Karl Adam – författare

The Spirit of Catholicism is a brilliant and widely influential reflection on the fundamental nature of the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church. First appearing in 1924, this is a truly pioneering work of Catholic theology, one that had a major influence on subsequent theology.

Most Christians understand the Reformation from only one perspective. Professor Karl Adam gives a historically sensitive and accurate analysis of the causes of the Reformation that stands as a valid and sometimes unsettling challenge to the presuppositions of Protestants and Catholics alike. This valuable resource is a powerful summary of the issues that led to the Reformation and their implications today.

This is the first work published since the war by the author of The Spirit of Catholicism. It is, in effect, a discussion of the possibility of reunion between Catholics and Protestants, but it begins unusually but sensibly--in a historical examination of how the breach came about in the first place. He finds a large part of the cause in the open scandals afflicting the Church, dimming the mark of Holiness. The unity of Christendom was lost through the action of men who thought Holiness had been lost. There follows an examination of the major Reformation doctrines--as they were in Luther and as with the passage of time they became in his successors--to show just what of Catholicism is in them and how easily they might he brought to absorb more. Karl Adam's conclusion is not optimistic, but on reflection not hopeless either.