The greatest Christian split of all has been that between east and west, between Roman Catholic and eastern Orthodox, a rift that is still apparent today. Henry Chadwick provides a compelling and balanced account of the emergence of divisions between Rome and Constantinople. Drawing on his encyclopaedic command of the literature, he starts with the roots of the divergence in apostolic times and takes the story right up to the Council of Florence in the fifteenth century. Henry Chadwick''s own years of experience as an ecumenist inform his discussion of Christians in relation to each other, to Jews, and to non-Christian Gentiles. He displays a distinctive concern for the factors - theological, personal, political, and cultural - that caused division in the church and prevented reconciliation. His masterly exposition of the complex issues discussed at the Ecumenical Councils (issues that eventually led to the separation) is characteristically clear and fair. This is a work of immense learning, written with sensitivity and spirit. Its fascinating detail and full analysis make it invaluable to anyone interested in how this lasting rift in the Church developed.
Industry Reviews
`Henry Chadwick is without a doubt the most learned ecclesistical scholar still, mercifully alive ... Chadwick refuses the offer of easy neat solutions to the problem of the rift ... Instead he insists on exploring with a wealth of illustrative detail the account of the gradual widening of the gulf between East and West ... marvellous breadth and fair mindedness ... without the rift we should not have this learned and elegant envoi.'
Theology
`Review from other book by this author The first 600 years: that is nearly one third of the Church's entire history. No one but Henry Chadwick ... could have given us so full and so authoritative an account of these decisive centuries. His new book crowns a body of illuminating work on several of the outstanding figures as well as on many of the thorniest problems of the early Church's history.'
R. A. Markus, The Tablet
`The book is a tour de fource to which we will keep turning as an essential reference work.'
R. A. Markus, The Table
`Review from other book by this author Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition skilful characterizations and brilliant exposition which one finds everywhere'
Journal of Theological Studies
`Augustine: A Very Short Introduction 'magisterial and highly readable.''
Bookseller
Augustine: ' The Confessions' `Chadwick's translation is superb.'
Church History, June 1993
`If the Latin is a "work of high art", so is this translation.' The Times
`A masterpiece beyond classification.' Church Times
`How good it is to have this new translation - apparently the first for thirty years - of a work which, says Henry Chadwick in a brilliant 18-page introduction, "will always rank among the greater masterpieces of western literature" ... Professor Chadwick has the gift for being able to pinpoint significant, as well as sometimes unfamiliar aspects of the life of the church: and in this respect his footnotes in the present volume do not disappoint us.'
Expository Times
'excellent translation ... this new translation is the most readable version in modern English'
Vernon J. Bourke, Saint Louis University, Manuscripta 35 (1991)/3
'It is a great pleasure to welcome a translation of the Confessions from one who is both a scholar and a lover of Augustine. There is a concise but very informative introduction, and a bibliography which will be extremely helpful to the students who wants to read some of the work of Augustine's contemporaries in extenso. The translation itself is clear and accessible ... of available English versions, this offers the most comprehensive
identification of scriptural allusions in the text.'
Rowan Williams, Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 44, No. 1, April 1993