
To Change the Church
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jonathan Todd Ross
-
By:
-
Ross Douthat
About this listen
A New York Times columnist and one of America's leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis' efforts to change the church he governs.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis' stewardship of the church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. "If a conclave were to be held today", one Roman source told The New Yorker, "Francis would be lucky to get 10 votes."
In To Change the Church, Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened - over communion for the divorced and the remarried - is so dangerous: how it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won't just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he's a hero or a gambler who's betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies.
©2018 Ross Douthat (P)2018 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Decadent Society
- How We Became a Victim of Our Own Success
- By: Ross Douthat
- Narrated by: Ross Douthat
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The era of the coronavirus has tested America, and our leaders and institutions have conspicuously failed. That failure shouldn’t be surprising: Beneath social-media frenzy and reality-television politics, our era’s deep truths are elite incompetence, cultural exhaustion, and the flight from reality into fantasy. The Decadent Society explains what happens when a powerful society ceases advancing - how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemate, and demographic decline creates a unique civilizational crisis.
-
-
Another Liberal Arts Intellectual who does not rea
- By Trebla on 03-24-20
By: Ross Douthat
-
The Deep Places
- A Memoir of Illness and Discovery
- By: Ross Douthat
- Narrated by: Ross Douthat
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, DC, to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain - a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which, according to CDC definitions, does not actually exist.
-
-
Excellent!!
- By D on 11-09-21
By: Ross Douthat
-
Bad Religion
- How We Became a Nation of Heretics
- By: Ross Douthat
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ross Douthat, the youngest-ever op-ed columnist for the New York Times, has emerged as one of the most provocative and influential voices of his generation. Now he offers a masterful and hard-hitting account of how American Christianity has gone off the rails - and why it threatens to take American society with it.
-
-
Maybe not best as an audio book
- By Linwood on 05-02-12
By: Ross Douthat
-
Chip War
- The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing.
-
-
Great history, but could poor narration
- By Lily Wong on 10-26-22
By: Chris Miller
-
Dominion
- How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland, Mark Meadows
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion - an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus - was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
-
-
Only the forward is narrated by Holland.
- By Honora on 06-16-20
By: Tom Holland
-
The Wright Brothers
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story behind the story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright's Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why?
-
-
Disappointing
- By Sara on 07-10-16
By: David McCullough
-
The Decadent Society
- How We Became a Victim of Our Own Success
- By: Ross Douthat
- Narrated by: Ross Douthat
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The era of the coronavirus has tested America, and our leaders and institutions have conspicuously failed. That failure shouldn’t be surprising: Beneath social-media frenzy and reality-television politics, our era’s deep truths are elite incompetence, cultural exhaustion, and the flight from reality into fantasy. The Decadent Society explains what happens when a powerful society ceases advancing - how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemate, and demographic decline creates a unique civilizational crisis.
-
-
Another Liberal Arts Intellectual who does not rea
- By Trebla on 03-24-20
By: Ross Douthat
-
The Deep Places
- A Memoir of Illness and Discovery
- By: Ross Douthat
- Narrated by: Ross Douthat
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, DC, to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain - a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which, according to CDC definitions, does not actually exist.
-
-
Excellent!!
- By D on 11-09-21
By: Ross Douthat
-
Bad Religion
- How We Became a Nation of Heretics
- By: Ross Douthat
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ross Douthat, the youngest-ever op-ed columnist for the New York Times, has emerged as one of the most provocative and influential voices of his generation. Now he offers a masterful and hard-hitting account of how American Christianity has gone off the rails - and why it threatens to take American society with it.
-
-
Maybe not best as an audio book
- By Linwood on 05-02-12
By: Ross Douthat
-
Chip War
- The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing.
-
-
Great history, but could poor narration
- By Lily Wong on 10-26-22
By: Chris Miller
-
Dominion
- How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland, Mark Meadows
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion - an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus - was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
-
-
Only the forward is narrated by Holland.
- By Honora on 06-16-20
By: Tom Holland
-
The Wright Brothers
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story behind the story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright's Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why?
-
-
Disappointing
- By Sara on 07-10-16
By: David McCullough
-
Jesus and John Wayne
- How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
- By: Kristin Kobes du Mez
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate's staunchest supporters? Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last 75 years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.
-
-
Like reading a history of my evangelical life
- By Renee on 10-15-20
-
Boomers
- The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster
- By: Helen Andrews
- Narrated by: Nicole Parnell
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Boomers, essayist Helen Andrews addresses the Boomer legacy with scrupulous fairness and biting wit. Following the model of Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians, she profiles six of the Boomers' brightest and best. She shows how Steve Jobs tried to liberate everyone's inner rebel but unleashed our stultifying digital world of social media and the gig economy. How Aaron Sorkin played pied piper to a generation of idealistic wonks. How Camille Paglia corrupted academia while trying to save it.
-
-
A Finger-Pointing, Conservative Essay
- By Erin F. on 08-11-21
By: Helen Andrews
-
Why Liberalism Failed
- By: Patrick J. Deneen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of the three dominant ideologies of the 20th century - fascism, communism, and liberalism - only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism's proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions.
-
-
a fine idea stuffed in a dead horse and beat
- By David on 09-26-18
-
The War on the West
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?
-
-
Every Human (seriously, everyone) Read This!
- By aaron on 04-27-22
By: Douglas Murray
-
Why We're Catholic
- Our Reasons for Faith, Hope, and Love
- By: Trent Horn
- Narrated by: Trent Horn
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can you believe all this stuff? This is the number one question Catholics get asked - and, sometimes, we ask ourselves. Why We're Catholic assembles the clearest, friendliest, most helpful answers that Trent learned to give to people. Beginning with how we can know reality and ending with our hope of eternal life, it's the perfect way to help skeptics and seekers (or Catholics who want to firm up their faith) understand the evidence that bolsters our belief - and brings us joy.
-
-
Please, more Catholic Answers books on Audible!
- By Chris DesRochers on 04-17-19
By: Trent Horn
-
Woke Racism
- How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.
-
-
Thank You
- By Withacy on 10-26-21
By: John McWhorter
-
Infiltration: The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within
- By: Taylor Marshall
- Narrated by: Peggy Normandin
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It took nearly two millennia for the enemies of the Catholic Church to realize they could not successfully attack the Church from the outside. Indeed, countless nemeses from Nero to Napoleon succeeded only in creating sympathy and martyrs for our Catholic Faith. That all changed in the mid-19th century, when clandestine societies populated by Modernists and Marxists hatched a plan to subvert the Catholic Church from within. Their goal: to change Her doctrine, Her liturgy, and Her mission.
-
-
Narration leaves something to be desired
- By Laura on 07-10-19
By: Taylor Marshall
-
God, Human, Animal, Machine
- Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning
- By: Meghan O'Gieblyn
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence urgently require rethinking.
-
-
Confessions of an Evangelical Pastor
- By Jonathan F. on 10-28-21
By: Meghan O'Gieblyn
-
A Church in Crisis
- Pathways Forward
- By: Ralph Martin
- Narrated by: Ralph Martin
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly 40 years ago, Ralph Martin's best-selling A Crisis of Truth exposed the damaging trends in Catholic teaching and preaching that, combined with attacks from secular society, threatened the mission and life of the Catholic Church. While much has been done to counter false teaching over the last four decades, today the church faces even more insidious threats from outside and within. In A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward, Martin offers a detailed look at the growing hostility to the Catholic Church and its teaching.
-
-
audio file has errors
- By Rednax on 05-31-21
By: Ralph Martin
-
Lost Shepherd
- How Pope Francis Is Misleading His Flock
- By: Philip F. Lawler
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Faithful Catholics are beginning to realize it’s not their imagination. Pope Francis has led them on a journey from joy to unease to alarm and even a sense of betrayal. They can no longer pretend that he represents merely a change of emphasis in papal teaching. Assessing the confusion sown by this pontificate, Lost Shepherd explains what’s at stake, what’s not at stake, and how loyal believers should respond.
-
-
Double minded at times with no insight
- By Larry Amon on 03-10-21
By: Philip F. Lawler
-
Reasons to Believe
- How to Understand, Defend, and Explain the Catholic Faith
- By: Scott Hahn
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Reasons to Believe, Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism, explains the "how and why" of the Catholic faith - drawing from Scripture, his own struggles, and those of other converts, as well as from everyday life and even natural science. Hahn shows that reason and revelation, as well as nature and the supernatural, are not opposed to one another; rather, they offer complementary evidence that God exists. He is someone, and He has a personality, a personal style, that is discernable and knowable.
-
-
A Catholic for convition and tradition
- By benigno on 05-29-12
By: Scott Hahn
-
Colonialism
- A Moral Reckoning
- By: Nigel Biggar
- Narrated by: Matt Bates
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the ‘End of History’—that the global dominance of liberal democracy had been secured forever. Now, however, with Russia rattling its sabre on the borders of Europe and China rising to challenge the post-1945 world order, the liberal West faces major threats. These threats are not only external. Especially in the Anglosphere, the ‘decolonisation’ movement corrodes the West’s self-confidence by retelling the history of European and American colonial dominance.
-
-
Outstanding Report on one of the greatest empires ever.
- By mcasteli on 02-22-23
By: Nigel Biggar
What listeners say about To Change the Church
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David Rivera
- 04-06-18
Mispronunciations
Very well narrated but mispronounced many foreign language words.
Should check how things are pronounced in Italian, Latin etc...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Superfluous Man
- 04-01-18
Fine Book, Risible Narration
Mr. Douthat’s fine work is unexceptionable, but the narration leaves much to be desired. A partial list of egregiously mispronounced words: synod, despoliation, papabile, Kulturkampf, Boniface, fumi-e, hagan liu, ecumenism, Lettres provinciales.
The publisher owes an author of Douthat’s reputation and vocabulary a narration to match—I rarely write a review of this kind, but given the specialized subject matter, it would have been far preferable to have the author read the text himself.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ian
- 07-24-21
Terrifyingly honest presentation of Pope Francis
Writing as a journalist, Douthat investigates the Francis years as they've developed. From middle ground compromise between "conservative" and "reformer" factions in the church, to liberalizing, polarizing wrecking ball reformer in recent years, Douthat traces the transformation and movements in Rome, and views the Chruch-changing events from as many angles as possible.
Well written, well argued, and well read by the narrator.
Warning to Catholics who might have more fragile beliefs, this is rough. I recently reconverted, and I've read Douthat's other other books. I picked this up hoping for an insightful update on the Francis years. It gave me what I was asked for, but that was more than I bargained for. There is a lot of airing of dirty laundry here, it's all publicly available, all cited sources you can check; but still it's a compilation of facts you likely would not have put together on your own. There's a lot of dirty politics it seems the Holy Father is playing, and a lot of the implications of the book suggest we may be in years of a heretical Pope who is consciously damaging all that we know of to be "the Church" in favor of some poorly articulated "higher morality." The author makes a good case for this, which was the most upsetting part for me, it wasn't some right wing wonk, it was quality journalism. As a common Catholic, there isn't much I can do but pray. This may just cause pain with no practical transformation offered for you unless you are connected with a Bishop or Cardinal. Listener beware.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. E. Bon
- 04-08-18
Church or God.
Glad I have never found myself trapped in church "stuff". Nothing to do with sprituality.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Roman
- 04-03-18
A Conservative's View of the modern Church
Although I fundamentally disagree with Douthat's analysis (and conclusions), I found this to be a fascinating account of the state of affairs in the Catholic Church over the past 55 years---especially his "insider's" perspective on some of the main players. Despite his numerous swipes at Traditionalists (of which I am one), I could not stop listening. And despite the blistering attacks levelled at Douthat by Catholic conservatives, I found his conclusions to be relatively optimistic. My major disagreement with him lies in the contrasts he draws between JPII, Benedict, and Francis. The differences are style---not substance, as I am convinced that the root cause of most of the current problems in the Church is Vatican II. Despite Francis' outlandish and frequently heretical pronouncements, his pontificate is the direct outgrowth of (and totally consistent with) Vatican II.
Although I frequently nit pik narrators who are guilty of errors in pronunciation, none have even come close to the egregious number contained in this recording. I an surprised that a journalist from the New York Times would not have done a better job of screening the narrator of such an important work. It was truly painful to hear him mutilate so many commonplace words---by far the worst I have heard in the hundreds of books to which I've listened.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patricia M. O'Neil
- 05-28-18
Fascinating!
Ross Douthat’s analysis of the papacy under Pope Francis is extremely well balanced and informative. He exhibits a good grasp of Church history. The book is honest, insightful and well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Minerva Venuti
- 04-19-18
Important book, horrible narrator
Douthat's thoughts on the Church of 2018 are original and important. Unfortunately a narrator who is completely unfamiliar with ecclesiastical language was chosen. I lost count of the misspronouced words. It's was distracting and infuriating.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pirie
- 09-16-18
Narrator needs remedial training.
It was frustrating to listen to a narrator who does not know the distinction between pronunciations of the word “the“. When the word “the” appears before another word that begins with a vowel the pronunciation is “THEE”. The narrator would pronounce it that way in front of words that begin with consonants. You can imagine how frustrating it is to hear “the car“ pronounced “thee car“.
Get this man some training!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A. Moran
- 06-26-18
insightful
This book captures the issues at stake in Pope Francis' actions and writings. some mispronounced words but otherwise well read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark Grannis
- 05-07-18
Hammer, meet nail
Aspiring writers should heed this lesson in the perils of writing opinions for a living. This book imparts almost no information apart from rumor and no understanding apart from its author’s. If you happen to be interested in Douthat’s understanding of Catholic theology, though, this book is for you.
I gave the book two stars only so that I could give the narrator just one. I don’t think he’s ever read much Catholic writing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful