Catholic Church History: One Hundred Years of the Discipline

This article provides a general survey of developments over the past 100 years in the study of the history of the Catholic Church. It therefore provides the context for the other contributions in the issue, which deal with particular epochs or cultures. Included in it, for instance, are listings and analyses of major instruments of research such as encyclopedias, descriptions of shifts in historical method, assessments of the impact upon historians of events like the First and the Second Vatican Councils, and discussions of the vocation of Catholic historians of the Church.