The Divine Plan
John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Dramatic End of the Cold War
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Just six weeks apart in the spring of 1981, Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan took bullets from would-be assassins.
Few realized at the time how close both men came to dying.
Surviving these near-death experiences created a singular bond between the pope and the president that historians have failed to appreciate.
When John Paul II and Reagan met only a year later, they confided to each other a shared conviction: that God had spared their lives for a reason.
That reason? To defeat Communism.
In private, Reagan had a name for this: "The DP"—the Divine Plan.
* * *
It has become fashionable to see the collapse of the Soviet empire as inevitable.
Hardly.
In this riveting book, bestselling author Paul Kengor and writer-director Robert Orlando show what it took to end the Cold War: leaders who refused to accept that hundreds of millions must suffer under totalitarian Communism.
And no leaders proved more important than the pope and the president.
Two men who seemed to have little in common developed an extraordinary bond—including a spiritual bond between the Catholic pope and Protestant president. And their shared core convictions drove them to confront Communism.
To tell the full story of the dramatic closing act of the Cold War, Kengor and Orlando draw on their exhaustive research and exclusive interviews with more than a dozen experts, including well-known historians Douglas Brinkley, H. W. Brands, Anne Applebaum, Stephen Kotkin, John O'Sullivan, and Craig Shirley; the leading biographer of John Paul II, George Weigel; close Reagan advisers Richard V. Allen and James Rosebush; and Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron.
You can't understand Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan—or how the Cold War came to such a swift and peaceful end—without understanding how much faith they put in the Divine Plan.
Paul Kengor
Paul Kengor is the author of the New York Times extended-list bestseller God and Ronald Reagan as well as God and George W. Bush and The Crusader. He is a professor of political science and director of the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College. He lives with his wife and children in Grove City, Pennsylvania.
More by Paul Kengor
Robert Orlando
Murder, a true crime scene, controversies, leading scientists' investigations, and a startling NASA study. "An incredibly detailed image of the man on the Shroud shocks the world and befuddles believer and skeptic alike. How to explain such a phenomenon?" writes Robert Orlando, award-winning writer, filmmaker, and director.When Orlando was first approached about making a documentary about the Shroud of Turin, he was skeptical of the project--and the Shroud itself. Then he came across conflicting opinions in history and science. This, along with his desire to learn more about the life of Jesus and make sense about the final things, led him to investigate "a new crime scene." This book was inspired by his new documentary with the same title."The murder of Jesus of Nazareth, a carpenter from a small town outside Jerusalem, became the most historically debated crime scene in all recorded history," Orlando explains. "Not only do people debate the historicity of the event, but unlike most other crime scenes, there's a religious element. The murder of this simple carpenter somehow launches the largest, most widespread religion of modern times."Through his scholarly research and his detective work, Orlando fascinatingly connects historical, archaeological, scientific, art, and theological research to unveil: Evidence that dates back to the time and place of ChristThe results of a startling NASA study and leading scientists' researchA biblical clue to where the Shroud may have been hiddenWhat Jesus really experienced according to science, history, and ScriptureA miraculous healing from the Shroud following the Resurrection Also included is a timeline of the Shroud's history and an introduction to the key witnesses of Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection. While retelling the story of Christ through the lens of ancient customs and traditions, Orlando breaks open the mysterious discovery of the Shroud.In these gripping pages, Orlando lays out numerous opinions and fact-based arguments, and systematically separates fact from fiction. He raises the question: Is the Shroud the connection between faith and science? If the Shroud really is the burial cloth of Jesus, it is the key to unlocking the world's greatest mystery and shedding light in an age of disbelief. In the words of Orlando, "The death of Jesus is the most consequential death in human history."
More by Robert Orlando
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