Book on Liturgy and Life in the Early Church
Beach reading, from the current issue of the Journal of Theological Studies:
Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church, volume 3: Liturgy and Life.
Edited by BRONWEN NEIL, GEOFFREY D. DUNN, and LAWRENCE CROSS. Pp. xþ412. 13 plates. Strathfield, NSW: St Pauls Publications in association with the Centre for Early Christian Studies, 2003. ISBN 0 9577483 6 8. Paper AUS$38.50/$45.LIKE its two predecessors (see JTS, NS 51 [2000], pp. 428–9),
this volume is a substantial and worthwhile set of conference
proceedings. Twenty-four papers are neatly arranged in eight
sections on Jewish influences, homilies, eucharist, baptism,
shaping the liturgy, Augustine, Eastern theology, and
spirituality, and there is an introductory essay on Scripture
and spirituality by Charles Kannengiesser. The first section
focuses on the New Testament and the last catch-all section
contains the longest contribution, on prayer in the Jewish
mystical tradition (Elliot K. Ginsburg), and an essay on
Sufism and Hesychasm (John R. Dupuche), but with these
exceptions all of the essays concern patristic or liturgical
themes. ... Gabriele Winkler supplies a useful
summary of her argument for the Targumic origins of the
eucharistic sanctus—a subject which will no doubt continue to
excite discussion. Six of the essays in total are devoted to
Augustine.
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