Peter Costello
Daniel-Rops. Photo: Wikipedia The History of the Church of Christ
by Pierre Daniel-Rops (Cluny Media, in ten volumes, priced from $US 27.95/€25.50)
Back in the post-war decades in Ireland, for many Catholics two authors stood out. One was the Jesuit Fr Frederick Copleston with his volumes of A History of Philosophy, which was perhaps a little too academic for the casual ordinary reader. The other notable series was the books of the French author who used the pen name Daniel-Rops. It should be noted that he was not a priest, but a lay litterateur.
The first of his books that came my way was Jesus in his Time (first published in 1945). A copy of this much reprinted book was given to me as a present the first Christmas after I left school. It was, as I recall, the first book of its kind that I read, not for a course or for school work, but from pure interest.
To this day I still remain deeply interested in the theme, for Jesus in his time is surely the key to so much else.
Significance
Between 1948 and 1963 Daniel-Rops published the ten volumes that make up his influential History of the Church of Christ. It will be seen that these titles coincide with the thinking and the Catholic social developments that led up to Vatican II. These facts are significant because at the conclusion of a period of research and editorial development Cluny Media has brought the whole series in translation into English back into print in a finely designed edition.
I suspect these books played an important part in the development of the ideas of many of those who once taught the rising generation, but more than that they contained the materials on which other placed their faith, and if not their faith, at least their respect of what is best in Catholic thinking.
“They ought to bear in mind that the complex issues which are tied up in the historicity of Jesus cannot be avoided or neglected”
One is surprised that though they have meticulously brought back into print the volumes which deal with The Church of Christ, they have not as yet thought to bring Jesus in His time and its companion volume, Israel and the Ancient World, about the peoples of the Bible, back into print too.
Yet the history that Daniel-Rops develops in his long series, was for him founded in those two earlier books. One cannot have The Church of Christ without attending to the biblical background and to the historical Jesus.
So while allowing people to make their acquaintance of the series, they ought to bear in mind that the complex issues which are tied up in the historicity of Jesus cannot be avoided or neglected.
Clarification
These days people have very strange ideas about the history of the Church, which a perusal of Daniel-Rops might change. Others have even more weirder ideas about Jesus in his historical context.
These books might be a way to make people better informed. In a debate one can only dismiss what one has at least attempted to understand and come to terms with. To toss away concepts of charity and justice and love of neighbour that have supported European civilisation for over two thousand years is very foolish.
The details of the series can be found on the Cluny Media site, where orders above a certain price are shipped free.