Historians have long relied on Bede’s Ecclesiastical History for their narrative of early Christian Anglo-Saxon England, but what material lay behind Bede’s own narrative? What were his sources and how reliable were they? How much was based on contemporary material? How much on later evidence? What was rhetoric? What represents his own agendas, deductions or even inventions? This book represents the first systematic attempt to answer these questions for Bede’s History, taking as a test case the coherent narrative of the Gregorian mission and the early Church in Kent. Through this critique, it becomes possible, for the first time, to catalogue Bede’s sources and assess their origins, provenance and value – even reconstructing the original shape of many that are now lost. The striking paucity of his primary sources for the period emerges clearly. This study explains the reason why this was the case. At the same time, Bede is shown to have had access to a greater variety of texts, especially documentary, than has previously been realised. This volume thus reveals Bede the historian at work, with implications for understanding his monastery, library and intellectual milieu together with the world in which he lived and worked. It also showcases what can be achieved using a similar methodology for the rest of the Ecclesiastical History and for other contemporary works. Most importantly, thanks to this study, it is now feasible – indeed necessary – for subsequent historians to base their reconstructions of the events of c.600 not on Bede but on his sources. As a result, this book lays the foundations for future work on the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England and offers the prospect of replacing and not merely refining Bede’s narrative of the history of early Christian Kent.

An engaging and accessible introduction to the writings and intellectual development of the Venerable Bede (d.735), this book (originally published in 1970) is available again for the enjoyment of all those interested in the early medieval world. With an updated preface and supplementary bibliography by Michael Lapidge, the book is based almost entirely on primary sources, particularly Bede's own writings. The book surveys the fragmented state of Britain after the Anglo-Saxon conquests, tracing the - sometimes faltering - rebirth of Christianity from the time of St. Augustine through to the glories of the golden age of Northumbria in the eighth century. What was Bede's contribution to the growth of scholarship? Why is his famous Ecclesiastical History of the English Church and People still so highly regarded? How did Bede see his own age? What traditions most influenced him? Peter Hunter Blair answers all these questions, assessing Bede sympatheticaly in all the fields in which he was active, as teacher, orthographer, moral philospher, grammarian, theologian, natural scientist and, above all, as our first modern historian.

A fresh look at the position of women in the 8th and 9th centuries as defined by the literature of the early church.

This book is more than a general account of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is a probing study of the way in which Christianity was fashioned in England, giving full weight to the variety and wealth of the process of christianization, as it was carried out by churchmen who, according to Mayr-Harting, prepared themselves by prayer and study and travel as well as by social awareness to christianize their world.

Walking with Ignatius is a celebration of 500 years of the Society of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of its first Latin American Father General, Arturo Sosa. Comprised of interviews with Father General conducted over a period of two years by Dario Menor, Walking with Ignatius retraces the ‘inner tension’ – both personal and communal – that defines the quest for meaning over the ages: from the time when St Ignatius begged for alms to sustain his studies to a world transformed by globalisation. Menor’s questions reflect the spirit of the Ignatian practice of discernment: unafraid to ask questions and to face up to the challenges of the present, Menor and Sosa engage in a spiritual conversation that covers such topics as the life of Ignatius, the life story of Sosa, the challenge of the unsettling twenty-first century, and the future of the Church. With great care Sosa sifts through the past, present, and future of the Society of Jesus and of the Church. The reader is invited in the Ignatian spirit into a conversation about the future direction of the Church in which the question of being a Catholic is replaced with the question of how we become Catholics. Included is a section-by-section guide – complete with bible references, pointers for prayer, and tips for spiritual conversation – that encourages the reader to embark on a spiritual journey of their own. Intended for those within and outside the Ignatian family, Walking with Ignatius is both an exemplar of spiritual conversation in action and a response to Pope Francis’s call for Jesuits to bring the practice of discernment to the world.