"...clearly a must for all libraries...and for all readers interested in spirituality." Religious Studies Review John Cassian: Conferences translation and preface by Colm Luibheid introduction by Owen Chadwick "I f you wish to achieve true knowledge of scripture you must hurry to achieve unshakable humility of heart. This is what will lead you not to the knowledge that puffs a man up but to the lore which illumines through the achievement of love." John Cassian (c. 365-c. 435) At the turn of the sixth century the Mediterranean world was witnessing the decline of Roman rule that had formed the bedrock of its civil order. During the chaos of those years, there arose in the deserts of Egypt and Syria monastic movements that offered men and women a radical God-centered alternative to the present society. Among the most eloquent interpreters of this new movement to western Europe was John Cassian (c. 365-c.435). Drawing on his own early experience as a monk in Bethlehem and Egypt, he journeyed to the West to found monasteries in Marseilles and the region of Provence. Included in this volume is Cassian's masterpiece, the Conferences, which is a study of the Egyptian ideal of the monk. The new translation by Colm Luibheid is coupled with an insightful introduction by the distinguished Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History, Cambridge University, Owen Chadwick, who writes of Cassian's achievement: "Like the Rule of St. Benedict, his work was a protection against excess and a constant recall to that primitive simplicity where eastern spirituality met western."

PENGUIN HISTORY

The beginning the sixteenth century brought growing pressure within the Western Church for Reformation.

The popes could not hold Western Christendom together and there was confusion about Church reform. What some believed to be abuses, others found acceptable. Nevertheless over the years three aims emerged: to reform the exactions of churchmen, to correct errors of doctrines and to improve the moral awareness of society.

As a result, Western Europe divided into a Catholic South and Protestant North. Across the no man's land between them were fought the bitterest wars of religion in Christian history, until, gradually, the modern religious map of Europe took shape.

In this, the third volume of the Penguin History of the Church, Professor Chadwick deals with the formative work of Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli and Calvin, and analyses the special circumstances of the English Reformation as well as the Jesuits and the Counter-Reformation.

Previously published in the Pelican History of the Church series.

Eminent church historian Owen Chadwick has written this original, sweeping history of the Christian faith. Using layman's language, he surveys the lives of Christians over two millennia. A History of Christianity is essential reading for anyone interested in one of the most powerful influences on global civilization.

Preface Written By Henry P. Van Dusen. The Library Of Christian Classics V12.

Concerned here broadly with the period 1829-59, Professor Chadwick writes of the church's precarious position at the start of the period, and the problems of dissent; the Whig reform of the Church by the ministries of Peel and Melbourne; the Oxford Movement, the influence of Newman and the development of ritual; the relations of church and government under Lord John Russell; the growth of the seven principal dissenting bodies; the theory and practice of Church and State at mid-century, and the troubles that arose over Eucharistic worship; and finally the unsettlement of faith and the several attempts at restatement at the close of the period.The history is completed in The Victorian Church, Part II 1860-1901.

Professor Chadwick completes his study of the Victorian Church with detailed accounts of the problems which confronted the Church in the latter part of the nineteenth century: the question of science and religion, the acceptance of biblical criticism, the Church in village and town, changes in the attitude to the episcopacy, relationship with the Roman Catholics, and the growth of secularization.The material is organized in masterly fashion, the style of writing is characteristically engaging, and the innumerable sidelights on people in high and low places are as illuminating and relevant as in Part I of this work. The two volumes together provide an understanding of the background of many of the problems, which the Church faces today.For this second edition, Professor Chadwick has made many minor revisions to the text and included a number of additional bibliographical references.

John Cassian is a study of the fifth-century monk who was one of the founders of western monasticism. Christian monasticism flowered in Egypt during the fourth century. Cassias spent several years in Egypt and his writings are important evidence of the earliest period of monastic life. Later in life Cassian came to Provence and adapted the Egyptian ideals and methods for Latin use. The Benedictine Rule owes much to his influence. Benedictine monks still look back upon Cassian as an authority for their way of life. He was the first guide to the contemplative ideal in the history of western thought. Cassias questioned the doctrine of predestination taught by Augustine. Dr Chadwick shows how this argument gave him an ambiguous reputation in medieval history. The first edition of this book was published in 1950. It established itself as a contribution to the history of monasticism and to the origins of the contemplative ideal in Christianity. This is a reprint of the 1968 second edition in which Dr Chadwick made changes to take account of important work published since the first edition.

This final volume in the "Penguin History of the Church" series covers the myriad institutions of organized Christianity since the early 1900s and their developing relationships with the modern state - from the survival of the Church in communist Poland to the decline of the mainstream churches in Western Europe.;The book also looks at the paradoxes and difficulties of the modern Church in this century, its continuing strength in Latin America, the Catholic Church's uneasy compact with fascism between the wars, and the thriving of variable Christian sects in contemporary North America.

Students of church history and the monastic ascetic life will find this volume of much interest. Contained are three important documents of the early Christian Church: "The Sayings of the Fathers," "The Conferences of Cassian," and "The Rule of Saint Benedict."

Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of Christian Classics provides scholars and students with modern English translations of some of the most significant Christian theological texts in history. Through these works--each written prior to the end of the sixteenth century--contemporary readers are able to engage the ideas that have shaped Christian theology and the church through the centuries.

This is a study of Church and Society between the two World Wars as seen through the eyes of an able, caustic, individualist churchman. Herbert Hensley Henson held strong opinions on all subjects. He was the critic, on moral grounds, of the behaviour of the trade unions. He came into fierce controversy with the miners' national leaders. He strenuously defended the establishment of the Church of England, and then, because the House of Commons behaved badly over the Prayer Book, became its most vocal assailant. He stood for the right of Christians to profess their faith while remaining agnostic about miracles. He helped the Church to accept more modern attitudes to divorce. At times he was the most unpopular person among the Churches. But by courage he won a rueful respect, and by compassion he won from some a smiling admiration.

Continual and sometimes heated interest is shown in the control by governments over documents in their possession, and in the time during which access to them is denied - and not only on the part of the historians to whom the documents are of prime concern. Professor Chadwick summarises the gradual establishment of the papal records down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, when they were carried off to Paris on the orders of Napolean. Their return (for the most part) to Rome and the subsequent history of the relationship between their guardians and would-be users provide a lively narrative of human as well as historical interest. The author shows how an argument developed within the Vatican itself between the statesmen who wished rigourously to restrict what was released to the public and the historians who wanted free access. This important study of how new attitudes and techniques of history affected the Church is based upon the author's Herbert Hensley Henson Lectures in Oxford 1976, and will interest documentalists and general readers as well as ecclesiastical and general historians.

This is a collection of Owen Chadwick's principal writings on Lord Acton, the distinguished Victorian historian and founder of The Cambridge Modern History. Some of the pieces are no longer readily available, while one has never before appeared in English. All have been revised, sometimes extensively. This book explains the important aspects of Acton's complex mind and his great contribution to historical studies. Professor Chadwick, himself a former holder of Acton's Regius Chair, is the leading senior authority both on Acton and on matters of church and state in the nineteenth century.

This is an edited collection of Owen Chadwick's principal writings on Lord Acton, the distinguished Victorian historian and founder of The Cambridge Modern History. Some of the pieces are no longer readily available, while one has never before appeared in English. All have been revised, sometimes extensively. Acton (1834-1902) was born in Naples, the grandson of the Neapolitan prime minister Sir John Acton. Educated at Munich University, he sat as a Liberal MP 1859-64, was created a baron in 1869, and in 1895 was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. This book explains the important aspects of Acton's complex mind and his great contribution to historical studies. Professor Chadwick, himself a former holder of Acton's Regius Chair, is the leading senior authority both on Acton and on matters of church and state in the nineteenth century.

Could a Pope ever consent to be the subject of a political power? Owen Chadwick presents an analysis of the causes and consquences of the end of the historic Papal State, and the psychological pressures upon old Rome as it came under attack from the Italian Risorgimento and liberal movements in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, and Tsarist Russia.

In this collection of new and revised essays Owen Chadwick, perhaps the most distinguished living historian of religion, writes on various aspects of the Oxford Movement and the English Church in the Victorian era. Along with studies of Newman, Liddon, Edward King and Henri Bremond are included more general essays surveying the reaction of the Established Church and on the nature of Catholicism. In particular, the revision of the long-unobtainable introductory essay, The Mind of the Oxford Movement, illustrates once again the profound contribution Owen Chadwick has made to our understanding of religion in Britain in the nineteenth century.

Nancy Mitford once observed that some of the most bitter personal clashes of all time have been 'between the Manor and the Vicarage'. Owen Chadwick's Victorian Miniature paints a detailed cameo of nineteenth-century English rural life, in the extraordinary battle of wills between squire and parson in a Norfolk village. Both the evangelical clergyman and the squire, proudly conscious of his Huguenot ancestry, were passionate diarists, and their two journals open up a fascinating double perspective on the events which exposed their clash of personalities. The result is a narrative that is at once deeply informative about Victorian class distinctions, rural customs and festivities, and richly entertaining in a manner worthy of Trollope.

The roles of the rise of technology, the growth of big cities and a cheap press, as well as the philosophies of evolutionary science and Marxism, are explored in an acclaimed analysis of the nineteenth century erosion of the Church's power.

The book studies the use made by the British government of its envoy, immured inside the Vatican from 1940 to 1944, and what the envoy made of such opportunities during the Second World War to help the Allied cause. We see the Vatican, the Fascist Italy, from 'inside', and so gain a new and rare perspective into the predicament of the papacy. Owen Chadwick gives insight into the workings of the Vatican, including such questions as the struggle to keep Italy out of the war, the relations between the Vatican and the Fascist government, the use which the British sought to make of Vatican radio, the question of condemning atrocities, the bombing of Rome, the fall of Fascism, the armistice between the Allies and Italy, the German occupation of Rome, and the escape line for British prisoners of war. The author has used several groups of hitherto unexplored archives, and makes a fresh contribution both to the history of the Second World War and to the modern history of the papacy.