Absolute Power: How the Pope Became the Most Influential Man in the World

Theologian and former Catholic priest Collins (Papal Power) focuses on the political and religious influence of Catholic popes since 1799 in this convincing history. Beginning with the death of Pius VI in exile and ending with the early years of Pope Francis’s reign, Collins traces the rise and fall of papal power over the past 200 years both within the church and in the wider world. The 19th century is dispatched neatly and thoroughly in the book’s opening third, with a focus on how Pius IX (1846–1878) and the decisions made at the First Vatican Council (1869–1870) shaped modern papal leadership. WWI and WWII are covered in what may feel to some readers like a too-brief 50 pages, (he believes recent scholarship excoriates Pius XII excessively, and that he wasn’t a willing accomplice to the tragedies of WWII) with the most substantial portion of the book focusing on papal authority in the years leading up to and after Vatican II. Although the papacy grew in global influence during the years covered, Collins focuses primarily on Eurocentric politics—the role of the Catholic Church in the European colonial and postcolonial world is only touched on lightly. This trenchant work will be of primary interest to general readers curious about papal authority since the Enlightenment era. (Mar.)