Book section : Chapter
General introduction
- Abstract:
- The Cambridge History of the Papacy is organized to provide readers with a critical–historical survey of the structural development of the papacy as an institution and as an actor in Church history, and in world history. It is hard to imagine a sphere of human activity over the past two millennia that has not been influenced by, and influenced in turn by, papal action – be it in the domains of religious belief and practice; social, cultural, and political thought; art, science, medicine, ethics, diplomacy, and international relations. Four questions – each addressed throughout the three volumes of the present work – have framed that vision across vast chronological and geographical expanses: the pope’s centrality within the Catholic Church, the primacy of papal power as an instrument of governance, the papacy’s cultural influence in society and culture, and the implications of secularity for its place in the lives of believers and non-believers alike. Each question – and the search for answers – converges around the fundamental question of papal authority: its original claims; the ebbs and flows of its effective reach; and the numerous ways in which claims, and expressions of papal authority and supremacy, have been contested within the Catholic tradition, and from without.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1017/9781108750608.001
Authors
Contributors
+ Rollo-Koster, J
- Role:
- Editor
+ Ventresca, RA
- Role:
- Editor
+ Eichbauer, MH
- Role:
- Editor
+ Pattenden, M
- Institution:
- University of Oxford
- Division:
- HUMS
- Department:
- History Faculty
- Oxford college:
- Wolfson College
- Role:
- Editor
- ORCID:
- 0000-0002-0750-9454
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Host title:
- Cambridge History of the Papacy Volume 1. The Two Swords
- Pages:
- 1-32
- Chapter number:
- Introduction
- Series:
- Cambridge Histories - Religion
- Place of publication:
- Cambridge
- Publication date:
- 2025-02-25
- Acceptance date:
- 2024-03-01
- Edition:
- 1
- DOI:
- EISBN:
- 9781108750608
- ISBN:
- 9781108485234
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
-
Chapter
- Pubs id:
-
1803462
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1803462
- Deposit date:
-
2024-03-14
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Cambridge University Press & Assessment
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2025.
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