#Books about Popes

[deadpresidents]

Saw your photo post of Pope Benedict XVI and wanted to know if you know any books about him to share?

You know, I've always had at least a passing interest in Papal history, but what really got me fascinated in the history of the institution and its leaders and traditions was when Pope John Paul II died in 2005. I couldn't stop watching coverage of his funeral and, especially, the Conclave because neither of those things had ever happened in my lifetime. I'm not even Catholic -- or religious! -- but there I was hooked by the combination of majesty and mystery with the whole deal.

Then-Cardinal Ratzinger was the leading figure of the funeral ceremonies for John Paul II prior to that Conclave and he went into the Conclave as the leading candidate among the Papabile, so it was not surprise when he was quickly elected and became Pope Benedict XVI. Because of all that, I ended up with a lot of books about Pope Benedict (long since surpassed by the library of Pope Francis books I now have), and even quite a few books written by Benedict XVI. Unless you're really into learning about his theological philosophy, I'd skip most of the books that Ratzinger/Benedict wrote. The exception would probably be Pope Benedict XVI's encyclicals: God Is Love (Deus Caritas Est), Saved In Hope (Spe Salvi), and Charity In Truth (Caritas in Veritate), which I do find interesting. Plus, the Ignatius Press of San Francisco publishes each of the encyclicals in gorgeous little volumes that are nice to collect. Benedict was also working on another encyclical when he resigned in 2013 -- The Light of Faith (Lumen Fidei) -- which was completed and released by Pope Francis, but credited as the work of "four hands" and considered the only encyclical co-written by two Popes.

However, when it comes to the Popes, I've always been more interested in the biographical than ecclesiastical, and there is no shortage of great biographies about Benedict XVI. Elio Guerriero's 2018 biography, Benedict XVI: His Life and Thought (BOOK | KINDLE) is excellent. But the very best books about Pope Benedict are those written by Peter Seewald, who basically ended up as Benedict's official biographer and had incredible access to the German Pope. Seewald's 2008 book, Benedict XVI: An Intimate Portrait, is a solid starting place and takes you about halfway through his pontificate. Benedict XVI: Last Testament: In His Own Words (BOOK | KINDLE) from 2017 is basically a book-length interview of Benedict by Seewald. But the definitive work about Ratzinger is the two-volume biography Seewald recently published -- Benedict XVI: A Life, Volume I: Youth in Nazi Germany to the Second Vatican Council, 1927-1965 (BOOK | KINDLE), published in 2020, and Benedict XVI: A Life, Volume II: Professor and Prefect to Pope and Pope Emeritus, 1966-the Present (BOOK | KINDLE), which was published in 2021.

Two other titles are worth mentioning just because they are written from unique points of view. My Brother, the Pope (BOOK | KINDLE) was written by Benedict XVI's older brother, Georg Ratzinger, who was also a Catholic priest and died in 2020 at the age of 96. And John Paul II: My Beloved Predecessor is obviously not necessarily a book about Benedict, but it was written by him and provides an interesting glimpse of the relationship between then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II. Oh...and I'd also suggest Anthony McCarten's The Two Popes: Francis, Benedict, and the Decision That Shook the World (BOOK | KINDLE), which was originally published as The Pope, and used as the basis for a great little movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, as Benedict XVI and Francis respectively.

It might seem like I mentioned every book about Benedict XVI, but I promise I narrowed it down to the best ones in my library. If you're just looking for a good, comprehensive biography, go with any of the books by Seewald.

#Pope Benedict XVI #Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI #Benedict XVI #Papacy #Popes #Papal History #Books about Popes #Death of Pope Benedict XVI #Funeral of Pope Benedict XVI #History #Catholic Church #Religion #Religious History #Religious Leaders #Peter Seewald #Biographies #Elio Guerriero #Anthony McCarten #Papal Encyclicals

[deadpopes]

If I’m interested in learning more about Pope John Paul II, do you have any good book recs? Love both of your blogs by the way!!

Thank you! I’m sorry that I didn’t see this question earlier; I always tend to overlook the papal blog because I’m so terrible at updating it.

There are tons of books about Pope John Paul II, so I’ll try to narrow the suggestions down to a handful:

•George Weigel’s two-volume biography of John Paul II is almost certainly the best-known and definitive studies of John Paul II’s life from Poland to the Vatican. The first volume, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (BOOK | KINDLE), was originally published in 1999 and tracks the Polish Pope from birth until the turn of the millennium.

The second volume of Weigel’s biography, The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II -- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (BOOK | KINDLE), was published in 2010 and devotes almost the entire first half of the book to an in-depth look at John Paul II’s lifelong crusade against Communism. The other half of the book focuses on the Pope’s final years as his health began to fail and as he seemingly used his very public physical deterioration as a lesson in suffering, humility, and strength until his death in April 2005.

In 2017, Weigel published another book -- Lessons In Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II (BOOK | KINDLE) -- which isn’t a traditional biography, but a much more personal book about Weigel’s journey as the Pope’s biographer and his relationship with John Paul II over the years. It’s unique compared to his formal biographies because it shows John Paul II from a different, more human perspective than that of the infallible “Keeper of the Keys to Heaven”.

Some of the other books that I’ll suggest are very good, but they can also feel incomplete because John Paul II’s papacy lasted so long that the authors were only able to capture certain parts of his reign.

•His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time (BOOK | Kindle not available) by Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi is one of those books that is solid but not a complete history of the Pope’s reign because it was published in 1996, nearly 10 years before John Paul II’s death. And, yes, the co-author is the Carl Bernstein of Washington Post/Watergate/All the President’s Men/Woodward & Bernstein fame.

•John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father (BOOK | Kindle not available) by former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan was published shortly after John Paul II’s death in 2005 and is excellent. Noonan’s book is also very personal to the author and paints a portrait of John Paul II that helps us understand what he meant to so many people. Noonan also helps explain the source of the Pope’s unique charisma and how he used his immense natural political gifts to reach his audiences. 

•The Pontiff In Winter: Triumph and Conflict in the Reign of John Paul II (BOOK | KINDLE) by John Cornwell is not the most flattering book about Pope John Paul II, but it is an important book to get a balanced understanding of his life and of the health of the Catholic Church towards the end of John Paul II’s papacy. Cornwell has long been one of the best connected Vatican journalists and this book is important because it questions how much blame should have or could have been placed on John Paul II for the scandals and corruption that simmered below the surface inside the Vatican throughout his reign.

•John Paul II: My Beloved Predecessor (BOOK | Kindle not available) is a short collection of writings and homilies by Pope Benedict XVI that he wrote about John Paul II over the years -- as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger while John Paul II was alive, and as Benedict XVI after succeeding John Paul II in 2005. There’s nothing earth-shattering in the book, but it’s an interesting look at one Pope directly from the pen of another Pope.

•The last recommendation isn’t a book about Pope John Paul II, but a book written by John Paul II: The Place Within: The Poetry of Pope John Paul II (BOOK | Kindle not available). This book of poetry written by John Paul II at various points throughout his long life is an incredibly unique window into the soul of a Pope. Some of the poems -- which are translated into English from John Paul II’s native language of Polish by Jerzy Peterkiewicz -- are quite good! Like I said, it’s not a biography of John Paul II, but in many ways reading his poetry can be just as revealing.

#Books #Book Suggestions #Book Recommendations #Popes #History #Pope John Paul II #John Paul II #Books about Popes #Papal History #Papacy #St. John Paul II #Pope St. John Paul II #George Weigel #Peggy Noonan #John Cornwell #Pope Benedict XVI #Joseph Ratzinger #Carl Bernstein #Marco Politi

[songpasserine]

We need a total response that comprehends and saves the entire horizon of the self and our existence. We possess within us a yearning for the infinite, an infinite sadness, a nostalgia – the nostos algos (home sickness) of Odysseus – which is satisfied only by an equally infinite response.

The human heart proves to be the sign of a Mystery, that is, of something or someone who is an infinite response. Outside the Mystery, the needs for happiness, love, and justice never meet a response that fully satisfies the human heart. Life would be an absurd desire if this response did not exist.

Not only does the human heart present itself as a sign, but so does all of reality. The sign is something concrete, it points in a direction, it indicates something that can be seen, that reveals a meaning, that can be experienced, but that refers to another reality that cannot be seen; otherwise, the sign would be meaningless.

On the other hand, to interrogate oneself in the face of these signs, one needs an extremely human capacity, the first one we have as men and women: wonder, the capacity to be amazed, as Giussani calls it, in the last analysis, a child’s heart. The beginning of every philosophy is wonder, and only wonder leads to knowledge…

If wonder opens me up as a question, the only response is the encounter, and only with the encounter is my thirst quenched. And with nothing else is it quenched more.

— Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis), 1998

#for anyone interested I will try to put the link to the whole speech in the responses! #this talk is about a beautiful book called the religious sense #by fr. luigi giussani #founder of the communion and liberation movement #catholicism #pope francis #communion and liberation

[the-busy-ghost]

Alright uninformed rant time. It kind of bugs me that, when studying the Middle Ages, specifically in western Europe, it doesn’t seem to be a pre-requisite that you have to take some kind of “Basics of Mediaeval Catholic Doctrine in Everyday Practise” class. 

Obviously you can’t cover everything- we don’t necessarily need to understand the ins and outs of obscure theological arguments (just as your average mediaeval churchgoer probably didn’t need to), or the inner workings of the Great Schism(s), nor how apparently simple theological disputes could be influenced by political and social factors, and of course the Official Line From The Vatican has changed over the centuries (which is why I’ve seen even modern Catholics getting mixed up about something that happened eight centuries ago). And naturally there are going to be misconceptions no matter how much you try to clarify things for people, and regional/class/temporal variations on how people’s actual everyday beliefs were influenced by the church’s rules. 

But it would help if historians studying the Middle Ages, especially western Christendom, were all given a broadly similar training in a) what the official doctrine was at various points on certain important issues and b) how this might translate to what the average layman believed. Because it feels like you’re supposed to pick that up as you go along and even where there are books on the subject they’re not always entirely reliable either (for example, people citing books about how things worked specifically in England to apply to the whole of Europe) and you can’t ask a book a question if you’re confused about any particular point. 

I mean I don’t expect to be spoonfed but somehow I don’t think that I’m supposed to accumulate a half-assed religious education from, say, a 15th century nobleman who was probably more interested in translating chivalric romances and rebelling against the Crown than religion; an angry 16th century Protestant; a 12th century nun from some forgotten valley in the Alps; some footnotes spread out over half a dozen modern political histories of Scotland; and an episode of ‘In Our Time’ from 2009. 

But equally if you’re not a specialist in church history or theology, I’m not sure that it’s necessary to probe the murky depths of every minor theological point ever, and once you’ve started where does it end? 

Anyway this entirely uninformed rant brought to you by my encounter with a sixteenth century bishop who was supposedly writing a completely orthodox book to re-evangelise his flock and tempt them away from Protestantism, but who described the baptismal rite in a way that sounds decidedly sketchy, if not heretical. And rather than being able to engage with the text properly and get what I needed from it, I was instead left sitting there like:

And frankly I didn’t have the time to go down the rabbit hole that would inevitably open up if I tried to find out

#This is a problem which is magnified in Britain I think as we also have to deal with the Hangover from Protestantism #As seen even in some folk who were raised Catholic but still imbibed certain ideas about the Middle Ages from culturally Protestant schools #And it isn't helped when we're hit with all these popular history tv documentaries #If I have to see one more person whose speciality is writing sensational paperbacks about Henry VIII's court #Being asked to explain for the British public What The Pope Thought I shall scream #Which is not even getting into some of England's super special common law get out clauses #Though having recently listened to some stuff in French I'm beginning to think misconceptions are not limited to Great Britain #Anyway I did take some realy interesting classes at uni on things like marriage and religious orders and so on #But it was definitely patchy and I definitely do not have a good handle on how it all basically hung together #As evidenced by the fact that I've probably made a tonne of mistakes in this post #Books aren't entirely helpful though because you can't ask them questions and sometimes the author is just plain wrong #I mean I will take book recommendations but they are not entirely helpful; and we also haven't all read the same stuff #So one person's idea of what the basics of being baptised involved are going to radically differ from another's based on what they read #Which if you are primarily a political historian interested in the Hundred Years' War doesn't seem important eonugh to quibble over #But it would help if everyone was given some kind of similar introductory training and then they could probe further if needed/wanted #So that one historian's elementary mistake about baptism doesn't affect generations of specialists in the Hundred Years' War #Because they have enough basic knowledge to know that they can just discount that tiny irrelevant bit #This is why seminars are important folks you get to ASK QUESTIONS AND FIGURE OUT BITS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND #And as I say there is a bit of a habit in this country of producing books about say religion in mediaeval England #And then you're expected to work out for yourself which bits you can extrapolate and assume were true outwith England #Or France or Scotland or wherever it may be though the English and the French are particularly bad for assuming #that whatever was true for them was obviously true for everyone else so why should they specify that they're only talking about France #Alright rant over #Beginning to come to the conclusion that nobody knows how Christianity works but would like certain historians to stop pretending they do #Edit: I sort of made up the examples of the historical people who gave me my religious education above #But I'm now enamoured with the idea of who actually did give me my weird ideas about mediaeval Catholicism #Who were my historical godparents so to speak #Do I have an idea of mediaeval religion that was jointly shaped by some professor from the 1970s and a 6th century saint? #Does Cardinal Campeggio know he's responsible for some much later human being's catechism? #Fake examples again but I'm going to be thinking about that today

[fumblingmusings]

Imagining a young Arthur thinking the Normans are irredeemable doomed for hell monsters from the moment they killed King Harold, made the heir Edgar and his sisters flee, wrecked Arthur's language and broke his legal systems, made 10% of his country a wasteland, killed over 100,000 of his people by starving them to death and leaving them freeze... All that horror from William I and II...

But then Henry I becomes King. He was born in Selby, not Normandy. He was a fourth son (like Arthur), set to inherit nothing and isn't trusted by any of his older brothers. He just maybe happens to be there with one of the said brothers is killed in a hunting accident (oh no....) and becomes King. He marries Edith, the daughter of Arthur's last Anglo-Saxon princess, ensuring that Alfred the Great's bloodline lives on. He uses the Anglo-Saxon justice and taxation system because it's still better than anything Norman. He puts Englishmen back in positions of government and the Church. Henry and Edith called their daughter Matilda aethelic when in private and gave their son William an Anglo-Saxon title of aethling... Those imported Norman aristocrats mocked them for it calling them 'Godric and Godifu' - that foolish King and Queen pretending to be lesser than. Playing at being English and not Norman.

But it works. Arthur and England are at peace for the first time in... a long, long long time. Yes northern France is a nightmare but what does Arthur care for that. These guys are stamping out slavery and serfdom... That's pretty stupendous. Plus, his way of life is winning out long term, not the Norman. At least, that's what he tells himself.

And having the thought that maybe his people and culture won't be as wiped out by this King playing politics in order to carve out his own space distinct from his brothers... little Arthur sees a little bit too much of himself in this guy. Only for Henry's only son to drown on a crossing from France back to England (trying to save his sister oh my God) and then it just sets the stage for the Anarchy upon Henry's death because god forbid Matilda is Queen like...

Point is I can see Arthur just going full on fuck it once Henry II becomes King (like what was the point of it all if Matilda's son was going to be King anyway). I like to think of it as the turning point from where he's a somewhat put upon forgotten about rainy droopy island that Vikings keep plundering to a nightmare himself. That desperation to prove himself, to be worth something, to take all that grief and pain and make it someone else's problem. It takes him 100 years after the invasion, but that's the point when the Arthur who used to hide in the woods from Denmark and Scotland disappears, and instead you get the Arthur who's... a bit of a giant hypocrite. And looks the other way.

The forcing a language on a population, the replacing the ruling class with loyal people, the leaving just enough of the old systems of government in place for purely pragmatic purposes, the use of scorched earth tactics if need be. Sometimes it feels like nothing changes.

What happened to him was wrong and yet what does England do to others for so long? I like the idea of an Arthur who learnt the wrong lessons from that invasion and thinks he was weak when it happened. Because to think otherwise would be to realise he'd done nothing wrong, and to realise that he was a victim.

And that's something Arthur just cannot be.

#oooooooooooooooh i wish i could be succinct #hetalia #hws england #headcanon #historical hetalia #op #there's this great book about the Norman conquest which talks about how the invasion was seen as so awful that the English people #did what most people back then did #they thought - we must have offended God so much he's sent us to this hell as penance. hell being the normans that is #the famous quote of “Christ and his saints were asleep” regarding the Anarchy... #how far had the people fallen that the Pope himself once called Angels (not Angles... get it. get it. oh the pun. Oh lord)

[bossuet-lesgle]

The arrest of the Pope took place, as every one knows, on the night of the 5th to the 6th of July, 1809

Damn I better study up on my French history if victor is going to be slinging around assumptions like this

Because les mis is so pervasive in the cultural zeitgeist for a mega musical from the 1980s, I think I sometimes forget just how much it is a product of its time. These events were so pervasive at the time of Hugo's writing that it would be unfathomable for someone not to know what happened to the pope in 1809. A novel that is timeless not in spite of its deep connection to history, but because of it.

#les mis letters #yes vicky i did know about the pope but only because id read your book before #they dont really give a shit about him in 21st century american history classes

[trashworldblog]

i will always ignore all catholic news because it usually sucks. unless its funny.

anyways very excited to see the tradcaths become lutheran lol

#any news of 'shitty catholics having a fairly bad time' does make me chuckle #something something something revenge something something something #anyways pope francis is pretty chill for a catholic in my book. he blessed my glass cow #vatican is pretty. good art history. theres a dead guy in there and he scares me. i made a bit of ruckus but not too bad #bought my dad the wrong bracelet on accident. oopsies. i did not learn about the different cruisifixes in ccd #i was too busy questioning the adults that were teaching me incorrect history

[positivelyghastly]

So you know how the Vatican has books bound in human skin? The Satanic Church definitely has some of those too. I think it’s probably their most sacred texts, the bible the Papas read from during service, the grimoire that was written upon the Church’s inception with the incantations used to summon the ghouls. All their most important books are bound in human skin. Perhaps one of them is even bound in a long dead Papa?

#ghost headcanons #the band ghost #this thought is brought to you by me rereading the da vinci code #I’d kill to see some of the artifacts the pope has locked away in there #hand em over padre #side note. if you’ve not seen the Caitlin Doughty video about human skin books. go watch it. now #it’s very interesting

[supercool-here]

ok so there´s a website called ocean of books and it´s pretty cool and y'all have time to explore it but the coolest thing I find was Pope John Paul II's island which is in Religion and Belief continent. Saint JP II has an island. his own very island

#and I needed to post about it #JP II #saint john paul ii #books #ocean of books #links #favorites #booklr #booblr #pope john paul ii island

[luxe-pauvre]

JUNE 2022

Read:

Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matter

The Hard Problem of Consciousness Has an Easy Part We Can Solve

Hundreds of Ways to Get S#!+ Done - and We Still Don’t

Accidental Meaning: The American Dream Isn’t Working As Planned

Workism Is Making Americans Miserable

Understanding Hillary: Why the Clinton America Sees Isn’t the Clinton Colleagues Know

Italy’s Book Doctor

Inside the mind of a murderer: the power and limits of forensic psychiatry

Among the Covid sceptics: ‘We are being manipulated, without a shadow of a doubt’

‘My body is unservicable and well past its sell-by-date’: the last days of Avril Henry

Our evolved intuitions about privacy aren’t made for this era

Lost perspective? Try this linguistic trick to reset your view

Why do we sleep?

Why People Feel Like Victims

The Problem with Depression Doping

How to have better arguments online

The digital death of collecting

A theory of my own mind

How to Overcome Failure

How millennials replaced religion with astrology and crystals

Existential Comfort Without God

‘Pure, liquid hope’: what the vaccine means to me as a GP

Gain-of-Function Research: All in the Eye of the Beholder

How an 18th-Century Philosopher Helped Solve My Midlife Crisis

The brain has a team of conductors orchestrating consciousness

Feeling, in situ

When hope is a hinderance

The bias that blinds: why some people get dangerously different medical care

The Mundanity of Excellence

The Martian by Andy Weir

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness by Suzanna O’Sullivan

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Calling Bullsh*t: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West

Watched:

How To Make Big Decisions

Charlotte Higgins Retells the Greek Myths

Capitalism and Ego formation.

Dr. Megan Rossi - Eat More, Live Well

The New Science of Human Emotions

Why You Can’t Pay Attention*

Change Your Life - One Tiny Step at a Time

How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life

I ate every type of garlic**

The Staircase

Sweetbitter***

All The Old Knives

Listened To:

Bedshaped by Keane

Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Only Love Can Hurt Like This (Live for Burberry) by Paloma Faith

Good Time Girl by Sofi Tukker****

Haunted by Laura Les

Went To:

Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom @ Science Museum

Why Patient Research Is So Crucial (The Christopher Sporborg Annual Lecture 2022)

#* This was a surprisingly good talk and now I'm going to have to read his book. #** My fellow garlic girls will love this. #*** If you enjoyed the book do not watch the series. Just don't do it to yourself. #**** Thinking about getting obsessed with The Young Pope again. #I'm having a weird year for playlists though. It's just not happening. #personal

[gravehags]

oh good my [checks notes] book on the vatican’s ethnological collection, lil gravies roast beef flavor, and piercing aftercare fine mist will be delivered today

#that’s just today #i have vasari’s lives of the artists #a black nyx lip gloss #a book about the portrait of pope julius ii #and a book on repatriating cultural heritage #all on the way #all the books are used and cheap thank fuck because this is insane rn

[ratuszarsenal]

today I went to a book shop to search for a specific anthology, I blinked after saying hello to the cashier and when opened my eyes, it had gotten dark, said cashier was dusting off shelves before closing and my eyes were teary from staring at a gorgeous album of english mariners' art for three hours

#there was also a book about the life in nelson's navy by one Dudley Pope #ship mutuals pray do you know this guy? #in moments like these I wish I could Exchange Money for Goods and services #echo

[seagodofmagic]

kate and christopher heron from the perilous gard is a romance of all time, i love them both so much

#rereading this book for the first time in at least 15 years and it’s holding up so well so far!! #also. i really hope that elizabeth marie pope saw wicker man when it came out. i feel like she would have enjoyed it #or at least had strong opinions about it

[allnewastromarta]

I'm either very stupid or very smart. After reading apocaliptic predictions about AI from people working on AI, I really want to see a computer turning evil without human input that made it evil.

#god dammit #you're working on ai and warn people about dangers of ai #the only threat in this situation is people wanting more power #or money #we measure everything by our standards #the software creating an image of the pope on a scateboard for you is neither good nor bad #and now for something completely different #ai #i read an article and it made me angry #sorry #london review of books

[ohmysatan42]

Just another day when a random customer gives me unsolicited life advice and tells me world war 3 is imminent.

#this sir is a library #like i love you all but i dont care #and i dont need thoughta of the end of the world to gloom up my day #library things #customer servuce #cant we talk about books and be happy #i dont want your political views #dont tell me you are sick of the woke brigade #i am the woke brigade and proud #also dont say satan is talking control of the pope or some shit #look at my name #i am keen on satan

[when-life-was-easy]

Yesterday I told my mom I knew I had failed as a person... it was only an half joke

#failure #truths #jokes #it was because of a guy my age that knows the pope and has written seven books #he was also in a late night show focused on gossiping about celebrities #so maybe knowing the pope and writting a lot of books gives you somethings but also takes others away