Voor mij ontgoochelend. Nogal encyclopedisch en daarom oppervlakkig. Als je een fijn geschreven en historisch correcte geschiedenis van het pausdom zoekt, is 'Saints and Sinners' van Eamon Duffy een betere keuze. ( )

4559. Keepers of the Keys A History of the Papacy, by Roger Collins (read 16 Apr 2009) This tells the story pretty straightforwardly, with no undue ideological bias. He is probably overly dismissive of the early Popes, being unwilling to give the fragmentary records on them as much credence as other historians do. His assessment of some Popes often denigrated, e.g., John XII, is not as condemnatory as is usual with papal historians. I much enjoyed reading this book even though there are sad parts in the Church's history and the author does not gloss over such. A rather surprising error is on page 480 where he says Pope Pius XII's second and last consistory was in 1956. It was actually held in 1953, and the announcement of it was about Dec 1, 1952--I remember because I was much interested and it was hard to get information about the men named to be Cardinals at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, where I was then stationed. ( )

Good Read. Well written and easy to read. By no means a complete history (obviously impossible in one volume) but it doesn't try to be. The first few chapters are more honest than most, acknowledging facts like...There was no such office as "bishop" in the first few centuries. However, it doesn't suggest our faith, belief, history are wrong. They may require a vocabulary shift, though. ( )