The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism

The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism

by George Weigel
The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism

The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism

by George Weigel

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Overview

In The Final Revolution, George Weigel provides an in-depth exploration of how the Catholic Church shaped the moral revolution inside the political revolution of 1989. Drawing on extensive interviews with key leaders of the human rights and resistance movements, he opens a unique window into the soul of the Revolution and into the hearts and minds of those who shaped this stirring vindication of the human spirit. He also examines the central role played by Pope John Paul II, and he suggests what the future role of the Church might be in consolidating democracy in the countries of the old Warsaw Pact. The "final revolution" is not the end of history, Weigel concludes. It is the human quest for a freedom that truly satisfies the deepest yearnings of the human heart. The Final Revolution illustrates how that quest changed the face of the twentieth century and redefined world politics in the year of miracles, 1989.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780198023586
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 02/29/2000
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

About the Author:
George Weigel is President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC. A graduate of St. Mary's Seminary and University of Baltimore and the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto, he is the author of editor of twelve books on religion and public life, and is in frequent demand as a lecturer, columnist, and media commentator on American politics, foreign policy, and Catholic affairs.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Final Revolution3
The Quest for the Millennium4
Back to the Present6
The Tyranny of the Political10
The Priority of Conscience12
1Not by Politics Alone: Unwrapping the Revolution of 198915
The Standard Account: Mikhail Gorbachev Did It18
The Realist Account: Ronald Reagan Did It21
The Diplomatic Account: The Helsinki Final Act Did It26
The Great Ideas: Economics and/or History Did It30
The Heart of the Matter33
2Calling Good and Evil by Name: The Communist Lie Confronted37
Signs Among the Onions39
The Web of Mendacity41
From Complicity to Resistance47
Revolutionary Morality, Reconsidered50
Breaking the Fever of Fear55
3Catholics and Commissars: 1917-197859
Opening Gambits60
The Confrontation Intensified64
John XXIII and the Spirit of Dialogue67
Vatican II and the Catholic Human Rights Revolution70
A New Ostpolitik: The Quest for a Reasonable Accommodation74
4The Wojtyla Difference77
Whose Humanism?78
A Man for This Season79
"Breathing Space"85
A Changed Game88
Training for Moral Combat90
Going on Offense: The Ostpolitik of John Paul II93
Questions of Conviction96
5Poland: Igniting the Revolution103
Saddling the Cow: Stalinist Poland, 1944-1956104
The Years of the "Great Novena": 1956-1970111
Prelude to Revolution: 1970-1978122
The Rise of Solidarity: 1978-1981128
The Hard Road to Freedom: 1982-1989145
The Challenge of the Free Society155
6Czechoslovakia: A Church Reborn in Resistance159
From Gigantism to "Normalization"161
A Taste of Ashes166
Rebirth in Resistance174
St. Agnes's Gentle Revolution183
The Lazarus Church185
7No Monopolies on Virtue: Christian Conviction and the Democratic Prospect191
The Communist Hangover193
The Church Being Itself195
Truth and Freedom199
The Peace and Freedom Connection203
Surprises from the Lord of History205
Notes211
Index247
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