than just Church History.

Steven Weidenkopf posits that you cannot understand the Middle Ages without understanding the place of the Catholic Church. And this is exactly what he sets out to do in his writing. This book is brilliant.

If you have ever done any reading on the Middle Ages, you have likely come across some blatantly false things that are simply there to advance anti-Catholic propaganda. That is not something that you need to worry about with this book.

The Crusades were portrayed as they really happened, with all the messy details of shifting alliances and various cultures. They were not simply any one thing but a combination of very distinct historical circumstances working together.

One of the most important things I took away from this book is the premise that you cannot judge and interpret off the past by the standards of today. The past existed in a very concrete set of circumstances that need to be fully understood in order to actually understand how and why things happened the way they did.

This is supremely important as, in modern times, people have taken to interpreting the past through the lens of today which does not work. History exists in such concrete circumstances with political, social, religious, environmental, and interpersonal considerations. These all need to be evaluated in order to see a true picture of history.

Overall, I loved this book and the real presentation of history. Nothing is perfect in history and this book does not try to make the Catholic Church sound perfect. Rather, this book presents the messy details in all their truth and lets the reader see the connections between all the various facts we know about the Middle Ages.

Which historical time period would you most like to read about?

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for
review consideration. This in no way affects my opinion of the title
nor the content of this review.

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