Papacy

As I frequently mention, I am a history buff. Now Papal history is not my forte, but I have often come across Papal history as part of Medieval history or Jewish history. And as Papal history is part of European history, one cannot know much European history without knowing at least some Papal history.

Much of what I read is pretty dry, intense historical works. Detailed discussions of Levantine archaeology, statistical genetic analyses of populations, nit-picking debates over the nature of the barbarian settlements on Roman territory (land appropriation vs. approriation of tax revenue), etc. But sometimes it is nice to have a good, superficial overview of a subject into which one can weave the more detailed material.

One source of superficial overviews I like very much is a series of books called the "Chronicles of..." Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors, Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens... there are a whole bunch of them. They vary in quality and detail, but all seem basically factual. The Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings does a pretty good job of balancing archaeology and biblical analysis, skepticism and belief and helped me shape a few ideas of my own, based mainly on other works, regarding early Israeli history. So even though I am a skeptic, I found this work, which involves much biblical material, quite useful.