Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
With characteristic flair, the sour Latinist Tertullian called Rome "the happy church on which the Apostles poured forth all their teaching together with their blood." Such emotional extremes, axiomatic of Tertullian, apply equally to papal histories, often given to the heights and depths of spiritual excitement. Duffy (Magdalene Coll., Cambridge) offers this abundantly illustrated, amiably presented history to accompany a multinational television series for Britain, France, and Ireland. Such a pedigree often provokes disdain among bookish sorts, but Duffy's scholarship and enthusiasm overcome the book's populist roots. While not necessarily uncovering anything strikingly new and more akin to a handbook than a treatise, this work merits applause for providing a people's papal retrospective. Those wishing for heavier intellectual discourse should seek out Owen Chadwick's The Popes and European Revolution (1981) or practically anything by Peter Hebblethwaite.Sandra Collins, Northern Tier Lib., Pittsburgh (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
In this lavishly illustrated and elegantly written book, Duffy, a church historian and fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, traces the history of the papacy from its establishment in the first centuries of the common era to the present reign of Pope John Paul II. Duffy explores the development of the institution of the papacy in each succeeding generation. In his first chapter, Duffy confirms that the tradition of tracing the papacy's roots to the Apostle Peter can be found even in early Christian writers like Ignatius of Antioch, but he contends that the institution of the papacy had its true beginnings in the "monarchic episcopate," or the rule of a single bishop in Rome, of the second century A.D. Duffy offers a portrait of an institution experiencing the pains of growth through the great schisms and reform movements of the Middle Ages as well as an institution growing so powerful and influential that it has "outlived not merely the Roman and Byzantine empires, but those of medieval Germany, Spain, Britain, and the Third Reich of Hitler." In showing both the good and evil that he believes have arisen from the institution of the papacy, Duffy provides a balanced history that will be useful to people of all faiths. (Nov.) FYI: Saints and Sinners features 165 color illustrations and 50 b&w illustrations. The book is the official publication of a six-part TV series of the same title that is scheduled to appear in 1998 on the History Channel. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
CHOICE Review
Duffy (church history, Cambridge) developed this volume in conjunction with a television series that traced the history of the papacy from the Apostle Peter to John Paul II. As such, the volume is a splendid testimony to the potential of television and Duffy's ability to compress into a lively and substantive narrative 2,000 years of one of, if not the, most significant institutions of the world and its disparate office-holders. Lavishly illustrated with full color plates and prints on nearly every page, the book warrants a place not only on coffee tables but in the hands of anyone interested in the history of the papacy, including students and professors. The color pervades Duffy's descriptions: Renaissance Rome is compared to a Hollywood spectacular, "all decadence and drag," that contemporaries perceived "as we now view Nixon's Washington, a city of expense-account whores and political graft, where everything and everyone had a price, where nothing and nobody could be trusted." The volume includes an index, seven maps, a chronological list of popes and antipopes, a glossary, and a solid bibliographical essay. Highly recommended for all libraries. General; undergraduate; graduate; faculty. C. Lindberg Boston University
Booklist Review
Duffy offers a comprehensive overview of the 2,000-year history of the papacy. Beginning with the origins of the Catholic Church and the establishment of the office of the bishop of Rome, he traces the development of papal authority and the extension of papal influence beyond the sphere of religion. During the course of biographical discussions detailing the failures and the achievements of successive popes, it becomes increasingly clear that as the papacy evolved, individual popes began to wield a tremendous amount of political, social, and cultural power. The companion piece to an upcoming cable television series, this digestible survey provides a compelling introduction to one of the most durable and significant institutions to influence the course of Western civilization. --Margaret Flanagan
Kirkus Book Review
A sumptuous feast of popes and kings, nimbly prepared by historian Duffy, a fellow at Magdelen College, Cambridge. This book is intended as a tie-in to a six-part British television series on the history of the papacy, scheduled to appear on the History Channel in the spring of 1998. For a companion volume, this history is surprisingly dense and sophisticated. More important, although Duffy certainly remarks on the papacy's more salacious past (like Boniface's comment that sex with boys or women was no more sinful than ``rubbing one hand against another''), he never stoops to a tabloidesque fascination with the all-too-human foibles of the pontiffs. Rather, Duffy uses the evolving institution of the papacy from Peter to John Paul II as a lens through which to view two millennia of Western civilization. He profiles the missionary activity of the early Church, the consolidation of power with the bishop of Rome (who became the acknowledged pope), the emergence of monastic reform, the schism with Constantinople, the ``Babylonian Captivity'' of the papacy in 14th-century Avignon, Luther's protest, and the Catholic Reformation that met his challenge. If the last third of the book seems to lose some of its energy, it might be because, as Duffy subtly observes, the modern papacy is a quite different institution than its predecessor. Shorn of political power and the most obvious signs of avarice, it now commands a holy respect. Duffy claims that the current pope asserts ``a spiritual status . . . greater than at any time since the high Middle Ages.'' With its 150 well-chosen illustrations, 100 of them in color, this is a coffee-table book that transcends its genre. (History Book Club selection)