Named a Best Book of 2025 So Far by The New Yorker and The Economist
“An extraordinary accomplishment: Controversial but crucial for debate in today’s Catholic Church.”
— Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)
“Sharp portrayals of the last seven men who have served as supreme pontiffs … Jesus Wept delivers a compelling recent history of the 2,000-year-old institution whose leaders reach for heaven but often fall spectacularly, sadly, into the morass of mortal fallibility … Nothing is spared.”
— The New York Times
"Gripping and damning.”
— The Economist
“Endlessly fascinating, insightful and brilliantly told.”
— Booklist (Starred review)
“A fleet and vivid new history of the papacy in the mass-media age . . . The narrative is alive, intricate, and reliable.”
— The New Yorker
“A richly detailed portrait of a complex, hierarchical, and secretive institution as it grappled with a modernizing world.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Insightful …. Beginning with the reign of Pope Pius XII and the aftermath of World War II, the book explores the personalities, politics, and conflicts that marked each pope’s reign.”
— Library Journal (Starred review)
“Gripping …. a sweeping chronicle of the seven popes since the Second World War, starting with Pius XII and ending with Francis. It’s rich in narrative detail and will engross both neophytes and cognoscenti.”
— Literary Review
“Tragedy and hope vie for thematic supremacy in Philip Shenon’s [Jesus Wept], a highly readable, character-driven narrative following seven convulsive decades within the papacy, Vatican and global church …. [Shenon] goes deeper into the personalities, flaws and psychodynamics of church officials than most writers attempt.”
— Jason Berry, National Catholic Reporter
“Jesus Wept is a remarkable achievement …. A romping good read, cleverly constructed to thread together the lives of the popes …. It is the fruit of years of research, which shows serious engagement with the work of major figures in history and theology …. Jesus Wept offers a good drone’s-eye view. I got into it, and profited from it.”
— Austen Ivereigh, The Tablet (U.K.)
“Lively … Popes are people, too, and one strength of Jesus Wept is that it shows them as such.”
— Cullen Murphy, Air Mail
“An impressive overview of the Catholic Church told in a neat, nuanced narrative that captures its triumphs along with its abysmal failures.”
— Teddy Duncan Jr., Washington Independent Review of Books
“Excellent … Shenon’s ‘investigative history of the modern Roman Catholic Church’ shows that the popes made numerous terrible mistakes in running the church.”
— Professor Leslie C. Griffin, Verdict magazine
“Detailed, engaging, often amusing and always accessible.”
— Barney Zwartz, Australian Book Review