Rise and Fall of Triumph

The Rise and Fall of Triumph: The History of a Radical Roman Catholic Magazine, 1966-1976 by Mark D Popowski, 233 pages

The Society for the Christian Commonwealth and its magazine Triumph were founded by a group of Catholic intellectuals connected to National Review who were increasingly frustrated by that publication's libertarian tendencies.  For the editors at Triumph, the Second Vatican Council did not constitute a surrender to the zeitgeist, but a renewed call to sanctify the world, a call which demanded a bold proclamation of Christian truths.  In their view, both conservative and liberal Catholics had sold their patrimony for the pottage of political ideology, for the modern West in general and the United States in particular were founded on the unstable ground of the Enlightenment.  This led them to promote a radical reconstitution of American culture, founded on the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as the sovereign King of all creation.

The story of how Triumph pursued its seemingly quixotic quest is the subject of Mark Popowski's history.  For ten years the magazine defied seemingly every trend - cultural, political, and religious - while featuring an array of provocative thinkers including L Brent Bozell, Frederick Wilhelmsen, William Marshner, Warren Carroll, Russell Kirk, Christopher Dawson, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and Otto von Habsburg.  Popowski amply demonstrates how, despite its relatively short life and numerous eccentricities, the fearless assertiveness of the magazine helped it serve as a rallying point for Catholics who sought to transform the world, rather than letting the world transform them.