Review by Choice Review
Duffy (Cambridge), author of the superb Saints and Sinners (2nd ed., 2001; 1st ed., CH, Apr'98, 35-4437), here highlights ten extraordinary popes in chapters originally presented on BBC radio. The writing is vivid and clear. Despite its brevity, this volume conveys ways the institution of the papacy influenced the Christian church's internal development, and its impact on politics and culture. The claims that Duffy makes for each of these major leaders are perceptive and persuasive. For example, he notes that as Western society was passing from pagan to Christian culture, Leo the Great (440-461) successfully claimed that Peter spoke through him and thereby "invented the papacy." Likewise, through his missionary policy of assimilation, Gregory the Great (590-604) "unwittingly invented Europe." And in reaction to the Protestant Reformation, Paul III (1534-49) made Catholicism "decidedly narrow minded." Characterizing the 20th-century popes, Duffy argues that Pius XII (1939-58) faltered in the face of Nazi crimes, whereas John XXIII (1958-63) opened the church to the world and John Paul II (1978-2005) "was the greatest man to occupy the chair of Peter for centuries." Duffy offers brief, lucid narratives and convincing interpretations of the considerable significance of each of the ten popes included. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. W. L. Pitts Jr. Baylor University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Historian-of-religion Duffy, a Cambridge University professor and former president of Cambridge's Magdalene College, presented most of this material on 10 significant popes on BBC Radio in 2007. He begins, inevitably, with Saint Peter, whose contemporaries would have called the bishop of Rome, not a pope. Leo the Great (440-61) defined the central authority of Rome. Gregory the Great (590-604) unwittingly invented Europe by working to convert England, Holland, and Germany. Gregory VII (1073-85) was a reformer who challenged the Holy Roman emperor, who had been his patron; Innocent III (1190-1216) waged bloody crusades but also made room for the Dominican and Franciscan orders. Paul III (1534-44), the last of the partying popes, sent Michelangelo to the Sistine Chapel and reacted to Luther's challenge by empowering both genuine reform and the Inquisition. Pius IX (1846-78) lost many of the papal states but expanded papal authority and rejected modernity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the past century is represented by three popes: Pius XII (1939-58), John XXIII (1958-63), and John Paul II (1978-2005). Enlightening, if brief, portraits.--Carroll, Mary Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
These portraits of ten highly influential popes were originally broadcast on BBC radio and here retain their colloquial style while exhibiting solid scholarship. After considering the role of the papacy itself in history, Catholic historian Duffy (history of Christianity, Cambridge Univ., UK; Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor) offers his assessment of these individuals and their ability (or lack thereof) to respond to changes in the world and to effect changes. Among others, he considers Peter, the first pope; Leo the Great, who saw Rome become the center of the Christian world; Pius IX, who was unable to hold back the forces of modernity; Pius XII, whose purported silence in the face of Nazi atrocities Duffy puts in context; and John Paul II, who reinforced the Church's role as moral teacher and upholder of human dignity. VERDICT Readers seeking a more detailed, scholarly, and thorough history may prefer to turn to Duffy's Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. Others will find accessible and unbiased but not uncritical portraits of ten popes who influenced the world around them. For anyone interested in the history of the Catholic Church or the development of the modern world generally.-Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
