Faith of Our Fathers

by Eamon Duffy

Publisher:

Bloomsbury

, 2006

Overview

Eamon Duffy is both a practising Roman Catholic and distinguished historian, whose writings have changed the course of English Reformation studies. In Faith of Our Fathers, Duffy considers the range of Catholic belief and practice, from prayer for the dead and veneration of the Eucharist, to the place of Mary and the authority of the Pope. In the process he explores the ways in which religious tradition can be a vital Christian resource in the turbulent modern world.

Key Features

• Presents a collection of essays written for the journal Priests and People
• Offers a consistent and useful perspective on many of the central concerns of Catholic Christianity
• States that an understanding of the richness of the Church's past is a liberation, not a straitjacket

Contents

• Papal Authority
• Thinking Through the Tradition
• What about the inquisition
• Do Catholics have freedom of conscience
• Scandal in the Church
• Who leads the Church?
• Rome of the pilgrims
• Priests for Ever
• The Art of Dying
• An Apology for Grief, Fear and Anger
• Praying for the Dead
• Hell
• The Thinking Church: A Recent History
• Scandal in the Church: Some Bearings from History
• What About the Inquisition?
• Tradition and Authority

Praise for Faith of our Fathers

Not only is Duffy's appraisal of key topics of Catholic piety and life fascinating - in each essay he shines the light of historic faith on an issue of concern to contemporary church practice - it is a job to watch a historian at Cambridge write about his own faith in an engaging manner... This is the sort of history we need - history that serves an ambassadorial role between past and present, illumining our life with wisdom.

Christian Century

Faith of our Fathers is a spirited defense of Catholic ritual, discipline, and communal observance... the essays are all short and easy to read; they are often insightful and always historically well informed... Faith of our Fathers ranges far and wide over the present state of Catholicism. But Duffy never wanders too far from this one persistent argument - that much of the vitality and resiliency of Catholicism is found in its rituals and worship... it is a welcome and timely work. And it is very good to have it from a scholar as learned and reflective as Eamon Duffy.

First Things

With few exceptions, the essays collected here deliver on the promise of their title. They are sound essays on vexing Catholic issues, composed to help practicing and thinking Catholics, clerical, and lay, resolve puzzles and discover a bigger picture.

Theological Studies

Product Details

• Title: Faith of Our Fathers
• Author: Eamon Duffy
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Print Publication Date: 2006
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9780826476654, 9780826474797, 0826476651, 0826474799
• Resource ID: LLS:FAITHOURFATHERS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:41:37Z

About Eamon Duffy

Eamon Duffy is Emeritus Professor of Christian History at the University of Cambridge and a past president of Magdalene College. One of the world’s most influential and widely respected historians, his previous books include the bestselling The St... (Yale University Press, 1994), The Voices of Morebath (Yale University Press, 2001) Fires of Faith (Yale University Press, 2009) and Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition (Bloomsbury, 2012).