By Philip Hughes

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

To survey the history of the Catholic Church is, in the words of Eamon Duffy, to be left with “a sense of the intractable complexity of the historical reality of the Church and its institutions.” To do justice to this complexity, Philip Hughes wrote an ambitious, three-volume survey of Church history—comprehensive in scope yet introductory and accessible in detail.

For Volume II: The Church and the World It Created, Hughes focuses on the West from the Augustinian moment and the conversion of Constantine, when the Church was just beginning to establish a civilization built on the new principles of the Gospel, and concludes with the capstone of the Medieval period: the triumphant genius of Saints Bonaventure, Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas.

Over the course of history, the Catholic Church has been an “all-present, unceasingly active institution.” As such, its history demands to be known. A History of the Church, Volume II, is the second part of a magisterial response to that demand.

Philip Hughes (1895–1967) was a Roman Catholic priest, ecclesiastical historian, and prolific author. After holding a professorship in history at St. Thomas College, he served as pastor at various English parishes, as archivist for the Archdiocese of Westminster, and as professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, where he concluded his career. In addition to the outstanding three-volume A History of the Church, his works include The Church in Crisis and A Popular History of the Reformation. 

Paperback: 500pp.

ISBN: 978-1952826870