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White Eagle, Black Madonna: One Thousand Years of the Polish Catholic Tradition

Online ISBN:
9780823271757
Print ISBN:
9780823271702
Publisher:
Fordham University Press
Book

White Eagle, Black Madonna: One Thousand Years of the Polish Catholic Tradition

Robert E. Alvis
Robert E. Alvis
St. Meinrad Seminary & School of Theology
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Published online:
19 January 2017
Published in print:
1 August 2016
Online ISBN:
9780823271757
Print ISBN:
9780823271702
Publisher:
Fordham University Press

Abstract

White Eagle, Black Madonna offers one of the first English-language treatments of the Polish Catholic tradition across more than a thousand years of history. Written for fellow scholars, students, and general readers alike, the book charts the remarkable journey of the Polish Catholic community from its humble origins on the margins of medieval Christendom to the twenty-first century, when a Pole occupied the See of Peter. The church in Poland has passed through a number of distinct phases as it has adapted to changing conditions. Throughout this long and often tumultuous history, however, one constant has been the profound influence Catholicism has exercised over Poland’s political, social, and cultural life. Church historians commonly have assumed that Catholicism in Poland has been somehow insignificant or peripheral to the larger story of the faith. In fact, throughout much of its history Poland has been a large and powerful country, and the church there has been more integral to global Catholic affairs than is often understood. At the same time, owing to geography, the diversity of the region’s inhabitants, and the unique cluster of forces that have shaped them, the Polish Catholic experience has been quite distinctive. A fuller appreciation of this experience has the potential to nuance how we understand the history of Christianity in general.

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