The Oxford Dictionary of Popes - Hardcover

Kelly, J. N. D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192139649 ISBN 13: 9780192139641

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1986

Synopsis

This biographical dictionary is an unrivalled source of information about the astonishing succession of churchmen who have loomed large on the world scene for almost 2,000 years.
The Dictionary contains concise accounts not only of all the officially recognized popes from St. Peter to John Paul II, but also of all their irregularly elected rivals, the so-called antipopes; it also has an appendix recording the once generally credited but long discarded, tradition that at some date in the ninth, tenth, or eleventh century there was a femal pope called Joan. Each pope and antipope is assigned an entry which covers, except where (as in the early centuries) no information is available, his family and social background and pre-papal career as well as his activities in office, and each entry has its separate select bibliography, usually including references to the primary source for the pope's life and his official acts.
The popes have been deliberately arranged in chronological rather than alphabetical order so that each can be studied in his own historical context. The arrangement also means that the book is in effect a continuous history of the papacy. Based on careful research, but eminently readable, it provides revealing vignettes of the extraordinary variety of men who have claimed to be successors of St. Peter, and their varying involvement on great power politics, personal or family aggrandizement, theological controversy, or spiritual leadership. It also presents a graphic and moving picture of the fluctuating fortunes of the Christian church centered in Rome, sometimes submerged by secular forces, but at other times, under popes of determination and vision, staging a spectacular revival and confronting the world (as today) with a daunting challenge.

About the Author:

J.N.D. Kelly is formerly principal of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Features:

A matchless resource on the history of the Papacy
· Chronologically arranged and fully indexed
· Filled with compelling vignettes and portraits

About this title

About the Author:

The late John N. Kelly, M.D., was a distinguished church historian and former principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was a Canon of Chichester Cathedral and a Fellow of the British Academy.

From Library Journal:

Kelly is an Anglican scholar-priest, author of the highly regarded Early Christian Creeds (Longman, 1972. 3rd ed.) and Early Christian Doc trines (Harper, 1978. rev. ed.). The Dictionary is a chronological listing of popes from Peter (d. c.64) to John Paul II. Entries contain concise yet interesting biographies, followed by brief bibliographies of selected pri mary and secondary sources. Anti popes, men who claimed to be pope but, "rightly or wrongly," were not officially recognized, are included, as is an appendix on Pope Joan, a leg endary female pope. The result is the ideal reference book: Well written and thoroughly indexed, it also ex hibits fine scholarship. Highly rec ommended both for public and theo logical libraries.Myriel Crowley Eykamp, formerly with MIT Libs.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0192139649
• ISBN 13: 9780192139641
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 356