John W. O’Malley, SJ, was a Roman Catholic priest and professor in the department of theology at Georgetown University. He is the author of a number of books, including A History of the Popes, The First Jesuits, What Happened at Vatican II, and The Jesuits: A History from Ignatius to the Present. Besides other honors he received six best book awards as well as lifetime achievement awards from the Society for Italian Historical Studies, the Renaissance Society of America, and the American Catholic Historical Association. In 1995 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he is past president of the American Catholic Historical Association and the Renaissance Society of America.

• IntroductionPart I. The Papacy and the Popes1 The Millennium and the Papalization of Catholicism2 Papal Job Descriptions: Yesterday and Today3 Cardinals in Conclave: A Troubled History4 Reform of the Papal Curia: Historical and Theological Perspectives5 The Beatification of Pope Pius IX6 Two Popes: Benedict and FrancisPart II. Two Councils: Trent and Vatican II7 The Council of Trent: Myths, Misunderstandings, and Unintended Consequences8 Bishops and Theologians at the Council of Trent: A Lesson for Today9 The Council of Trent and Michelangelo’s Last Judgment10 Ten Sure-Fire Ways to Mix Up the Teaching of Vatican II11 What Happened and Did Not Happen at Vatican II12 Dialog and the Identity of Vatican II13 Two Councils Compared: Trent and Vatican IIPart Three: The Church at Large14 Some Basics about Celibacy15 Were Medieval Universities Catholic?16 Excommunicating Politicians17 One Priesthood, Two TraditionsConclusion: My Life of Learning

A wide array of topics are covered here, including the fascinating stories of a number of the popes, the origins of priestly celibacy, as well as a summary of the great councils of the Church and what they did and did not decide. O’Malley is a masterful writer and elucidates complex ideas in a way that the average lay person can not only understand, but also appreciate. A key highlight is the chapter from an address the author delivered about his own life of learning and navigating academia. It is humble, encouraging, and filled with quite a bit of history itself from the author’s multiple decades of experience as a student, priest, scholar, and teacher. As is the case with most of O’Malley’s corpus of work, this collection will please even the most cursory student of history and whet readers’ appetites for more.