While hardly the comprehensive book that it claims to be, this survey of the major theological currents of the Catholic Church moves with blithe confidence through so much ecclesial bantering between the pontificates of Gregory xvi (1831–46) to Benedict xvi (2005–13). At times a tour de force, it touches upon most of the major episodes and intellectual efforts that had the cumulative effect of forcing papal activity onto the margins of history, even while developing a robust body of social thought, a sophisticated cadre of theological luminaries and an international realpolitik. The book suffers from the necessary selectivity. Its economical explanation of many of the important books and figures of the period are unsatisfying, though the annotation is ample for those who seek more. To its detriment, the narrative is decidedly Euro-centric, with Catholics in the United States, for instance, made practically invisible on the world stage. Apart from Latin America, Catholicism in other parts of the world is almost entirely disregarded. Though the constant bogey of ‘modernity’ lurks around every corner for these authors, especially on the threshold of the twentieth century, they see the historical antidote in the rise of neo-Thomism after Vatican I. Perhaps a different perspective could have been engaged to challenge this rather standard view, such as the change in Catholicism's missionary impulses after World War I or a new awareness of the need for liturgical reform and ecumenical outreach which coincided with and in some ways outpaced the Thomist revival. These movements were less inclined to, or controlled by, the limits of a classroom or textbook theology and were sustained globally in the local churches and cultivated by men and women religious. The authors seem far more comfortable discussing the structures that bred the reforms of Vatican II and the conciliar periti (Congar, Rahner, Murray) once vilified by over-zealous curial officials but now become heroes. Their efforts had an able champion in Pope Paul vi. While his successors get high marks for evangelisation, they are critiqued for their over-centralising tendencies. Judging by the shift in the authors' emphasis, the impact of the theological community during the reigns of popes Wojtyla and Ratzinger has been reduced to a bare minimum, if not outright obliterated, though there is much broader engagement with non-Catholic theologians on questions related to gender, the environment and life in the internet age.

Insofar as this book recounts a long paper trail of theological advances, it may serve also as a harbinger of the ultimate devolving of theology into the speculative waftings of the blogosphere.