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Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II Kindle Edition

by George Weigel (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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This definitive biography of Pope John Paul II explores his historic influence on the world stage: “Magnificent. A tremendous achievement” (Washington Post).

As head of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005, John Paul II was one of the world’s most transformational figures. With unprecedented cooperation from the Pope, as well as the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of him as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics—and changed the course of history.

The Pope played a crucial yet underexplored role in some of the most momentous events of his time, including the collapse of European communism, the quest for peace in the Middle East, and the democratic transformation of Latin America. With an updated preface, this edition of Witness to Hope explains how this “man from a far country” did all of that, and much more—and what both his accomplishments and the unfinished business of his pontificate mean for the future of the Church and the world.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Witness To Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel is as comprehensive a biography of its subject as can be hoped for while the Pope still lives. Weigel, a journalist who came to the Pope's attention after the publication of his book, The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism, wrote Witness To Hope with his subject's encouragement and assistance. Weigel had unprecedented access to the Pope's correspondence (with, among others, world leaders including Mikhail Gorbachev). He reports lengthy conversations with many members of the Pope's inner circle, and he occasionally reveals vivid details of the Pope's daily life (for example, at the beginning of each day, the Pope's adviser's hear moans and groaning from John Paul's solitary prayers in his private chapel).

According to Weigel, the Pope told him that other biographies "try to understand me from outside. But I can only be understood from inside." Unfortunately, Weigel's method for understanding the Pope "from inside" depends on psychological conjecture ("It may help to begin by thinking of Karol Wojtyla as a man who grew up very fast") and is weakened by his extreme eagerness to praise his subject ("the man with arguably the most coherent and comprehensive vision of the human possibility in the world ahead"). More troubling, Weigel does not ask some of the really difficult questions about this Pope--regarding his involvement with sects such as Opus Dei, for example, or the relationship between his innovative "theology of the body" and his conservative stance on homosexuality, or even the vicissitudes of prayer life. Witness To Hope is a valuable book because it reports many facts that others have not reported. But for incisive analysis of this Pope's theological and political significance, or for insight into his spiritual life, readers will have to wait until the principals in his life story are free to speak more frankly with some future biographer. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

Weigel's massive work aspires to be definitive: it is subtitled "the," not "a," biography of John Paul II. Weigel, a Catholic layman and a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., enjoyed the cooperation of the pope and access to top Vatican officials, so the book is rich in new detail. Determined to explain this papacy from the "inside out," Weigel successfully focuses on John Paul's trademark ideas: Christian humanism, the inner connection between freedom and truth, and culture as the driving force of history. As a guide to the pope's thought, Witness to Hope is invaluable. Yet as biography, it is often defective. Weigel frequently dismisses John Paul's critics rather than debating their ideas. The author's strong pro-Americanism leads him to misrepresent the pope as opposing a "third way" between capitalism and socialism and to treat his criticism of the Gulf War as a rare misjudgment. Though John Paul is a towering 20th-century figure, the assertion that his papacy is the most important since the Counter Reformation seems overblown. The book is well written (if somewhat repetitive, perhaps inevitably so with more than 900 pages) and Weigel's command of the material is impressive, but Witness to Hope reads more like a valedictory hagiography than a sober work of journalism. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Thanks to smaller body type and more crowded pages, Weigel's papal biography is considerably longer than Jonathan Kwitny's impressive and engaging Man of the Century (1997). It is also more distanced from the man Karol Wojtyla and more attentive to the pope John Paul II. Weigel furnishes fewer of the humanizing details about Wojtyla's childhood, adolescence, and early priesthood than Kwitny did, instead providing much more and deeper cultural context for Wojtyla as a Polish writer and intellectual and fuller, more theologically and philosophically oriented discussion of Wojtyla's thought and actions as a churchman, especially after he became John Paul II. Although nowhere in his book is Weigel as forthright about his personal admiration for the pope as Kwitny is in his, Weigel's biography is equally friendly. Indeed, it is basically authorized. Weigel had the pope's full cooperation and, as a respected lay Catholic scholar at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center in Manhattan, Weigel was predisposed to be sympathetic. Weigel is not about to differ from Kwitny's opinion that John Paul II is the person most responsible for the fall of totalitarian communism in Europe, but he stresses even more the pope's role as the premier evangelist of Christianity in our time, tirelessly seeking, in his dealings with the world's politicians, to assure the welfare of any Christians anywhere who are enduring persecution and other hardships and, in his colloquies with religious leaders, to unify the Christian church and to pacify and warm relations between Christianity and other religions. Whether in or out of school, students of this remarkable man ideally should read both Kwitny's and Weigel's accounts of him. Ray Olson

From Kirkus Reviews

A study that pays homage without degenerating into hagiography. Weigel has studied and written about Karol Wojtyla (pronounced ``voy-TEE-wah''), better known as Pope John Paul II, for two decades. Here he records in detailbut, thankfully, not too much detailthe colorful events of the pope's life. After discussing Wojtyla's origins in Wadowice, Poland, Weigel gives an account of his work in avant-garde theater, his study in a clandestine seminary during WWII, his consecration as a bishop in 1958, his election as the first Slavic pope. In his examination of Wojtyla's papal career, Weigel pays close attention to his role in the collapse of communism (first explored in The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism, 1992), his writings and teachings on sexual intimacy, his international travel. According to Weigel, John Paul II's papacy has consisted primarily of variations on a single theme, first expressed in the pope's inaugural encyclical Redemptor Hominis: ``Christian humanism as the Church's response to the crisis of world civilization at the end of the twentieth century.'' Working with the assumption that only people in freedom can encounter God's love, John Paul II has believed that the Church has an obligation to safeguard human freedom. Concomitant with this pledge to work for freedom runs an evangelistic streak. Drawing on Augustine's notion that human hearts are ``restless until [they] rest in'' God, the pope has held throughout his career that modern anxiety, malaise, and restlessness can only be quelled through Christ, so, as John Paul II's Church has worked for human freedom, it has also evidenced a rather Protestant-esque commitment to spreading the Gospel message. Massive in scope and length, and written with the popes cooperation, Weigel's biography is sure to be the definitive work on Pope John Paul II for years to come. (illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"A remarkable book. Weigel's biography is likely to remain the standard one-volume reference on John Paul II for many years to come." — Pittsburg Post-Gazette

"A fascinating chronicle. . . sheds light on the history of the twentieth century for everyone." — New York Times Book Review

“Magnificent. A tremendous achievement.” — Washington Post

"It is no mean feat to undertake the momentous task of chronicling the life and witness of a man whose presence has helped to change the course of history. Witness to Hope is a meticulously researched book that is certain to become a benchmark for future inquiries into the life and times of Pope John Paul II." — Los Angeles Times

"Anchored in a careful examination of the Pope's documents, Weigel helps us understand the spiritual and philosophical convictions that drive John Paul forward. This is the great contribution of Witness to Hope." — National Catholic Reporter

"Weigel's biography is outstanding—positive but not uncritical. [It] will be the definitely work on the Pope. — Buffalo News

"A meticulous chronicle. It is Weigel's gift to be able to interleaf the spiritual and secular aspects of Wojtyla's education so seamlessly that his life in the Church takes on political overtones practically from the beginning. . . . One of the most interesting histories of our time." — Boston Globe

“An indispensable source for all those studying the consequences and impact of this pontificate.” — Il Tempo (Rome)

“The first true biography of the last giant of the century.” — L’Express (Paris)

"Like the man it reflects, the book is complex, and it's engaging. Weigel composes a multilayered story of Karol Wojtyla's life that is accessible to all." — Chicago Daily Herald

"Massive in scope and length, and written with the Pope's cooperation, Weigel's biography is sure to be the definitive work on Pope John Paul II for years to come." — Kirkus Reviews

"By far the best biography of John Paul II. . . . An indispensable reference source for future historians." — Washington Times

"Weigel's book is not only a major piece of scholarship but a cracking good story. Rarely has there been so perfect a marriage of man to job as Karol Wojtyla to the papacy. He was appointed at just the right time, and he has met his obligations superbly. The same may be said for his biographer." — National Review

“A profound analysis of all the important issues.... A marvelous work and a pleasure to read.” — ABC (Madrid)

From the Back Cover

The Definitive Biography of Pope John Paul II

Witness to Hope is the authoritative biography of one of the singular figures -- some might argue the singular figure -- of our time. With unprecedented cooperation from John Paul II and the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of the Pope as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics -- and changed the course of history. As even his critics concede, John Paul II occupied a unique place on the world stage and put down intellectual markers that no one could ignore or avoid as humanity entered a new millennium fraught with possibility and danger.

The Pope was a man of prodigious energy who played a crucial yet insufficiently explored role in some of the most momentous events of our time, including the collapse of European communism, the quest for peace in the Middle East, and the democratic transformation of Latin America. This updated edition of Witness to Hope explains how this "man from a far country" did all of that, and much more -- and what both his accomplishments and the unfinished business of his pontificate mean for the future of the Church and the world.

About the Author

George Weigel is one of the world's foremost authorities on the Catholic Church and the author of the New York Times bestseller Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. He is a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and a consultant on Vatican affairs for NBC News.

From The Washington Post

A tremendous achievement.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000FCK6UW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Updated edition (October 13, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 71786 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 1056 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0062996010

Best Sellers Rank: #171,751 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #20 in Roman Catholicism (Kindle Store)
- #22 in Biographies of Catholicism
- #32 in Christian Papacy

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George Weigel

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George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. He holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC.

From 1989 through June 1996, Mr. Weigel was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he led a wide-ranging, ecumenical and inter-religious program of research and publication on foreign and domestic policy issues.

Mr. Weigel is perhaps best known for his widely translated and internationally acclaimed two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II: the New York Times bestseller, Witness to Hope (1999), and its sequel, The End and the Beginning (2010). In 2017, Weigel published a memoir of the experiences that led to his work as a papal biographer: Lessons in Hope — My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II.

George Weigel is the author or editor of more than thirty other books, many of which have been translated into other languages. Among the most recent are The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God (2005); Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church (2013); Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (2013); Letters to a Young Catholic (2015); The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times (2018); The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020); and Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse Cast of Characters, Most of Them Admirable (2021). His essays, op-ed columns, and reviews appear regularly in major opinion journals and newspapers across the United States. A frequent guest on television and radio, he is also Senior Vatican Analyst for NBC News. His weekly column, “The Catholic Difference,” is syndicated to eighty-five newspapers and magazines in seven countries.

Mr. Weigel received a B.A. from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore and an M.A. from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto. He is the recipient of nineteen honorary doctorates in fields including divinity, philosophy, law, and social science, and has been awarded the Papal Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, Poland’s Gloria Artis Gold Medal, and Lithuania’s Diplomacy Star.

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Matthew Hanzel

With a caring attention, this is one of the best biographies ever

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2012

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I should begin the review by mentioning my 'bias': I admire the figure of John Paul II, as a Pope (I'm not a Catholic, anyway), as a global figure, and as a leader. This biography, while not complete (because there's a second part of the biography), provides a very excellent and ambitious biography of one of the most defining figures in the 20th century.

Weigel tells the story in a very chronological way (instead of thematic, an approach which partially chronological yet does not focus on the chronology, but on the defining themes of the figure's life). For historical buffs, the format will be easy to follow. The stories are pretty detailed, providing many insights that often unknown to the public. The story is pretty much enchanting and inviting. Readers who want to discover more of the Pope will find this satisfactory. In fact, from some 10+ biographies of the same Pope that I've read, this is clearly the best and most detailed, hands down.

There are a number of concerns, however, which may be minor to most readers. Firstly is the thick theological perspective. This is clearly a no-surprise, since what else would you expect from a religious figure such as the Pope? However, a layman (and non-Catholic) like me will find this a bit tedious to follow. It does provide a lot of insights to the Catholic belief, yet understanding what is written is another issue. To make it clear, not that it is bad, only somehow tedious. Secondly, I consider this biography to be a bit apologetic to the Pope, which rarely mentions the downside/other side of the Pope (not only as a Pope, but as a human being). Attempts to make a biography that covers both sides usually requires both opinions from supporters and opponents. I don't see this adequately within the biography. Thirdly, I don't see adequate details for a book that long. I take part of the blame since I've read numerous biographies (and watched numerous movies) regarding this figure, there are some expectations in terms of 'what's next'. Sometimes, I think it doesn't adequately fulfill my expectation, in terms of details of story. For instance, I was expecting more when reading about the Pope's first visit to his native homeland, Poland. The story, however, while providing new insights not provided in other book, is not put into a detailed perspective that I expected (e.g. a coverage on the mass in Warsaw, how the Polish authorities debated about the visit, or the alleged quote "better Solzhenitsyn to be the Secretary-general of the United Nations than a Pole becomes pope").

Regardless, I find this biography to be the best, and probably 'the most authoritative' biography of Pope John Paul II; and this put the competitors way behind in terms of biographical work. The above concerns may not matter at all for some readers, yet it does not decrease the quality of this book as a very ambitious work to elaborate the story of one of the most prominent figures of our lifetime.

Note: I purchased the Kindle version, and formatting wise, I find some technical problems in rendering letters with accents and marks, which are rendered as boxes. Kindle users may want to take this as an extra note.

6 people found this helpful

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Margaret

Deeply thoughtful and insightful

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2024

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George Weigel has done a marvelous work of exploring the depth and breadth of a complex world leader, who happens to be the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. His insights into the thoughts and visions of John Paul II display a man who is deeply compassionate and respectful of all humankind.

One person found this helpful

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D. Mataconis

Inspiring Story of an Inspiring Man

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2000

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Unlike nearly everyone else who's written anything about John Paul II (most especially including the American media, which is obssessed with judging everything by the same standards it applies to American politics and/or entertainment), George Weigel demonstrates in this book that he clearly understands his subject. As a result, he has written a book that gives the reader a complete portrait of a man who will undoubtably do down in history as one of the most important figures of the 20th Century and, most likely, one of the most influential successors to St. Peter in the 2000 year history of the Catholic Church.
At some points, this book will probably be hard for the average reader to get through; Weigel's discussions about the extensive, impressive, grounding in philosophy that Karol Wojtyla had before he became Pope may be too technical for some people, for example. Those defects, however, pale in comparison to the truly inspiring narrative that Weigel has created here; for example, his telling of the rise, fall, and ultimate triumph of the Solidarity movement, and John Paul's undeniable role in the collapse of Soviet Communism, is truly fascinating.
This isn't a book just for Catholics, or Professors of theology, it is the story of a quite ordinary man from Krakow who, due largely to what he would consider the hand of God (though I would add that his intellect had alot to do with it as well), rose to become the answer to Josef Stalin's contemptuous, ultimately foolish, question "How many divisions has the Pope ?"
This book is a long read, but, in the end, well worth it.

18 people found this helpful

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delcorazon

A truly great man

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2020

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I'm a devotee of biographies and wanted to know more about John Paul ll after reading a favorable article about him in the WSJ. I'm not a Catholic and frankly was uninterested in learning anything more about the Catholic church. I just simply had read through most of my backlog and was looking for another biography. My first impression was 'What have I gotten myself into -- the darn book is 1000 pages long!'

But I try to finish things I start, so I dug into the book. After two months I'm nearly 700 pages into it and I'm so happy I did. It's not only the story of a truly remarkable person, but it's a terrific history of the significant events of our time, from life under the Nazi occupation of Poland, to what turned out to be nearly as bad with the Communist takeover of Poland after WWll, to the fall of the USSR, to liberation theology in Europe and Central America, to terrorism in Italy and Africa and discussions about John Paul's perspectives on capitalism vs. socialism. I've gleaned so much knowledge which gives me insight as I experience the events of the present day.

I thought that a 1,000 page book ought not be bound as a single volume -- that it would certainly fall apart. A happy surprise has been just how well bound the book is -- maybe the best bound book I've ever read. This is not a concern.

18 people found this helpful

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Pedro

St JPII

Reviewed in Brazil on November 12, 2021

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O maior estadista do século XX.
Um dos grandes Santos da história.
Trouxe a Igreja Católica de volta aos trilhos depois do Concílio Vaticano II.
Comunicou que a santidade está ao alcance de todos.

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M

One of the best books ever

Reviewed in Canada on August 5, 2020

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This is an excellent biography of Saint John Paul II that gives a deep and concise insight into the life of the Saint, in the context of the world's history of his time.
The book simply and clearly summarizes his writings while giving the best quotations.
There are more than 1000 pages in the book, but even a lazy reader may enjoy every line of the text. Note that 25% of the book are citations and endnotes.