Trent and All That: Renaming Catholicism in the Early Modern Era

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Review “There is no other comparable book or even article that deals with the same material in such a full and historically accurate way. O'Malley is the first to put a vast amount of scholarship together in a clear, cogent, and authoritative fashion. He has the kind of profound knowledge and understanding of historiography that comes only after years of study. Given the scope of the book, it should be most useful for courses not only on the Reformation, but on early modern Europe in general. His conclusion is a major contribution to the debate about terminology, and it opens a different way of conceiving of the whole history of Catholicism between the Reformation and the French Revolution.”―Elisabeth G. Gleason, Professor of History Emerita, University of San Francisco“In this important study, O'Malley does what his Jesuit forebears so often did--he engages in creative dialogue with approaches which, though imperfect, are likely to stay around.”―Alison Shell, Times Literary Supplement“[This book is] a remarkably thorough overview of how historians have sought to make sense of the way the Catholic Church responded to one of the most complex periods of her history...O'Malley brings together a vast amount of scholarship to show how the Church reacted not simply to the Protestant Reformation, but also to the other new challenges she faced in an age that witnessed both the rise of the nation state and the creation of vast imperial structures that by way of conquest carried the message of Christianity throughout the world.”―David J. Levy, Catholic Herald“Trent and All That is punchy, concise, entertaining, and lucid. In fact, these five short chapters constitute the single best overview of scholarship on Catholicism in early modern Europe during the past fifty years. There is frankly nothing of the kind in English. I imagine this will be a most welcome guide.”―Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, Professor of History, New York University“This is a unique book focusing on an interesting issue. Roman Catholicism in the early modern age has been designated by a variety of names: Counter-Reformation, Catholic Reformation, the Baroque Age, the Tridentine Age, and the Confessional Age. Why? What contexts and presuppositions in the last two centuries have led to this multiplicity? O'Malley is a leading authority and provides here the most significant and well-documented overview of this issue and its scholarship…In the end, O'Malley proposes his own candidate for the best name for the period. Yet, this is not his primary goal alone. He wants to show 'the Catholic side' with new eyes so that the complexities of the period, frequently missed, will become apparent…O'Malley's fine study opens new paradigms and persuasively promotes a fresh way of understanding this period of Roman Catholic history.”―Donald K. McKim, The Sixteenth Century Journal Read more About the Author John W. O’Malley is University Professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University and the author of many books, including Four Cultures of the West, Trent, Vatican I, What Happened at Vatican II, and The First Jesuits (all from Harvard); The First Jesuits has been translated into twelve languages. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society, and a recipient of the Harvard Centennial Medal as well as Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Society for Italian Historical Studies, the Renaissance Society of America, and the American Catholic Historical Association. O’Malley is a member of the Society of Jesus and a Roman Catholic priest. Read more