Owen Chadwick

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.

The Early Reformation on the Continent offers a fresh look at the formative years of the European Reformation and the origins of Protestant faith and practice. Taking into account recent work on Erasmus and Luther, Owen Chadwick handles these and numerous other figures and with sensitivity and understanding. Emphasis on the context provides a balanced view of the raison d'être for the changes which the reforming communities sought to introduce and the difficulties and disagreements concerning these. The structure of the book is distinctively original. Rather than following a conventional chronological progression, Owen Chadwick takes a much broader perspective and arranges his material thematically. Whatever the topic - the Bible, clerical celibacy, moral questions of adultery and divorce, purgatory, hymns, excommunication, the role of the State in worship and pastoral activity, education, the Eucharist - the reader is taken back to its origins and development through the history of the western Church and given an authoritative, accessible, and informative account.

Could a Pope ever consent to be the subject of a political power? Owen Chadwick presents an analysis of the causes and consequences 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 not only from Italy, but from liberal movements in Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal, as well as Tsarist Russia as it oppressed its Polish subjects. If a united Italy was to be achieved, the State must disappear. These pressures caused Popes to resist 'the world' rather than to try to influence it, to make the Vatican more of a sanctuary behind high walls, and to preach the more otherworldly aspects of Catholic faith. At the same time they met new moral demands: the rights of the labourer in industry, divorce, toleration, which they could confront because the Revolution had destroyed the powers of the Catholic kings over their churches, and therefore Catholic authority could be far more centralized in Rome.

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.

To write this life of Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, Owen Chadwick had unrestricted access to the archives of Lambeth Palace and materials formerly in Lord Ramsey's possession. The resulting biography gives a uniquely perceptive account of Ramsey's life and work and, through them, his time. 'judicially selective and elegantly written... The book will repay several readings by all who are especially concerned with life in the Church of England and life in this country today' (David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, in The Guardian). 'What will no doubt be his definitive Life, a fine gift to us all' (Archbishop Donald Coggan in The Church of England Newspaper). 'A triumph of the biographer's art' (Church Times). 'A splendidly unstately portrait of a highly unorthodox Prince of the Church' (Anthony Howard in The Independent on Sunday).

The coming of modern historical research had religious consequences, especially in the more traditional churches to which history was very important and which themselves helped to create the historical sense. In this classic work, long unobtainable but now revised with a new introduction, Owen Chadwick traces the development of the notion that change in Christian doctrine was both possible and legitimate. Bossuet in the seventeenth century represented the opinion that Christian doctrine never or hardly changed: Newman in the second half of the nineteenth century saw that its expression necessarily changed in a changing society. This book shows how one opinion changed into the other, and explains the difficulties and tensions behind Newman’s attempt to persuade an inherently conservative institution to face reality. In so doing it thus illuminates one vital aspect of the arrival into European thought of a distinct historical sensibility.

This is a biography of Hensley Henson, one of the most controversial religious figures in England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book examines Henson's education at Oxford University and describes the highlights of his career as pastor of Ilford and Barking Church, as canon of Westminster Abbey, and as bishop of Hereford and Durham. It explores his involvement in political issues and his controversial views on such issues as divorce, the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, and the anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany.