Walsh, Michael 1937–

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Walsh, Michael 1937–

(Michael J. Walsh)

PERSONAL: Born October 30, 1937, in Newcastle, England; son of John Gregory (a banker) and Patricia Elizabeth (Wright) Walsh; married Kathleen Lilly (a teacher), August 30, 1976; children: Clare Elizabeth. Education: Heythrope College, Phil.Lic., 1961; Oxford University, B.A., 1964, M.A., 1966; University College, London, Dip.Lit., 1970. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Taylor & Francis Group Ltd., 2 Park Sq., Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxford OX14 4RN, England.

CAREER: Month (magazine), London, England, assistant editor, 1969–74, editor, 1974–76; Heythrope College, London, librarian, 1970–; writer.

MEMBER: Library Association, Ecclesiastical History Society, Bibliographical Society.

WRITINGS:

(As Michael J. Walsh) The Heart of Christ in the Writings of Karl Rahner: An Investigation of its Chris-tological Foundation as an Example of the Relationship between Theology and Spirituality, Universita Gregoriana, (Rome, Italy), 1977.

An Illustrated History of the Popes, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY) 1980.

From Sword to Ploughshare, Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1980.

(Editor) Religious Bibliography in Serial Liturgy: A Guide, Mausell, 1981.

(Compiler) Vatican City State, Clio Press, (Santa Barbara, CA), 1983.

(Editor) Butler's Lives of Patron Saints, foreword by Basil Hume, Harper and Row, (San Francisco, CA), 1985, revised edition, 1991.

Roots of Christianity, Grafton Books, (London, England), 1986.

The Triumph of the Meek: Why Early Christianity Succeeded, Harper and Row, (San Francisco, CA), 1986.

Opus Dei: An Open Book: A Reply to The Secret World of Opus Dei by Michael Walsh/William O'Connor, Mercier Press, (Dublin, Ireland), 1991.

(Coeditor, with Brian Davies) Proclaiming Justice and Peace: Papal Documents from Rerum Novarum through Centesimus Annus, Twenty-Third Publications, (Mystic, CT), 1991.

(Compiler) Dictionary of Catholic Devotions, Harper and Row, (San Francisco, CA), 1993.

The Book of Saints, Twenty-Third Publications, (Mystic, CT), 1994.

John Paul II, HarperCollins, (London, England), 1994.

(Editor, as Michael J. Walsh) Commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), 1994.

(Editor) Dictionary of Christian Biography, Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), 2001.

The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections, Sheed & Ward (Lanham, MD), 2003.

Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom, W.B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2003.

Roman Catholicism: The Basics, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

Review editor of Heythorpe Journal.

SIDELIGHTS: Michael Walsh has written a number of volumes that study the theology and history of the Catholic Church. In Warriors of the Lord: The Military Orders of Christendom, Walsh documents religious men who were also soldiers, beginning with the establishment of knighthood, and follows the history of such men through the Crusades. Rather than being a book about war, however, it deals primarily with the establishment of religious doctrine pertaining to war, both Christian and Muslim. Three orders that emerged from the wars in the Middle East were the Templars, Teutonic Knights, and Hospitallers, as well as the Spanish Knights of Calatrava. Walsh discounts the connection between the Freemasons and the Templars as being "a farrago of nonsense." In a Booklist review, Roland Green described Warriors of the Lord as being "a solid introductory text on the subject."

Walsh told CA: "I was, for twenty years, a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). My Jesuit education gave me a competence in philosophy and history as well as theology, and a working knowledge of German, French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as Latin. My desire is to make much of the scholarly material I see daily as a librarian available to a wider audience."