I have just been re-reading Turmoil and Truth: The Historical Roots of the Modern Crisis in the Catholic Church by Philip Trower, which I reviewed for the Herald in 2003 when it was first published (paperback are available on Amazon). It still bears reading today as we are still living in the aftermath of Vatican II, with all the disruptions and upheavals that followed it, offering an understanding why the Council has not yet delivered the expectations that were focused on it.
In his preface, Trower wrote that “In a sense, the sole subject of this book is the revelation of God: the efforts of its guardians to make it bear fruit in the present, and its vicissitudes at the hands of men who believe that, in order for it to survive, it must be altered.” This conflict is still played out today, fought between those churchmen who want to renew the Church – essential in every age – and those who want to change her, in effect to bring her more in line with the spirit of the age.
