Witness to hope: the biography of Pope John Paul II

Prologue: The Disciple

The drama of Karol Wojtyla's life

A paradox and a sign of contradiction

The more excellent way

The broadness of a gauge

The subject and the author

A Son of Freedom: Poland Semper Fidelis

Karol Wojtyla's national, cultural, religious, and family roots

His childhood, his elementary and secondary education, the loss of his mother and brother

The influence of his father on his education and piety

His interests in Polish Romantic literature and in drama

His first undergraduate year at Krakow's Jagiellonian University

From the Underground: The Third Reich vs. the Kingdom of Truth

The Nazi Occupation of Poland

Karol Wojtyla and clandestine cultural resistance

His introduction to Carmelite spirituality and manual labor

The death of his father and the unfolding of a priestly vocation

The underground seminary

An "unbroken prince," Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha

Karol Wojtyla's ordination and graduate studies in theology in Rome

"Call Me Wujek": To Be a Priest

Country curate

Father Karol Wojtyla's pioneering student chaplaincy in Krakow

His first essays and poems

The temptation of revolutionary violence and Wojtyla's first mature play

An outdoorsman and a model confessor

The beauty of human love

Seeing Things as They Are: The Making of a Philosopher

A second doctorate, a new philosophical interest, and a new career

Karol Wojtyla at the Catholic University of Lublin

The Lublin challenge to modern skepticism

A book on love and sexuality that raises a few eyebrows

A New Pentecost: Vatican II and the Crisis of Humanism

The youngest bishop in Poland

The Second Vatican Council

Karol Wojtyla is named Archbishop of Krakow

Setting Vatican II's defense of freedom on a firm philosophical foundation

Successor to St. Stanislaw: Living the Council in Krakow

A cardinal at age forty-seven

Wojtyla's quest for religious freedom in Krakow

An extensive local implementation of Vatican II

The mature essayist, poet, and playwright

A distinctive style and a unique set of friends

Testing the world stage

A Pope from a Far Country: The Election of John Paul II

The Church at the death of Pope Paul VI

The "September Papacy" of Pope John Paul I

The election of Karol Jozef Wojtyla as the first Slavic Pope in history and the first non-Italian in 455 years, to the surprise of many, but not all, concerned

"Be Not Afraid!": A Pope for the World

An earthquake in the papacy and the Vatican

Redefining the public ministry of the Bishop of Rome

An alternative theology of liberation

Program notes for a pontificate

Preventing a war in Latin America

Consternation in the Kremlin

"How Many Divisions Has the Pope?": Confronting an Empire of Lies

The cultural power of the politically powerless

An epic pilgrimage to Poland

Nine days that bent the curve of modern history

A revolution of conscience

The Ways of Freedom: Truths Personal and Public

Marital intimacy as an icon of the inner life of God

Denouncing sectarian violence in Ireland

The Pope at the United Nations

Religious freedom as the first human right

Teenagers in a frenzy at Madison Square Garden

Galileo reconsidered

An appeal to Orthodoxy

Peter Among Us: The Universal Pastor as Apostolic Witness

The pilgrim Pope in Africa, France, Brazil, West Germany, and Asia

Collegiality and crisis management

In defense of the family

A bold appointment in Paris

The mysteries of fatherhood and mercy, divine and human

In the Eye of the Storm: Months of Violence and Dissent

The birth of Solidarity

An unprecedented letter to Leonid Brezhnev

The assassination attempt

Shock therapy for the Jesuits

The "Gospel of work"

Martial law in Poland

The Falklands/Malvinas War

Liberating Liberations The Limits of Politics and the Promise of Redemption

Revising Church law

Canonizing a martyr of Auschwitz

Confrontation in Nicaragua

To recognize the saints God has made

Restoring hope in Poland

A seminar with agnostics and atheists

A prison visit to a would-be papal assassin

Suffering as a path to love

Reliving the Council: Religion and the Renewal of a World Still Young

Securing the legacy of Vatican II

The "People Power" revolution in the Philippines

Hosting world religious leaders in Assisi

The first papal visit to the Synagogue of Rome

The irrevocable Catholic commitment to Christian unity

Addressing young Muslims in Casablanca

A letter to the youth of the world

Revamping the Vatican's press office

Forward to Basics: Freedom Ordered to the Dignity of Duty

Tear gas and the quest for democracy in Chile

The beatification of Edith Stein

A preview of communism's demise

Hiking in the Dolomites

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in Rome

Opening a dialogue with Mikhail Gorbachev

The excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

A distinctive feminism

Starting a homeless shelter in the Vatican

Counselor to Andrei Sakharov

After the Empire of Lies: Miracles and the Mandates of Justice

John Paul II in Scandinavia

The communist crack-up

A letter to Deng Xiaoping

Gorbachev in the Vatican

Defining the meaning of the "Revolution of 1989"

Challenging democracies to live freedom nobly

The Gulf War

The Catholic identity of Catholic universities

To the Ends of the Earth: Reconciling an Unreconciled World

The Church is a mission

A storm of controversy with Orthodoxy

The re-evangelization of Europe

Priests for a new millennium

Colon surgery

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Rejecting clericalism in Poland

Defending persecuted Christians in Sudan

Taking on the Mafia in Sicily

The Threshold of Hope: Appealing to Our Better Angels

A surprise in Denver

The renewal of moral theology

Diplomatic relations with Israel

Confronting the U.S. government at the Cairo World Population Conference

More health problems

A convent for contemplative nuns in the Vatican

The debate on women and the priesthood

An international bestseller

Only One World: Human Solidarity and the Gospel of Life

The Great Jubilee of 2000

The largest crowd in human history

Another assassination attempt

The "Gospel of life"

The Vatican and the World Conference on Women in Beijing

Asking Orthodox and Protestant Christians to help devise a papacy that could serve them

A "witness to hope" addresses the United Nations again

Singing in New York's Central Park

The golden jubilee

A Reasonable Faith: Beyond a Century of Delusions

Revising the rules for papal elections

France and Poland

Sarajevo, Lebanon, and Cuba

The longest-serving pope of the twentieth century

Catholic renewal movements in St. Peter's Square

John Paul II's twentieth anniversary

The Church in defense of human reason

Epilogue The Third Millennium: To See the Sun Rise

The critiques of John Paul II are evaluated, his accomplishments are assayed, and a suggestion as to the nature of his greatness is offered.