The following provide authoritative overviews of the development and evolution of Catholic institutions and ideas in the Middle Ages, and of the general scope of Latin Christian society:
Robert Bartlett
From our contemporary perspective, we tend to think of the Europe of the past as a colonizer, a series of empires that conquered lands beyond their borders and forced European cultural values on other peoples. This provocative book shows that Europe in the Middle Ages was as much a product of a process of conquest and colonization as it was later a colonizer. Pay special attention to the chapters "The Expansion of Latin Christendom" and "The Roman Church and the Christian People."
Herbert Grundmann
Scholars have welcomed this translation of Herbert Grundmann’s classic study of religious movements in the Middle Ages, which provides an historiography of medieval religious life – one that lies between the extremes of doctrinal classification and materialistic analysis. Perhaps the greatest synthetic daring of Grundmann’s study is his emphasis on the common point of departure shared by the religious groups that were ultimately to become located on either side of orthodoxy as defined by the Pope. Prior to Grundmann’s study scholars had only discussed either high medieval heresy or new orders within the Church, but Grundmann discusses here the common inspiration that lay behind both.
James Hitchcock
The history of the Catholic Church is long, complicated, and fascinating, and in this book it is expertly and ably told by historian James Hitchcock. As in the parable of Christ about the weeds that were sown in a field of wheat, evil and good have grown together in the Church from the start, as Hitchcock honestly records. He brings before us the many characters-some noble, some notorious-who have left an indelible mark on the Church, while never losing sight of the saints, who have given living testimony to the salvific power of Christ in every age.
Ulrich Gottfried Leinsle
With this book, distinguished historian of philosophy Ulrich Leinsle offers the first comprehensive introduction to scholastic theology. Leinsle works with a wide concept of scholasticism and therefore includes systematic theological thought from the Fathers of the Church until Leo XIII. Scholasticism for Leinsle is not a label for certain characteristics or a specific time period. Rather, it is a term used to cover a variety of theological methods and concepts. Reading Introduction to Scholastic Theology is an exciting adventure, as it guides readers through the beginnings of scholastic theology in the works of the Fathers, on to Early Scholasticism, High Scholasticism, scholastic thought in a time of paradigm shifts (14 - 15th century) and its fate during Humanism and Reformation, to the beginnings of the Enlightenment, and Neo-Scholasticism in the nineteenth century.
Colin Morris
Papal monarchy is a paradox, not a fact. Christianity has always drawn a firm line between church and state; yet the language of papal monarchy is inescapable in the high Middle Ages. It was also a time of fierce rivalry between the authority of kings and of popes and bishops. This book studies the way in which papal initiatives shaped the growth of church and society between 1050 and 1250, and the other elements which were shaping medieval ideas.
R. W. Southern
A distinguished historian presents an absorbing study of the main personalities and the influences that molded the history of Western Europe from the late tenth to the early thirteenth centuries—the formative period of modern Western civilization. R. W. Southern describes the chief forms of social, political, and religious organization, analyzing a wealth of concrete, highly significant episodes. He recaptures the personal experiences and the individual consciences of the men who guided "the making of the Middle Ages."
In the West the political and religious community were inextricably bound together, and because the Church was so intimately involved with the world, any history of it must take into account the development of medieval society. Professor Southern's book covers the period from the eighth to the sixteenth century. After sketching the main features of each medieval age, he deals in greater detail with the Papacy, the relations between Rome and her rival Constantinople, the bishops and archbishops, and the various religious orders, providing in all a superb history of the period.
Robert Louis Wilken
A narrative account of the history of Christianity from its beginning to the end of the first millennium. The principal theme is the slow drama of the building of a Christian civilization. A major theme is the mission of Christians among different peoples in many regions of the ancient world. The rise and spread of Islam is integral to the story.
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy 
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy, first published in 2003, takes its readers into one of the most exciting periods in the history of philosophy. It spans a millennium of thought extending from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas and beyond. It includes not only the thinkers of the Latin West but also the profound contributions of Islamic and Jewish thinkers such as Avicenna and Maimonides. Leading specialists examine what it was like to do philosophy in the cultures and institutions of the Middle Ages and engage all the areas in which medieval philosophy flourished, including language and logic, the study of God and being, natural philosophy, human nature, morality, and politics. The discussion is supplemented with chronological charts, biographies of the major thinkers, and a guide to the transmission and translation of medieval texts.
The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity
The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity is about the beliefs, practices, and institutions of the Roman Church between 400 and 1500 AD, and brings together in one volume a host of cutting-edge analysis. The book does not primarily provide a chronological narrative, but rather seeks to demonstrate the variety, change, and complexity of religion across this long period, and the numerous different ways in which modern scholarship can approach it. It presents the work of thirty academic authors, from the US, the UK, and Europe, addressing topics that range from early medieval monasticism to late medieval mysticism, from the material wealth of the Church to the spiritual exercises through which certain believers might attempt to improve their souls.
The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature
The twenty-eight articles in this Handbook represent some of the current thinking in the study of Latin language and literature in the Middle Ages. The insights offered by the collective of authors not only illuminate the field of medieval Latin literature, but shed new light on broader questions of literary history, cultural interaction, world literature, and language in history and society. The overall approach of the Handbook makes it a resource for students of the ancient world interested in the prolonged after-life of the classical period's cultural complexes, for medieval historians, for scholars of other medieval literary traditions, and for all those interested in delving more deeply into the more-than-millennium that forms the bridge between the ancient Mediterranean world and what we consider modernity.
The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy
The Handbook begins with eleven chapters looking at the history of medieval philosophy period by period, and region by region. They constitute the fullest, most wide-ranging and up-to-date chronological survey of medieval philosophy available. All four traditions - Greek, Latin, Islamic and Jewish (in Arabic, and in Hebrew) - are considered, and the Latin tradition is traced from late antiquity through to the seventeenth century and beyond.
