This book has a valuable message: devotional practice is not to be
dismissed as merely a manifestation of social conformity; but
neither is it a private matter.
`A sympathetic, objective and eminently readable piece of
scholarship...The author includes a careful and accurate account of
the development of the catechism of the nineteenth century...the
value of the book is enhanced by the appendices and the detailed
research information on popular devotion which gives the lie to the
view that London was (and is) a typical example of English
Catholicism.'
The Literary Review
`A fascinating historical monograph'
The Times
`It is an important book, which tantalises by opening doors and
giving us a glimpse of others' religious experience, and poses
important questions to English Catholic readers about what makes
for an integrated worshipping community. It is strictly a
historical monograph, however, bringing to light a wealth of local
evidence, woven wiht considerable skill into a revealing whole. But
it also blows wide open many of the inherited historical truisms
about the
nineteenth century...It opens doors on a world fading from memory
and challenges others to further study of a vital area of Catholic
life. It should also play a part in our contemporary reflections on
the
nature of the Church as community.'
The Tablet
`At is a scholarly and sympathetic study, which also serves as a
welcome reminder of the priority of prayer and worship over all
those committees and commissions which have so preoccupied the
ecclesiastical mind since vatican II.'
Catholic Herald
`I would commend Mary Heimann's book without hesitation to anyone
who wants to gain insight into what it was life to be a practising
Catholic in England between 1850 and 1914. At once readable and
scholarly, it vividly evokes the period which shaped the Church
with which all of us who grew up before Vatican II were familiar
... What is remarkable is that ... she has been able to get inside
a community of faith which is not her own and throw new light
on
its development.'
The Ampleforth Journal
This important assessment of Catholic devotion in Victorian England
has major significance for the understanding of the life and
development of the English Catholic community, it will also have
value as a point of reference for historians of Anglo-Catholicism,
she has written a monograph, marked not only by originality and
lucidity, but by a remarkable degree of empathy with her
subject.
`an important book, which tantalises by opening doors and giving us
a glimpse of others' religious experience, and poses important
questions to English Catholic readers about what makes for an
integrated worshipping community ... It is strictly a historical
monograph, however, bringing to light a wealth of local evidence,
woven with considerable skill into a revealing whole. But it also
blows wide open many of the inherited historical truisms about
the
nineteenth century.'
Judith Champ, The Tablet
`Thoroughly researched and coherently written, this book will
become a crucial marker in English Catholic historiography.'
Eileen L. Groth, Florida State University, History, Fall 1996
`a well-researched, readable, and informative work ... this is a
valuable study that provides a good balance to the "great man"
school of English Catholic studies, which focuses on Newman ...
This important work makes the private realm of individual piety
accessible as it shows a fruitful path to be explored by historians
of English religion.'
Carol Marie Engelhardt, Indiana University, Victorian Studies,
Summer 1996
`admirable scholarly study ... In Heimann's book there emerges a
detailed picture of devotional practice which was not seriously
divided by political and national differences.'
Ian Machin, University of Dundee, The Historical Association
1997
`important book ... Heimann's arguments are very well documented,
and she is particularly convincing in showing the inadequacy of
simplistic perceptions of inexorable ultramontane triumph ... this
is a most stimulating, and in many ways a pioneering, book ... It
shows how a rich historical tapestry can be woven from hitherto
neglected threads of evidence, and demonstrates that the study of
spirituality and devotion, far from being an obscure byway, can
lead
to a most significant contribution to wider historiographical
understanding.'
John Wolffe, The Open University, Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 48 -
No. 3, July 1997
`The book ... makes important contributions to our understanding of
its subject. It is predicated on wide inspection of hitherto
unexamined material.'
S.A. Skinner, Balliol College, Oxford, EHR Nov. 97
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