Dunstan: Saint and Statesman [Hardcover]

Douglas Dales (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1988

St Dunstan of Canterbury (909-88) was the central figure in the development of English church and society after the death of King Alfred. Douglas Dales traces Dunstan's life beginning with his education at the great monastery of Glastonbury of which he became abbot. He was a central figure at the court of the kings of Wessex but was banished, partly because of his hostility to the king's mistresses, and went to exile in Flanders. After his return he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. During the twenty-eight years of his primacy he carried out one of the major developments of the century, the reformation of the monasteries. The millennium of Dunstan's death provides an opportunity to examine him not merely as a prelate and royal advisor, but to see other aspects of his life: his skills as a craftsman caused him to be adopted as the patron saint of goldsmiths; some of his work as calligrapher and artist survives to this day; the coronation service which he drew up still lies at the heart of this service for English monarchs today; he was famed for his musical skills; above all, the sanctity of his name and the fame of his miracles kept Dunstan's memory alive. Douglas Dales' re-examination of the life and times of Dunstan sets his achievements against the social and religious background of the day, at a time when new forces were emerging that would shape the future of England and the English Church for centuries to come. "I am deeply grateful to Douglas Dales for this comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography. I hope it does much to renew an interest in Dunstan and a period of English church history which has much more immediate lessons for our Christian life now than a thousand years' separation seems to suggest." From the Foreword by Robert Runcie

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dales is Chaplain and Head of Religious Studies at Marlborough College. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Lutterworth Press (May 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 071882704X
• ISBN-13: 978-0718827045
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,853,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly hagiography, October 12, 2002

By 

Dunstan Boyko (Abiquiu, NM, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dunstan: Saint and Statesman (Hardcover)

I have a certain affinity for this saint. Do you think it might be because we have the same first name? Anyway, this is a good biography. It does a good job of bringing the reader into the time and culture that he lived in. It shows the influence that he had on his times and loing afterward, both civilly and ecclesially. It also sketches out how other scholars have viewed him over the intervening centuries. It was published in time for the millenium of his death in 1988 and has a foreward written by the Archbishop opf Canturbury at that time. One o Dunstan's posts was as Archbishop of Canturbury so it is only fitting!