Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church - Softcover

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.

“[O’Malley’s] oeuvre now forms a satisfyingly coherent whole...As authoritative as it is accessible.”―Stella Fletcher, Times Literary Supplement

“An eminent scholar of modern Catholicism...O’Malley...invit[es] us to see Catholicism’s recent history as profoundly shaped by and against the imposing legacy of Pius IX.”―Wall Street Journal

“With Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church, John O’Malley, S.J., the worldwide dean of church historians, has completed his trinity of works on church councils... O’Malley completes his masterclass in church history and ecclesiology of the last 500 years, telling us as much about the church now as then.”―Christopher Bellitto, America

“The best available [work] in English on Vatican I...O’Malley’s account of the debate over infallibility is masterful...The descriptions of the council’s setting and procedure convey a feel for what the bishops experienced there.”―William L. Portier, Commonweal

“O’Malley offers a comprehensive and gripping narrative of Vatican I...In his eminently accessible volume, O’Malley repeats the success of his earlier histories of Vatican II and Trent...[He] weaves together the doctrinal issues with the personalities of the principal historical characters in the drama of controversy and conflict...[This] belongs to a long and productive career of exposing a wide readership to the fascinatingly complex history of the Church.”―Hilmar M. Pabel, The Tablet

“O’Malley gives an accessible, even-handed overview of the council with a minimum of interpretive gloss. He excels in describing the ways in which the council initiated deep changes that still affect the everyday lives of Catholics.”―Russell Hittinger, First Things

“Much needed and very informative...O’Malley’s book shows the many ways in which the church we know is still very much shaped by the First...Vatican Council. Put differently, the modern church is still, in certain ways, the work of reactionaries.”―National Catholic Reporter

“Provides an elegant historical narrative.”―John Cornwell, Times Higher Education

“A fascinating and dispassionate glimpse into a pivotal and dramatic period of Catholic Church history.”―James Wetherbee, Library Journal

“[A] judicious work of scholarship, carefully researched and elegantly narrated.”―Thomas Albert Howard, Patheos