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Man of the century : the life and times of Pope John Paul II / Jonathan Kwitny

By: Kwitny, Jonathan.
Publisher: New York : Henry Holt and Co., c1997Description: xii, 754 p. ; 25 cm.ISBN: 0805026886.Subject(s): John Paul II, Pope, 1920- | Popes -- BiographyDDC classification: 282.092
Contents:
Preface. - Book one: Revelations. - Book two: Genesis. - Book three: Lamentations. - Book four: Armageddon. - Book five: Judgements. - Notes. - A note on pronunciation. - Acknowledgements. - Index.
Summary: agencies. Man of the Century was written because, after an extensive journalistic career covering the Cold War and its aftermath, Jonathan Kwitny concluded that John Paul II - a peace-seeker as influential and powerful as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. - played the most significant role in the resolution of one of the century's great stories; the fall of Soviet totalitarianism. - Front cover.Summary: To read Man of the Century is to enter the life of one of the world's most embattled and misunderstood visionaries, a leader whose nonviolent mass movement has changed history. Jonathan Kwitny draws on hundreds of firsthand accounts and eight years of research to reveal the pope in all his complexity. Debunking the theory of a "holy alliance" between the U.S. government and the Vatican, Kwitny, shows that Solidarity won its victory despite the CIA; another myth - that the Pope was the victim of a 'Bulgarian" plot engineered by the Soviet Union - is shown here to be an elaborate fabrication. The pope's forty-year-old first book - 250 underground copies were hand-printed in Poland at mortal risk to the author, publishers, and readers - is partially reprinted here for the first time, indicating political beliefs that he could not later espouse as prelate. A blend of Thomism, phenomenology, and existentialism, John Paul II's religious philosophy is revealed as a key ingredient of his political ideology. The author examines with scrupulous detail the relationship between John Paul II as a Pole and his church; his doubts about American capitalism, which perfects the work rather than the worker and overvalues corporate leaders; his worldwide battles for the poor and to right human wrongs; the reasons behind the pope's unwavering traditionalist values; and his attitudes toward women as revealed through interviews with women who have shaped his life as well as exerted powerful influence on the Church's birth control ban. In addition, Kwitny interprets little-known intelligence documents, including a candid eight-page CIA reports on the pope when he was cardinal and a never-before-revealed plot by the Vatican to unseat the head of the Polish church with the support of Western intelligence
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282.092 KWI (Browse shelf) 1 Available GENxx,GENxx,02,GR 5000059761 Please fill up online form at https://taylorslibrary.taylors.edu.my/services/external_storage1

"A John Macrae book."

Preface. - Book one: Revelations. - Book two: Genesis. - Book three: Lamentations. - Book four: Armageddon. - Book five: Judgements. - Notes. - A note on pronunciation. - Acknowledgements. - Index.

agencies. Man of the Century was written because, after an extensive journalistic career covering the Cold War and its aftermath, Jonathan Kwitny concluded that John Paul II - a peace-seeker as influential and powerful as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. - played the most significant role in the resolution of one of the century's great stories; the fall of Soviet totalitarianism. - Front cover.

To read Man of the Century is to enter the life of one of the world's most embattled and misunderstood visionaries, a leader whose nonviolent mass movement has changed history. Jonathan Kwitny draws on hundreds of firsthand accounts and eight years of research to reveal the pope in all his complexity. Debunking the theory of a "holy alliance" between the U.S. government and the Vatican, Kwitny, shows that Solidarity won its victory despite the CIA; another myth - that the Pope was the victim of a 'Bulgarian" plot engineered by the Soviet Union - is shown here to be an elaborate fabrication. The pope's forty-year-old first book - 250 underground copies were hand-printed in Poland at mortal risk to the author, publishers, and readers - is partially reprinted here for the first time, indicating political beliefs that he could not later espouse as prelate. A blend of Thomism, phenomenology, and existentialism, John Paul II's religious philosophy is revealed as a key ingredient of his political ideology. The author examines with scrupulous detail the relationship between John Paul II as a Pole and his church; his doubts about American capitalism, which perfects the work rather than the worker and overvalues corporate leaders; his worldwide battles for the poor and to right human wrongs; the reasons behind the pope's unwavering traditionalist values; and his attitudes toward women as revealed through interviews with women who have shaped his life as well as exerted powerful influence on the Church's birth control ban. In addition, Kwitny interprets little-known intelligence documents, including a candid eight-page CIA reports on the pope when he was cardinal and a never-before-revealed plot by the Vatican to unseat the head of the Polish church with the support of Western intelligence