Farrell, Thomas2025-02-262025-02-262025This version was not previously published.https://hdl.handle.net/11299/270140See the above abstract.In my 10,350-word review essay "Philip Shenon's 2025 Book Jesus Wept, and Walter J. Ong's Thought," I succinctly highlight Philip Shenon's bleak new 2025 book Jesus Wept: Seven Popes and the Battle for the Soul of the Catholic Church (Alfred A. Knopf). In addition, I highlight the thought of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) by constructing a fourfold account of our Western cultural history -- and of the history of the Roman Catholic Church from the historical Jesus to the seven most recent popes discussed by Philip Shenon.en-USPhilip Shenon, Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Walter J. Ong, Thomas J. FarrellScholarly Text or Essay