David Hildebrand does me two incredibly welcome favors with this work. First, he gets me started in the right place. That is, he gets me out of theoretical epicycles and returns me to the radical world of reality. Needless to say, having a proper starting point makes a huge difference that I notice immediately.

Next, he tells me what philosophy is capable of. That is, philosophy can actually be engaged in as a MEANS to study, perchance to improve, the experience I find myself immersed in before I open my mouth to speak or poise my pen to write or or even begin to compose sentences.

I have turned an important corner here in my own personal quest to effect improvements in the world. If I never learned where to start or how to employ philosophy, then I'd remain lost in it's self-absorbed, subjective/reflective mazes until I died.

While I admit benefitting from having an erudite response constructed logically to help contextualize Putnam & Rorty, I enjoy most of all the freedom to take my own personal set of capabilities, such that they are, and investigate whether or not I am able to effect improvement in the real world.

I feel very much liberated and very much encouraged in being a practically-minded human creature.

I will add my own deeply sincere thanks to those of the other reviewers here. I look forward to what follows this volume.

Unlike many books written by traditional Catholics, von Hildebrand begins by conceding that prior to Vatican II, the Church was in need of reform. He points to the excessive legalism that threatened to squelch the spirit - especially as expressed in religious life. His great insight here, though, is that the antidote to the problem is not excessive liberalism, but rather the need to refocus on our primary task as Catholics, which is to seek transformation in Christ.

TROJAN HORSE catalogues the tendencies in progressive Catholicism that led us away from genuine spiritual renewal. Many of the errors von Hildebrand identified in 1970 have taken firmer hold today: disregard of tradition; secularism; an overemphasis on the immanence of God at the expense of His transcendence; scientism; and others. The book is very readable and moves briskly from topic to topic. Many penetrating insights are to be found along the way.

There are a few minor weaknesses in the book, however. Von Hildebrand critiques the errors of progressive Catholicism without always identifying exactly who has espoused the error. In the few cases when the errors that he discusses seem, in fact, to have ebbed away this can be a bit confusing. There are sections of the book which do seem dated. Still, this is an excellent analysis of the problems that confront the Church today - and it reminds us of what should really matter to us as Catholics.

Luckily for me, and Amazon.com's seemingly endless link system, I came across several wonderful books which served as a rope to haul my head out of that pit. One of those books is Von Hildebrand's book, "Trojan Horse in the City of God." He is observant and he writes it as he sees it. The Second Vatican Council has been much abused, both by Progressives who have twisted its message almost beyond recognition, and by Traditionalists, who mostly spit when the subject of the Council comes up. I appreciate Von Hildebrand's recourse to calm reason and well-derived philosophical argument.

The book is easy enough to read, given the complexity of the subject matter. The chapters are short, and are divided into even shorter sections. Easy to pick up and put down and return to later.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to figure out what it means to be a Catholic Christian in the present age, and who wants to be able to counter some of the nonsense that so often passes for Catholic teachings these days.

A well written book; good primer for anyone planning a Yukon River trip, or anyone who just likes good adventure reading. Ride down the river with author in his canoe-with-motor and see Alaska through the eyes of a now-grown hippie returning to Alaska to find the self he left behind years before.

This book goes a long way towards trying to make the Church (or at least the "good members" of it) seem a bit more palatable to the gaming world, which I must praise. The presentations on angels, on sainthood, and even on the tempers of the Divine aura are quite intriguing. There is still a strong effort to make the Albegensians into 12th century hippies, though, which is find ridiculous; the Albegensians were at least as self-righteous as the Christian authorities of the era and as strongly determined that "there is my way or damnation, no middle ground."

While this is a very well written supplement, few people will want to slog through it, which is sad. It is filled with deep background on the nature of Heaven and the Church. It helps correct some of the anti-Church views of earlier supplements. Still, many people will find it "preachy". Hey, storyguides! If you are to accept a Middle Ages as people at the time accepted it, one where demons and devils DO exist, then Christianity must exist to balance the Forces of Evil out. This would mean that the Church is not evil, even though some particular members of it might be.

Just remember -- the Mongols are coming, backed by dragons... They must be the Legions of Hell...

(this was the popular view at the time)