The Church of the Revolutionary Age

he Church of the Revolutionary Age: A Fight for God is the ninth installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' outstanding History of the Church of Christ. This volume surveys (1) the dismal spiritual atmosphere produced in large part by Nietzsche and Marx, and the irreligious and totalitarian menaces to which it gave rise; (2) the life of the Church in this violent new age, and the four great popes who led the charge to combat its evils and its errors: Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI; (3) the papacy of Leo XIII, "the Pope of bold options," and his labors to bring the wisdom of the Church to bear in the diplomatic and social spheres; (4) the march of Catholic social teaching, set forth by Leo XIII in Rerum novarum, and its acceptance by the working classes in the years leading up to World War I; and (5) the papacy of Pius X and "the interests of God"-the salvation of souls and the restoration of all things in Christ. A singularly unhappy age, alight with the blaze of revolution and war, the years 1870 to 1939 witnessed wave after wave of assault upon Christ and his Church. Lavish in detail, vigorous in analysis, and dramatic in telling, Daniel-Rops' The Church of the Revolutionary Age: A Fight for God is proof positive of Christ's promise that the Church is built firmly upon rock, and the powers of death and gates of hell shall not prevail against it.