The Church Retrospective: Papers Read at the 1995 Summer Meeting and the 1996 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society

The concerns expressed range from the insistent break with the pagan past to create a Christian identity in the first centuries of the Church, through to the impact in the twentieth century of appeals to the original ideals of St Clare; essays also investigate major periods of turmoil in the Church's history (notably the twelfth, sixteenth and nineteenth centuries) which entailed a reconsideration of its links with the past. The subjects covered embrace a number of disciplines, from theology to art history, from the sociology of religion to the origins of a specifically Roman Catholic approach to archaeology. Throughout, the scope of the volume reflects the many and varied ways in which the legacy and heritage of the past has affected the life of the Church, and of individual Christians, over the centuries.Dr R.N. SWANSON teaches in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham. Contents and contributors: T.A. HESLOP, RACHEL MORIARTY, STUART G. HALL, COLIN MORRIS, SIMON COATES, JOHN A. McGUCKIN, CHRISTOPHER HOLDSWORTH, MARJORIE CHIBNALL, LUCY BOSWORTH, FRANCES ANDREWS, TAKASHI SHOGIMEN, MICHAEL WILKS, ANDREW MARTINDALE, ANDREW PETTEGREE, HELEN L. PARISH, THOMAS L. FREEMAN, MARTIN DOTTERWEICH, ALEXANDRA WALSHAM, DAMIAN NUSSBAUM, SIMON DITCHFIELD, J.M.B. PORTER, DAVID L. WYKES, PETER van ROONEN, R.A. BURNS, J. MORDAUNT CROOK, TIMOTHY LARSEN, OLIVER LOGAN, JEREMY MORRIS, MARTIN WELLINGS, DOUGLAS M. MURRAY, BARBARA WRAITH, PAUL M. GERRARD

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The church's relationship with its past exerts a continuing influence, as a source of authority and as something to be manipulated to affect current disputes and debates. Studies consider, among other questions, the major periods of turmoil in the church's history, notably the twelfth, sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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Reflections of the ways in which the legacy of the past has affected the life of the Church over the centuries.