Lives of the Popes : The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II

by Richard P. McBrien

Lives of the Pope is the most thorough, vivid, and fascinating history of the papacy available. Renowned Catholic commentator Richard McBrien offers a fresh, intelligent look at each of the 262 popes, including:-The Apostle Peter, the first pope, in his singular role as Vicar of ChristFormosus, the pope whose corpse was exhumed, dressed in full vestments, and subjected to a mock trial for papal misdeedsBoniface, elected pope after having been defrocked twice for immoralityJohn XXIII, perhaps the most beloved pope in all of historyLives of the Popes provides chronologically arranged biographies of the pontiffs, revealing the full sweep of the papacy. Each entry contains essential information on a pontiff’s life, major writings, controversies, and deeds both great and evil. McBrien eloquently and powerfully brings to life the unique stories of the popes and reveals how they transformed Christianity and the world.John Paul II, the present Bishop of Rome

Genres: History, Religion, Catholic, Christianity, Biography, Theology, Nonfiction

528 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 1997

Reviews

[The Great Asπ e · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book acts as a "quick facts about" sort of series on each pope, according to the Catholic lineage from St. Peter to John Paul II. I definitely learned things I didn't previously know about certain popes, so I think it is a useful source. Keep in mind that McBrien addresses a lot of different popes, so unless this book was 1,000+ pages long, he probably didn't have the intention to give a deep thorough look into each pope, more like he wanted to give you a "Did you know?" about each one.

[Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

About as informative and detailed as one can expect up till John Paul II however the author couldn't resist making his own biases evident in his "analysis" of his preference for modernism to the point of throwing shade on Paul VI's Humanae Vitae among other issues. I'd have prefered a more factual and as objective as possible reading but it is what it is. Still useful and educational if you can tell where objectivity ends and subjectivity begins.

[Willow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, there's a reason I'm not Catholic. Crazy stuff going on in here. This is a solid, clear primer on the lives of the Popes, but also on certain theological issues that have come up over the centuries (this was very helpful for me, since so much European history revolves around how different people believed in God.)

[Anthony Cleveland · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative read. Good reference work for church historians. Interesting to see the evolution of the early Christian church and its relationship to the Bishop of Rome over time.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goede chronologische beschrijving van paus tot paus.

[booklady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulled this off my shelf to compare popes. Have been reading Three Popes and the Cardinal by Malachi Martin and wanted to see what other others thought. A friend had warned me about McBrien. Another friend likes him. Personally I like to check as many references as possible. I believe there is perversity (I think 'agenda' is the modern term) in the human heart, but mostly I believe we all want to be heard. Jesus, The Truth, lies in the center. The more sources we check, or the more we keep searching for Him, the more likely we are to find Him.

This seems like a fairly good reference. Even though I have listed a 'start' and 'finish' date, they are only two random dates I have actually used this book.

[Jeff Powers · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is hard to score this book, as it is a wealth of knowledge about each pope. But it delivers this information in repetitive short blurbs that are hardly engaging. If you need a quick encyclopedic reference for any specific pope, as well as brief bits of information about the eras in which they lived, this is a worth while read. But for general knowledge or interest in Church history, it is terribly dry. I dragged through it, finding a number of interesting anecdotes and connections between the pontiffs, but even the most intriguing stories are a bit underdetailed a boring. I'll continue to look elsewhere for a better edited source of stories and information.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is highly recommended for students of Catholicism, religion nerds, and history buffs. Such a large survey doesn't allow for much depth--for example, much is mentioned about Alexander VI being the most notorious pope in history, but we don't learn much (specific) about why that is; nonetheless, Lives of the Popes is invaluable as a reference work and as a starting point for research into the papacy and papal history.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only got this because my library doesn't own The Bad Popes. A good resource on the lives of the popes but a lot of repeated information. After the first 100 pages I decided to simply skip to the popes I wanted to read about - mainly the medieval and 20th century popes. There was nowhere near enough on the medieval popes but the 20th century popes had a lot of real estate dedicated to them.

[Stephen Cranney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear, succinct history of each pope's reign. Author commands a wide range of information on the subject. One complaint is that the author is a bit didactic about contrasting the historical view with the "pious" view. You can tell that he enjoys problematizing the perspective of traditionalists, and his attempts to do so sometimes disrupts the cadence of the narrative.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little chunks of history easily absorbed one at a time. From a sentence to many paragraphs on each of the pontiffs throughout history - the good and the bad. Fun read for enlightenment on church history.

[Brian Reagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I disagreed with his assessment on many of the Pontiffs. However he does an excellent job documenting the various Popes and what was good, bad, excellent and evil in all the many forms which the Papacy has assumed over the years.

[Laine]

Another Good Reference book - used in my Papacy class

[Jim Moffett · Rating 5 out of 5]

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