Sacred History

By Henri Daniel-Rops The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the epicenter of history. It is the fulfillment of centuries of expectation, begun with the covenant made by God with Abraham: “I will make a great people of thee; I will bless thee, and make thy name renowned, a name of benediction.” In Sacred History, renowned historian Henri Daniel-Rops presents the story of that great people and the ebb and flow of fidelity and infidelity to their covenant, the covenant which God himself never abandoned. In impressive detail and absorbing style, Daniel-Rops brings to life the Old Testament, describing the mission of Abraham and the making of the Covenant; the life of the next Patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob; the arrival of Moses and the giving of the Law; the commission of Joshua and the period of Judges; the kingships of Saul, David, and Solomon; the ignominy of exile; the rise of the Prophets; and the anticipation of the Messiah, who shall be called Emmanuel.  Sacred History was first published in French in 1943. Three weeks later, the Nazis seized and destroyed its printing plates; after the liberation of Paris in 1944, the book was reset and republished, with the English edition following in 1949. In telling the history of Israel as the story of God’s providential preparation for the Incarnation of his only-begotten Son, Daniel-Rops has gleaned from diligent research and careful documentation a rich harvest—one that bears out its awesome title of Sacred History. That a small Bedouin clan, nomads wandering across plains and steppes,  should be the source of a destiny so fraught with significance…cannot be  explained by the logic of history; it is explainable only as the will of God. (Henri Daniel-Rops) Henri Daniel-Rops (1901–1965), the nom de plume of Henri Petiot, was a French Catholic historian. His bibliography comprises seventy books—written over a span of just thirty years—and includes Sacred History, Jesus and His Times, and the monumental, ten-volume History of the Church of Christ. He also served as editor for the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism, which consisted of one hundred and fifty volumes. Phenomenally successful in his own time, Daniel-Rops made religious history accessible and popular; in 1955, he was elected to the Académie française and in 1956 he received the Order of St. Gregory from Pope Pius XII. * * * Paperback: 410pp. ISBN: 978-1685954260