Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World: The Catholic Church in the Age of Revolution and Democracy

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An ambitious, authoritative history of the Roman Catholic Church in the modern age. Despite its many crises, especially in Western Europe, there are still 1.2 billion Catholics in the world and the Church remains a powerful, controversial and defiantly archaic institution. After the French Revolution and the democratic rebellions of 1848, the Church retreated, especially under Pius IX, into a fortress of unreason, denouncing almost every aspect of modern life, including liberalism and socialism. The Pope proclaimed his infallibility; the cult of the Virgin Mary and her apparitions to semi-illiterate shepherds became articles of faith; the Vatican refused all accommodation with the modern state, until a disastrous series of concordats with fascist states in the 1930s. In Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World, Dr Ambrogio A. Caiani narrates the epic, fascinating, entertaining and horrifying history of the Roman Catholic Church. It is an account of the Church's fraught encounter with modernity in all its forms, from representative democracy and the nation state to science, literature and secular culture.

Reviews

An enthralling account, both thoughtful and entertaining, of one of the great survival stories of the modern world. * Professor Tim Blanning *
With searching scholarship, wry wit and the gift of easy communication, Ambrogio Caiani reveals the relentess web of fascinating dramas which brought the Catholic Church from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. For anyone trying to understand the Churchs place in the modern world, this book is literally a Godsend and utterly absorbing from start to finish. * Mary McAleese, Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin and former President of Ireland *
An outstanding introduction to a crucial period in formation of the modern Catholic Church. Caianis richly textured account channels the spirit of the late Owen Chadwick to retell eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history from the Roman perspective, showing how the great forces of Enlightenment, Revolution, and Counter-Revolution reshaped the lives of popes, priests, and the humble Catholic faithful alike. * Dr Miles Pattenden *
We have long lacked an even-handed survey of how Europe's oldest absolute monarchy, the papacy, negotiated first the Enlightenment, then the Industrial Revolution combined with Global Imperialism, taking in the French Revolution, Napoleon and Garibaldi on the way. That the paradoxical transformation described in the book's title was the unintended consequence of sincerely but stubbornly held opinions of successive popes who were unanimously (though variously) hostile to modernity only adds to the fascination of this story. Caiani tells it with wit, verve and unfailing fluency; ever alive to the humour as well as tragedy of his cast of hundreds for whom the papacy and Rome was the symbol of all that was wrong, or right, with the world. * Simon Ditchfield *
Moving from intimate portraits to epic scenes of historical change, Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World paints an extraordinarily vivid picture of how the Catholic Church weathered the tumultuous centuries from early modernity to the Industrial Age. Caiani's treatment of this vast and fascinating subject, which is global in scope and takes in every aspect of life, is masterful and deeply compelling. * Dr Edward Wilson-Lee *
PRAISE FOR AMBROGIO CAIANI: In gripping, vivid prose, Caiani brings to life the struggle for power that would shape modern Europe a historical read which is both original and enjoyable * Antonia Fraser *
OTHER REVIEWS: 'Caiani relates this dramatic story in telling detail but never loses sight of the broader picture, and uses his archival discoveries to excellent effect the result is both an exciting narrative and a fine work of scholarship' Literary Review A riveting and compelling account of how the soft power of the Pope proved more durable than the military might of Napoleon Tim Blanning Caiani leads the reader expertly through diplomatic and theological disputes, a dynastic marriage, international relations and war He handles this complex narrative deftly TLS Tells the story of an epic struggle * Financial Times *

Author Bio

Dr Ambrogio A. Caiani received his doctorate from Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge in 2009. Since then he has taught at the universities of Greenwich, York and Oxford, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Kent. Caianis main research interests are Revolutionary France and Napoleonic Italy and his work has been published in several leading academic journals. His most recent book, To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII 18001815, was published in 2021 by Yale University Press and won the 2021 FrancoBritish Society book prize.