Anglopressy

I finished this book a while back and I’ve been working on other things, so I haven’t gotten around to reviewing it.

There’s not a lot to say about it though. Duffy’s writing is very easy to read and the book is not what I expected from a Catholic. I really did think that this would either be a work of Catholic propaganda or Protestant anti-polemic. It was neither. Duffy does his best to reliably recount the history of the papacy without going one way or the other.

Though this book was interesting, it took me almost a year to finish. It’s a must-read in the same way that Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. By that I mean it was interesting but I just kept putting it down for other things. I was really excited to see the transformation of western civilization cause a very reluctant change in the nature of the papal office chronicled. The blend of imperial/secular and ecclesiastical powers in the west were torn apart. The civilization of strong bureaucracies wherein historically civic institutions became a part of religious life, was torn from the control of the church. The most interesting portion of the book was the age of revolution and everything that followed. Seeing the church go from belligerently defying change to John Paul II’s quiet undertow of conservatism.

Sorry the picture is so small.

Grace and Peace,
Jared