Guest hitoallusa Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 This book was on the NY Times best seller list a couple of months ago; I bought it because the title caught my attention at a book store I frequent. To my amusement, Absolute Monarchs was not the original title by the author, it was edited in by the publisher to make the book look more interesting. Well they got me It starts with St. Peter and all the way to the current pope, Benedict XVI. It is indeed "a" history of the papacy that I enjoyed reading and I was able to brush my knowledge of european history along the way; though you need a reference or history book since the book itself doesn't cover things in detail and sometimes the author fail to elaborate on some historical events. Sometimes some theological terms are over simplified and in other cases, Norwich suddenly introduce one religious vocabulary without explaining anything about it. Thus, you need a good history book with you if you really want to understand what he is trying to say. There are a couple of wrong statements that you can detect if you read carefully. I make mistakes all the time so it didn't bother me at all and I had a reference book with me. I can't believe a leader like Charlemagne, though he was not a pope, existed at such a dire time and some open minded and progressive popes who even accepted using contraceptives really existed. Interesting thing was that good(?) popes were simply assassinated because they could't fight back against other greedy cardinals and bishops whose interests in the church was big. You have to play dirty to win (?) in that environment in my opinion; some were just too nice. On the other hand those who got power by killing others didn't end up well so I can't say that they won anything. I am no Catholic and don't wish to be one. But the book gave me more positive outlook about our future. The US needs a leader, a great leader who can guide the country through the current crisis. I hope there is one. But even though there isn't one, life will go on however painful it might be. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/books/review/book-review-absolute-monarchs-a-history-of-the-papacy-by-john-julius-norwich.html?pagewanted=all Quote
