cover image An Illustrated History of the Church: The Great Challenges

An Illustrated History of the Church: The Great Challenges

Guy Bedouelle, . . Liturgy Training, $90 (280pp) ISBN 978-1-56854-516-5

This audacious, intriguing, but perhaps necessarily imperfect volume attempts to bring Roman Catholic history to life by setting it in the context of the pictorial, architectural, sculptural and decorative arts. Bedouelle, a professor of church history at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, describes his book as "a conversation in two voices, each with its own specific qualities." Bedouelle is concerned with the role that the arts play in reflecting the character of each age, and with the salvific mission of the church as it is manifested in various periods and civilizations. Each era, from the early church's initial struggle to delineate itself from Judaism to contemporary manifestations of the Catholic faith in other cultures, is viewed in terms of internal and external challenges. A member of the Dominican order, Bedouelle narrates church history from an unapologetically Catholic perspective that makes this volume more devotional and theological in tone than straightforward church history. Readers who can get past this editorial bias will enjoy the broad if cursory tour of 20 centuries of Roman Catholic thought. A more informed perspective on art history, perhaps as a contribution from another author, would have enriched this noble experiment in polyphony. (July)