Books
Absolute Power:
How the Pope became the most influential man in the world
Publisher: PublicAffairs, New York
Pages: xv, 366
Price (hardcover): $35.00 (plus postage from author)
Publication Date: 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61039-860-2
Available from Amazon and from .
This is the remarkable story of the last two centuries of the papacy. In 1799, the papacy was at rock bottom: the Papal States had been swept away, Rome had been seized by the revolutionary French armies, and the cardinals were scattered across Europe. With the next papal election uncertain, it seemed that even if Catholicism survived, the papacy was doomed. And yet, just over 200 years later, the pope’s influence reaches across the world—from Cuban politics to gender equality to the refugee crisis.
In this gripping narrative of religious and political history, Paul Collins tells the improbable success story of the last 220 years of the papacy, from the ignominious death of Pope Pius VI to the exalted reception of Pope Francis today.
As the papacy has lost its physical power—its armies and states—and remained stubbornly opposed to the modern social and economic consensus, it has only increased its stature and political authority in the world. Having achieved this paradoxical rise, the challenge remains of how to ensure a credible—and Christ-like—path forward even as the power of the papal offices rises to unparalleled heights.