437 - How the Pope Became Infallible: Pius IX and the Politics of Persuasion

How the Pope Became Infallible:
Pius IX and the Politics of Persuasion
By August Bernhard Hasler
Garden City, Doubleday, 1981. 383 pp. $14.95.

This is a popular version of the author's 2-vol. work (1977) on Vatican I and places his findings in a panoramic context running from Saint Peter to Pope Paul VI. The theses are direct: there is no basis in Scripture or church tradition for papal infallibility; moreover, the deliberations and decisions on that issue at Vatican Council I were not free, but manipulated in a rather grotesque manner by a psychologically unhealthy pope, Pius IX.

This is partisan history that professional historians can regard only with a certain skepticism. Yet both volumes have aroused considerable controversy. Though marred by weaknesses in method, the present book nonetheless marshals evidence once again to spark an issue that just will not go away. Copiously illustrated and written in almost journalistic style, it is also easy to read.

John W. O'Malley
Weston School of Theology
Cambridge, Mass.