Amazon.com: Walking to Emmaus (9780860124238): Eamon Duffy: Books


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Sell Back Your Copy
For a $0.28 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Walking to Emmaus
 
See larger image
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Walking to Emmaus [Paperback]

Eamon Duffy (Author)
2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Price: $21.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 3 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Tuesday, February 28? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Book Description

June 19, 2006
Professor Eamon Duffy is by any reckoning a scholar of the first rank and a man of deeply held religious belief, who tackles the issue of being a Christian in the modern world. Walking to Emmaus assembles the best of his addresses and includes an impressive autobiographical introduction. Duffy's topics range from the current interest in monasticism, to a new understanding of St Valentine's day, taking full account of the spiritual and fleshly needs of his audience. Walking to Emmaus will delight Eamon Duffy's admirers and increase their numbers.
Praise for Faith of our Fathers: 'This is the sort of history we need - history that serves an ambassadorial role between past and present, illumining our life with wisdom.' Christian Century
'Duffy's is a truly prophetic voice.' Music and Liturgy

Frequently Bought Together

Walking to Emmaus + Faith of Our Fathers (Continuums Icons) + Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240-1570
Price For All Three: $59.71

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together
  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Faith of Our Fathers (Continuums Icons) $21.95

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240-1570 $15.81

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details



Editorial Reviews

Review

Mention in article on Duffy and sermons.
(Tablet, The )

"In Walking to Emmaus we see yet one more aspect to his intelligent, imagination and personality. ... best of many talks and addresses ...a strong autobiographical introduction explaining how his life as a scholar relates to his childhood, upbringing and deeply held religious belief."
(The Universe )

'The eminent historian Eamon Duffy, through the good offices of his publisher who serves him well in this attractive book...'
'He wears his learning, like all great scholars, lightly and attractively...'
'It is rare that such a short book can produce so much to stimulate and with which to engage. It is less rare for a hack historian reviewer to acknowledge a master of the craft. The price is absurdly cheap for such riches.'
(Edward Benson New Directions )

'A...breadth of cultural and literary reference is displayed by Professor Duffy: as an historian he has a gift for telling a story and for arousing the imaginative curiosity of his audiences. His sharp one-liners enliven the texts of his sermons and lends a vivid sense of an oral communication.' (Allan White, The Tablet, 21 October 2006 Tablet, The )

'Few clerics would now publish a book of sermons but Duffy, a layman and distinguished Cambridge academic, has done so. It is remarkable, and not only for Johnsonian reasons.' (Adrian Hardiman, The Times Online Irish Times, The )

'Eamon Duffy is one of this country's most prominent lay Roman Catholics...his examples are often surprising and fun...These are 16 intelligent, artful and glorious sermons from across 21 years.'
Revd Nicholas Holtam, Church Times, January 2007
(Revd Nicholas Holtam Church Times )

"These sermons ought to be in every study. They are classic and eloquent in their way of expressing the Christian faith. They are therefore both enjoyable and an inspiration for someone, who treads the steps up to the pulpit."
(Peter Skov-Jakobsen, Qultures )

'These sermons are remarkable not only for their richness of language and expression, the breadth of their literary and cultural allusions, the cogency of their argument but also for their courage in revealing how even our most revered traditions can becaome agents in hidden networks of power and privilege if we do not excercise constant caution to preserve the Christian integrity of same.'
'Duffy shows himself to possess a keen exegetical eye for meanings and connections that are often easily missed.'
'These sermons deserve to be enjoyed like a fine wine: sipped slowly and digested carefully. To savour their vintage is to appreciate why Eamon Duffy is valued so highly as a preacher in Oxford and Cambridge.'
- Sean O'Sullivan, The Furrow
(Sean O'Sullivan The Furrow )

'This book is stimulating and inspiring, and is recommended both for devotional reading and for serious Bible study. In fact the complex arguments and cross-references are such that one can profit most by reading and pondering upon them...One can read, and then read again, this remarkable book, finding in it a great deal of food for thought.'
Martin SSF, Franciscan
(Martin SSF, Franciscan, January 2008 )

'The eminent historian Eamon Duffy, through the good offices of his publisher who serves him well in this attractive book...'
'He wears his learning, like all great scholars, lightly and attractively...'
'It is rare that such a short book can produce so much to stimulate and with which to engage. It is less rare for a hack historian reviewer to acknowledge a master of the craft. The price is absurdly cheap for such riches.'
(, New Directions )

'Eamon Duffy is one of this country's most prominent lay Roman Catholics...his examples are often surprising and fun...These are 16 intelligent, artful and glorious sermons from across 21 years.'
Revd Nicholas Holtam, Church Times, January 2007
(, Church Times )

"These sermons ought to be in every study. They are classic and eloquent in their way of expressing the Christian faith. They are therefore both enjoyable and an inspiration for someone, who treads the steps up to the pulpit."
(, )

'These sermons are remarkable not only for their richness of language and expression, the breadth of their literary and cultural allusions, the cogency of their argument but also for their courage in revealing how even our most revered traditions can becaome agents in hidden networks of power and privilege if we do not excercise constant caution to preserve the Christian integrity of same.'
'Duffy shows himself to possess a keen exegetical eye for meanings and connections that are often easily missed.'
'These sermons deserve to be enjoyed like a fine wine: sipped slowly and digested carefully. To savour their vintage is to appreciate why Eamon Duffy is valued so highly as a preacher in Oxford and Cambridge.'
- Sean O'Sullivan, The Furrow
(, The Furrow )

'This book is stimulating and inspiring, and is recommended both for devotional reading and for serious Bible study. In fact the complex arguments and cross-references are such that one can profit most by reading and pondering upon them...One can read, and then read again, this remarkable book, finding in it a great deal of food for thought.'
Martin SSF, Franciscan
(, )

About the Author

Eamon Duffy is Professor of the History of Christianity in the University of Cambridge and President of Magdalene College. His published books are few but always command very wide attention- notably The Stripping of the Altars (Yale UP).

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Burns & Oates (June 19, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0860124231
  • ISBN-13: 978-0860124238
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,804,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Duffy's Disappointing Sermons, March 19, 2009
By 
FYI (The West) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Walking to Emmaus (Paperback)
The sheer range of Eamon Duffy's vocabulary is a treat. I usually enjoy his erudite writing; his "Faith of Our Fathers" is a counterpoint to those who believe all real theology only stems from Rome. His "Creed in the Catechism" is a spiritual classic for anyone of any faith, a truly wise and remarkable achievement. To paraphrase Fatboy Slim, Duffy is an excellent Weapon of Choice for those comfortable enough in their faith to question the dogma of fundamentalist authority. Yet, even in "Faith of Our Fathers," essays on the Spanish Inquisition and the Church's abuse scandals, Duffy oddly pulled his punches. The reason for this softening of tone is revealed in his later collection of sermons, "Walking to Emmaus," which, considering this man's spiritual insight, is ultimately very disappointing. While "Faith of Our Fathers" consists of theological writing thankfully subjected to editors, the sermons in "Walking to Emmaus" have no such constriction, and thus surprisingly suffer the effects of an overweening ego. This is puzzling, considering how superb his "Creed in the Catechism" is. Why doesn't Duffy's spiritual intelligence transfer to these other topics? Clearly, preaching in various churches in "Walking in Emmaus," Duffy lost valuable opportunities to be profound, opting for misplaced contemporary world application, confusing vast spiritual knowledge with reactions to modern politics and events. This approach is reactionary, topical, and political; Duffy lost his bearings, as occurs when historians/theologians commit the ivory-tower sin of not understanding that there are a multiplicity of views and experiences in the real world.

Despite the limitiations of "Walking to Emmaus," the first essay is hilarious. Duffy, describing the New Testament story of the Gadarene swine, states that possibly, rather than being about Jesus, it's "a legend about some other Rabbi, a grim Jewish joke, in which the sort of people who eat ham sandwiches get their come uppance, and serve them right...Demons are filthy things, but then pork is too, so naturally they belong together. Where else would devils go when forced to leave their pagan victim?" (8-9).

The rest of this collection disappoints, revealing Duffy as an assimilated British academic. In several sermons regarding veterans, "When I Remember, I am Afraid," and "Walking to Emmaus," Duffy indulges in long diatribes against war, and the war dead, stating that politicians hijack them for their causes. "The dead are passive, and can be manipulated" (82). The only one doing the manipulating and hijacking here is Duffy, washing his hands in the loamy artifice of contemporary political-correctness. I've experienced British Veteran's Day, or Remembrance Sunday, in Cambridge. Wearing the red paper poppy in honor of the UK's veterans and war dead, I witnessed the phenomena of English graciousness when Americans pay respect to their wartime sacrifices. Duffy misrepresents this memorial to the war-dead, revealing himself as an upper-class academic, PC at any cost, conveniently forgetting soldiers, whose countless acts of self-sacrifice protect his right to loftily protest. Duffy is so antiwar, in an assimilated academic/ivory-tower Cambridge don manner, that he equates all war as evil: "war is...never good...To remember war, for Christians, is to come face to face with the reality of sin...There are no innocent combatants, and no victors" (37). This view allows evil to prevail. Duffy inappropriately preached to an audience with mourners present, he indulged in academic fluff and judgment, swathed in a morally corrupt thesis. To dismiss virtuous war, innocent combatants, and innocent victims, is to dismiss the spectrum of human good and evil and our responsibility to fight evil. Some things are beyond human capacity or responsibility to forgive, and it is arrogant to think otherwise. Duffy plays the smarmy, ivory-tower, pseudo-priest "forgiveness game," which is moral equivocation at its worst.

There must have been an English-Lit professor, that Duffy does not like, present in his audience at Queen's College for his sermon on Lent. Duffy completely misunderstands key elements of British literary culture when he dismissed Dorothy Sayers as "snobbery with violence" (61). Duffy is not a fan of virtuous warriors fighting the good fight, nor of artists: "The more wonderful the art is, the more likely we are to have the experience but to miss the meaning: the art becomes the rival of the God it is supposed to reveal" (54). Rival!? That's a small, diminished God of Duffy's World. "Artists are not inspired men and women with a hotline to the Sublime, to God. Art is not news from heaven, but a human construct, often deeply compromised, deeply implicated in networks of privilege, power, and coercion [like the war dead]...from the very beginning, Christian art was hijacked to serve the powerful and the successful" (58). Despite Duffy's repetitive critique, and although sponsored by the powerful, countless art through history and cultures can introduce our eyeballs and spirits to the divine.

In the essays of "Faith of Our Fathers," there were passages where clearly, Duffy overextended himself. Describing his belief that there is a diminishment of folk Catholicism, he states that, "especially in Western Europe and the USA, though individual components of the pre-Conciliar devotional world survive, its overall close-knit unity of texture and imaginative hold have weakened and in many places disappeared" (24). This betrays another aspect of Duffy's limitations, that reached full fruition in the sermons of "Walking to Emmaus." He has never experienced the American Southwest, drenched in deeply personal Spanish Catholicism, with historic folk traditions that venerate Mary and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Devout and talented artisans create religious art in their carved Santos, Bultos, Retablos, etc. The Navajo Nation and Pueblo communities express a variety of complex spiritual paths. There is an emerging narrative of early, hidden Spanish-Jewish conversos. In the desert Southwest, there is a confluence and perpetuation of ancient traditions that inspire inhabitants to explore various heritages. The spiritual world is more complex than Duffy's sermons portray here.

Instead of this, try Duffy's far superior books instead:
The Creed in the Catechism: The Life of God for Us
The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
Faith Of Our Fathers: Reflections On Catholic Traditions (Continuum Icons)

Eamon Duffy, and those interested in Southwestern culture & religion, should read:
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics)
Romance of a Little Village Girl (Paso Por Aqui : Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews




Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject