Daniel_Cheung
09-10-2008, 08:02 PM
The Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities c.1914?c.2000
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121359308/HTMLSTART
Edited by Hugh McLeod
Norman Tanner 1
1 Gregorian University, Rome
DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)
10.1111/j.1468-2265.2008.00425_13.x About DOI
Pp. xviii, 717 . The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 9 . Cambridge University Press , 2006 , ?100.00 .
Modern, comprehensive histories of the Church may be considered to begin with the publication, from 1938 onwards, of Histoire de L'Eglise, edited by A. Fliche and V. Martin and, later, by other scholars. In many ways this great multi-volume works still remains today the best general history of the Church. As well as containing a huge amount of information and sensible interpretation, it keeps an excellent balance between the institutional and 'popular religion' dimensions of Christianity, between what might be called 'from above' and 'from below' approaches, even while its main focus is the Catholic Church. It was translated into Italian, Storia della chiesa, and Spanish, Historia de la iglesia, but not into English. For English readers perhaps the most useful, as well as accessible, general history has been History of the Church, edited by H. Jedin, which was published in ten volumes in 1980 (a few volumes had appeared earlier, from 1969, under another name, Handbook of Church History), as a translation of the German original, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte (1967?79). Also useful though on a smaller scale was the five-volume history edited by L.J. Rogier, R. Aubert and M.D. Knowles, which was published in various languages in the years either side of 1970, in English as The Christian Centuries: A New History of the Catholic Church; and the popular and low-priced The Pelican History of the Church, in six paperback volumes, which was written around the same time by the all-British team of Henry and Owen Chadwick, R.W. Southern, G. Cragg, A.R. Vidler and Stephen Neill. Soon afterwards the distinguished volumes of Oxford History of the Christian Church began to appear. The work as a whole is more a collection of individual studies ? Joan Hussey on the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire, Colin Morris on the western Church between 1050 and 1250, John McManners on the French Church in the eighteenth century, Ian Breward on the churches in Australasia, for example ? than a unified general history of the Church. The work remains far from complete and the volumes, while mostly of the highest quality, were and are expensive ? even though many of them have been published, at various dates, also in paperback at much lower prices.
J.-M. Mayeur is general editor of the history published at various stages within the last ten years, in 13 or so volumes, in French as Histoire du Christianisme, in German as Die Geschichte des Christentums, in Italian as Storia del Cristianesimo. Noticeable is the shift in the title from 'Church', which prevailed in most earlier histories, to 'Christianity' in Mayeur's work. The change marks a more 'from below' and less institutional approach, one too that is more ecumenical and less concerned with denominational loyalties. The work has not been published in English. One wonders whether the gap is partly because the editor and publisher were aware that The Cambridge History of Christianity was forthcoming. In this case, too, the title speaks of Christianity rather than Church and the approach is correspondingly more 'from below' and ecumenical...
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121359308/HTMLSTART
Edited by Hugh McLeod
Norman Tanner 1
1 Gregorian University, Rome
DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)
10.1111/j.1468-2265.2008.00425_13.x About DOI
Pp. xviii, 717 . The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 9 . Cambridge University Press , 2006 , ?100.00 .
Modern, comprehensive histories of the Church may be considered to begin with the publication, from 1938 onwards, of Histoire de L'Eglise, edited by A. Fliche and V. Martin and, later, by other scholars. In many ways this great multi-volume works still remains today the best general history of the Church. As well as containing a huge amount of information and sensible interpretation, it keeps an excellent balance between the institutional and 'popular religion' dimensions of Christianity, between what might be called 'from above' and 'from below' approaches, even while its main focus is the Catholic Church. It was translated into Italian, Storia della chiesa, and Spanish, Historia de la iglesia, but not into English. For English readers perhaps the most useful, as well as accessible, general history has been History of the Church, edited by H. Jedin, which was published in ten volumes in 1980 (a few volumes had appeared earlier, from 1969, under another name, Handbook of Church History), as a translation of the German original, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte (1967?79). Also useful though on a smaller scale was the five-volume history edited by L.J. Rogier, R. Aubert and M.D. Knowles, which was published in various languages in the years either side of 1970, in English as The Christian Centuries: A New History of the Catholic Church; and the popular and low-priced The Pelican History of the Church, in six paperback volumes, which was written around the same time by the all-British team of Henry and Owen Chadwick, R.W. Southern, G. Cragg, A.R. Vidler and Stephen Neill. Soon afterwards the distinguished volumes of Oxford History of the Christian Church began to appear. The work as a whole is more a collection of individual studies ? Joan Hussey on the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire, Colin Morris on the western Church between 1050 and 1250, John McManners on the French Church in the eighteenth century, Ian Breward on the churches in Australasia, for example ? than a unified general history of the Church. The work remains far from complete and the volumes, while mostly of the highest quality, were and are expensive ? even though many of them have been published, at various dates, also in paperback at much lower prices.
J.-M. Mayeur is general editor of the history published at various stages within the last ten years, in 13 or so volumes, in French as Histoire du Christianisme, in German as Die Geschichte des Christentums, in Italian as Storia del Cristianesimo. Noticeable is the shift in the title from 'Church', which prevailed in most earlier histories, to 'Christianity' in Mayeur's work. The change marks a more 'from below' and less institutional approach, one too that is more ecumenical and less concerned with denominational loyalties. The work has not been published in English. One wonders whether the gap is partly because the editor and publisher were aware that The Cambridge History of Christianity was forthcoming. In this case, too, the title speaks of Christianity rather than Church and the approach is correspondingly more 'from below' and ecumenical...