Eamon Duffy

Eamon Duffy FSA FBA KSG (born 1947) is an Irish historian. He is Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow and former President of Magdalene College.[1]

Eamon Duffy FSA FBA KSG
Duffy in 2010
Born	(1947-02-09) 9 February 1947 Dundalk, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Hull University of Cambridge
Doctoral advisor	Owen Chadwick Gordon Rupp
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	History of Christianity
Institutions	Magdalene College, Cambridge
Notable works	The Stripping of the Altars (1992)

Early life

Duffy was born on 9 February 1947, in Dundalk, Ireland.[2] He describes himself as a "cradle Catholic".[2] He was educated at St Philip's School and the University of Hull. He undertook postgraduate research at the University of Cambridge, where his doctoral advisers were Owen Chadwick and Gordon Rupp.[3]

Academic career

Duffy specialises in 15th- to 17th-century religious history of Britain. He is also a former member of the Pontifical Historical Commission.[4] His work has done much to overturn the popular image of late-medieval Catholicism in England as moribund, and instead presents it as a vibrant cultural force. On weekdays from 22 October to 2 November 2007, he presented the BBC Radio 4 series 10 Popes Who Shook the World[5] – those popes featured were Peter, Leo I, Gregory I, Gregory VII, Innocent III, Paul III, Pius IX, Pius XII, John XXIII, and John Paul II.

Prizes and awards

• Longman–History Today Award for book of the year (1994): The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580[6]
• Hawthornden Prize for Literature (2002): The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village[7]
• Honorary fellow, St Mary's College, Twickenham (2003). (He later resigned from the position in protest at management decisions at the college made by its principal, Philip Esler)[8]
• President of the Ecclesiastical History Society (2004–2005)[9]
• Honorary doctorates from the universities of Durham,[10] Hull,[11] and King's College London,[12] and from the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto
• Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (2012)[13]
• Honorary Canon, Ely Cathedral (2014)[14]

Books

• Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: The Career of Bishop John Fisher (1989), with Brendan Bradshaw
• The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c.1400 to c.1580 (1992)
• Saints and Sinners, a History of the Popes. Yale University Press. 1997. ISBN 0-300-07332-1.
• The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village (2001)
• "The Shock of Change: Continuity and Discontinuity in the Elizabethan Church of England", in Anglicanism and the Western Catholic Tradition (2003)
• Faith of Our Fathers: Reflections on Catholic Tradition (2004)
• Walking to Emmaus (2006)
• Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240–1570 (2006)
• Faith of Our Fathers: Reflections on Catholic Tradition (2006)
• Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor (2009)
• Ten Popes Who Shook the World (2011)
• Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition: Religion and Conflict in the Tudor Reformations (2012) ISBN 1441181172
• Reformation Divided: Catholics, Protestants, and the Conversion of England (2017)
• The Hope That Is Within You – Eamon Duffy in Conversation with Raymond Friel (2017)
• John Henry Newman: A Very Brief History (2019)

References

1. Alphabetical list of all fellows, Magdalene College, Cambridge.
2. "Confessions of a Cradle Catholic"
3. "Professor Eamon Duffy FBA". Faculty of Divinity. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
4. Eamon Duffy profile Archived 3 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
5. Ten Popes Who Shook the World, BBC Radio 4
6. "Awards Winners". History Today. 16 September 2011. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
7. Myers, Kevin (26 May 2002). "This constant stream of English life". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
8. "Top historian criticises St Mary's for 'grotesque' treatment of professor". Catholic Herald. 25 September 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
9. Past Presidents - Ecclesiastical History Society
10. "Prof Eamon Duffy receives Honorary Degree". Durham University. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
11. "Honorary Graduates – A to E". University of Hull. Archived from the original on 9 February 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
12. "Honorary Degree ceremony". King's College London. 26 November 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
13. "Members List". Royal Irish Academy. Archived from the original on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
14. "New Canons Admitted and Installed at Ely Cathedral". 14 May 2014. Archived from the original on 22 January 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

Further reading

• Eamon Duffy, "Far from the Tree" (review of Rob Iliffe, Priest of Nature: the Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, ISBN 9780199995356), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no. 4 (8 March 2018), pp. 28–29.

External links

• Duffy's faculty page
• PBS interview with Duffy
• Red Cross Lecture 2015: Fact, Fiction And The Tudor Past

Professional and academic associations
Preceded by Brenda Bolton	President of the Ecclesiastical History Society 2004–2005	Succeeded by Averil Cameron
Awards
Preceded by Helen Simpson	Hawthornden Prize 2002	Succeeded by William Fiennes