Understanding the culture of living with hymnbooks offers new insight into the histories of poetry, literacy, and religious devotion. It stands barely three inches high, a small brick of a book. The pages are skewed a bit, and evidence of a small handprint remains on the worn, cheap leather covers that don't quite close. The book bears the marks of considerable use. But why-and for whom-was it made? Christopher N. Phillips's The Hymnal is the first study to reconstruct the practices of reading and using hymnals, which were virtually everywhere in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Isaac Watts invented a small, words-only hymnal at the dawn of the eighteenth century. For the next two hundred years, such hymnals were their owners' constant companions at home, school, church, and in between. They were children's first books, slaves' treasured heirlooms, and sources of devotional reading for much of the English-speaking world. Hymnals helped many people learn to memorize poetry and to read; they provided space to record family memories, pass notes in church, and carry everything from railroad tickets to holy cards to business letters. In communities as diverse as African Methodists, Reform Jews, Presbyterians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians, hymnals were integral to religious and literate life. An extended historical treatment of the hymn as a read text and media form, rather than a source used solely for singing, this book traces the lives people lived with hymnals, from obscure schoolchildren to Emily Dickinson. Readers will discover a wealth of connections between reading, education, poetry, and religion in Phillips's lively accounts of hymnals and their readers.

Analysis of Latin sacred music written during the century illustrates the rapid and marked change in style and sophistication. Winner of the 2007 AMS Robert M. Stevenson prize The arrival of Francisco de Penalosa at the Aragonese court in May 1498 marks something of an epoch in the history of Spanish music: Penalosa wrote in a mature, northern-oriented style, and his sacred music influenced Iberian composers for generations after his death. Kenneth Kreitner looks at the church music sung by Spaniards in the decades before Penalosa, a repertory that has long been ignoredbecause much of it is anonymous and because it is scattered through manuscripts better known for something else. He identifies sixty-seven pieces of surviving Latin sacred music that were written in Spain between 1400 and the early 1500s, and he discusses them source by source, revealing the rapid and dramatic change, not only in the style and sophistication of these pieces, but in the level of composerly self-consciousness shown in the manuscripts. Withina generation or so at the end of the fifteenth century, Spanish musicians created a new national music just as Ferdinand and Isabella were creating a new nation. KENNETH KREITNER teaches at the University of Memphis.

David Adam believes that the way to get the most out of worship on Sundays is to pray regularly on weekdays. Here, to help us in this duty and joy of preparation, he offers prayers that link with the readings for each Sunday and great festival of the Christian Year. The prayers employ the Celtic emphasis and style that many people have found helpful in David's earlier books, and will benefit those who do not use a weekly lectionary and those who do.

In Tides and Seasons, David Adam draws from the rich store of Celtic Spirituality insights which speak to our own world today. The prayers he has written for this book echo the rhythms of creation which find their parallels in our spiritual lives. The movement of the tides - incoming, full flood, ebb tide, low tide - are linked to the cycle of the year, the seasons of life and the highs and lows of our own experience. Many strong currents are at work in our lives. Yet in the ebb and flow, nothing is lost, only changed. The sea of God's love is not diminished. Even in times of despair, we are made aware that there are other shores, eternal reaches, and that after the lowest ebb, the tide will flow again.

The Exultet rolls of southern Italy are parchment scrolls containing text and music for the blessing of the great Easter candle; they contain magnificent illustrations, often turned upside down with respect to the text. The Exultet in Southern Italy provides a broad perspective on this phenomenon that has long attracted the interest of those interested in medieval art, liturgy, and music. This book considers these documents in the cultural and liturgical context in which they were made, and provides a perspective on all aspects of this particularly southern Italian practice. While previous studies have concentrated on the illustrations in these rolls, Kelly's book also looks at the particular place of the Exultet in changing ceremonial practices, provides background on the texts and music used in southern Italy, and inquires into the manufacture and purpose of the Exultets--why they were made, who owned them, and how they were used.

'The Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and the love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' The Book of Common Prayer, with local variations, is still used in churches inside and outside the Anglican Communion in over 50 countries and in over 150 languages. The Rise and Fall of the Incomparable Liturgy is the first study to trace the evolution and reception of the BCP, from the Elizabethan settlement of 1559 to the Royal Commission report of 1906, when work on a new prayer book was begun. Written by a world authority, here is an illuminating and highly readable account of the ascent and decline of a world classic, which still informs our common language as well as much of the great literature of the past four centuries. It will appeal not only to students of liturgy but also to general readers interested in history, literature, theology and cultural studies.

This book explores the theological and textual connections among ancient and modern epicleses, primarily through analysis of a selection of epicletic texts in contemporary Western eucharistic prayers and the theological principles that shaped them.

In celebration of the publication of the sequel "Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman comes this special edition of the classic "A Canticle for Leibowitz, a novel that transcends genre to stand as one of the most significant literary works of our time.
In the Utah desert, Brother Francis of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz has made a miraculous discovery: the relics of the martyr Isaac Leibowitz himself, including the blessed blueprint and the sacred shopping list. They may provide a bright ray of hope in a terrifying age of darkness, a time of ignorance and genetic monsters that are the unholy aftermath of the Flame Deluge. But as the spellbinding mystery at the core of this extraordinary novel unfolds, it is the search itself--for meaning, for truth, for love--that offers hope to a humanity teetering on the edge of an abyss.
A timeless and still timely masterpiece, "A Canticle for Leibowitz is a classic that ranks with "Brave New World and "1984.

"From the Trade Paperback edition.

A Prayer book designed to be used by individual women, as well as by those who are leading group prayer services. For nearly two millennia, Christian women have learned to pray in the language of other people's souls. From worshiping God as father to envisioning a holy life as a military campaign, they've been taught to approach the Divine with the hearts and minds of men. She Who Prays: A Woman's Interfaith Prayer Book offers women a new way to pray. It draws on feminine images of God, as well as the language and experience of women, to help women tap into their own rich and unique spirituality. With material from new translations of ancient Christian hymns and prayers, as well as original prayers in the Christian and other faith traditions, She Who Prays will help women speak to God in their own voices. Arranged in roughly the same format as the Book of Common Prayer, She Who Prays contains a seven-day cycle of daily prayer services, prayers for special occasions, and a woman-oriented liturgical calendar that honors the lives of women of all faiths. The book also contains four rituals marking such themes as healing, reconciliation, and new beginnings, and a prayer to be used while walking a labyrinth. An appendix provides information on world religions and instructions for group services.

This set of three organ improvisations, each based on a liturgical text, is written in a quintessentially English style: largely diatonic but not unremittingly consonant, flowingly melodic, texturally rich, and steered away from predictability by constantly varying bar- and phrase-lengths. Organists will find this a usefully versatile set of voluntaries, or an unusual and rewarding recital piece.

In 1574, Christopher Barker published a volume of prayers and poems collected and composed by Elizabeth Tyrwhit, an intimate member of Katherine Parr's circle, governess to the princess Elizabeth, wife of a Tudor court functionary, and a wealthy widow. Later, Tyrwhit's Morning and Evening Prayers was selected by Thomas Bentley to be republished in his 1582 compilation of devotional works, The Monument of Matrones. This volume presents critical, old-spelling editions of both versions of Morning and Evening Prayers. Placing them side by side, Susan Felch discloses that the second version contains nearly a quarter more material that the first, and is organized quite differently. Felch convincingly argues that the additional material and revised arrangement of the longer version are likely copied direct from another, no longer extant authorial version, either printed or manuscript. In the volume's introduction, Felch provides background on Tyrwhit's life and family, including new information unearthed in her research; and sets Tyrwhit's work within the context of sixteenth- century English prayerbooks. Felch here posits that Tyrwhit's reorganization and framing of traditional material indicates her own considerable creativity. The Textual Notes and Appendix A compare the 1574 and 1582 versions and identify the source texts from which Tyrwhit derives her prayers and poems. The edition is completed by an autograph note by Tyrwhit; a discussion of the Tyrwhit family connections, and several versions of the rhymed Hours of the Cross as background to Tyrwhit's rendition entitled, 'An Hymne of the Passion of Christ'.

The twentieth century has been called a "century of horror". Proof of that, designation can be found in the vast and ever-increasing volume of scholarly work on violence, trauma, memory, and history across diverse academic disciplines. This book demonstrates not only the ways in which the wars of the twentieth century have altered theological engagement and religious practice, but also the degree to which religious ways of thinking have shaped the way we construct historical narratives. Drawing on diverse sources - from the Hebrew Bible to Commonwealth war graves, from Greek tragedy to post-Holocaust theology - Alana M. Vincent probes the intersections between past and present, memory and identity, religion and nationality. The result is a book that defies categorization and offers no easy answers, but instead pursues an agenda of theological realism, holding out continued hope for the restoration of the world.

This book examines the struggle for Protestant consensus and unity through the work of John a Lasco (1499-1560). It is only in recent years that scholars have begun to recognize the importance of Lasco as one of the leading figures of the European Reformation, and a pivotal figure between Lutheran and Reformed theologians. The Polish reformer was among the most dynamic church organizers of the sixteenth century, dedicated to healing the divisions among evangelicals and searching for the key to Protestant unity in the example of the Apostolic Church. It was to this end that he published the Forma ac ratio in 1555, a work that recorded the rites and practices of the London Strangers' Church (of which he had been the first superintendent) and to provide a model for uniting the disparate Protestant communities on the Continent. Although some recent works have focused on aspects of Lasco's early career in Germany and England, this is the first book to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Forma ac ratio, and the reformer's reasons for writing it. This study also puts Lasco's distinct model for Protestant churches into the wider European context and assesses his impact on the struggle for unity through an examination of his correspondence, the reaction to his writings, and his influence on Protestant congregations across Europe.

This new Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book by Catholic Book Publishing has everything you need for prayer. The most comprehensive prayer book, the Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book is literally an encyclopedia of prayer. Edited by Rev. Francis Evans, the new Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book draws prayers from a wide variety of spiritual sources including the Bible, the Liturgy, the Enchiridion of Indulgences, the Saints, Church Scholars and other Spiritual Writers. At over 1,000 pages, this essential volume contains over 1,400 prayers for every need.

As its compiler Thomas Bentley writes, The Monument of Matrones (1582) is a 'domesticall librarie plentifullie stored and replenished'. This 1500-page book is one of a long line of books of secular prayer reaching from the Middle Ages through the sixteenth-century English compilations of prayer and meditations that grew out of the English Reformation. It is unique because it is addressed specifically to women and contains prayers and meditations written by women as well as for them. The Monument helped define women's roles in the Anglican Church and is intertwined with the whole nature of the Protestant Reformation and the place of women in it. The work is divided into seven numbered parts which Bentley titles 'Lamps'. This structural theme is based on a fusion of the imagery of the wise and foolish virgins and their lamps in Matthew 25:1-13 with the vision of the seven lampstands (or seven-branched candlestick) in Rev.1:20-2:1. In this facsimile edition Volume 1 contains Lamps 1-3, Volume 2 contains Lamp 4, and Volume 3 contains Lamps 5-7. The Introductory Note that appears in each of the three volumes provides an overview of the contents of The Monument which will help the reader to appreciate the riches of this immense book. It is also significant in identifying, for the first time, the compiler Thomas Bentley as the churchwarden of St Andrew Holborn, City of London. The copy reproduced in this edition is the British Library copy; where necessary, pages from The Huntington Library copy have been substituted.

Do you ever sit down to pray and struggle to find the right words? You want to spend time with God, but you don't know where to begin? 365 Days of Prayer for Women is a beautiful book of topically arranged, guided prayers and complementary Scriptures that will enhance your prayer life and offer you peace, joy, and strength every day. God hears your voice when you direct it to him. He will step into every struggle and be your very present help in trouble. He will give you the words to say even when you find yourself lacking.

As its compiler Thomas Bentley writes, The Monument of Matrones (1582) is a 'domesticall librarie plentifullie stored and replenished'. This 1500-page book is one of a long line of books of secular prayer reaching from the Middle Ages through the sixteenth-century English compilations of prayer and meditations that grew out of the English Reformation. It is unique because it is addressed specifically to women and contains prayers and meditations written by women as well as for them. The Monument helped define women's roles in the Anglican Church and is intertwined with the whole nature of the Protestant Reformation and the place of women in it. The work is divided into seven numbered parts which Bentley titles 'Lamps'. This structural theme is based on a fusion of the imagery of the wise and foolish virgins and their lamps in Matthew 25:1-13 with the vision of the seven lampstands (or seven-branched candlestick) in Rev.1:20-2:1. In this facsimile edition Volume 1 contains Lamps 1-3, Volume 2 contains Lamp 4, and Volume 3 contains Lamps 5-7. The Introductory Note that appears in each of the three volumes provides an overview of the contents of The Monument which will help the reader to appreciate the riches of this immense book. It is also significant in identifying, for the first time, the compiler Thomas Bentley as the churchwarden of St Andrew Holborn, City of London. The copy reproduced in this edition is the British Library copy; where necessary, pages from The Huntington Library copy have been substituted.

As its compiler Thomas Bentley writes, The Monument of Matrones (1582) is a 'domesticall librarie plentifullie stored and replenished'. This 1500-page book is one of a long line of books of secular prayer reaching from the Middle Ages through the sixteenth-century English compilations of prayer and meditations that grew out of the English Reformation. It is unique because it is addressed specifically to women and contains prayers and meditations written by women as well as for them. The Monument helped define women's roles in the Anglican Church and is intertwined with the whole nature of the Protestant Reformation and the place of women in it. The work is divided into seven numbered parts which Bentley titles 'Lamps'. This structural theme is based on a fusion of the imagery of the wise and foolish virgins and their lamps in Matthew 25:1-13 with the vision of the seven lampstands (or seven-branched candlestick) in Rev.1:20-2:1. In this facsimile edition Volume 1 contains Lamps 1-3, Volume 2 contains Lamp 4, and Volume 3 contains Lamps 5-7. The Introductory Note that appears in each of the three volumes provides an overview of the contents of The Monument which will help the reader to appreciate the riches of this immense book. It is also significant in identifying, for the first time, the compiler Thomas Bentley as the churchwarden of St Andrew Holborn, City of London. The copy reproduced in this edition is the British Library copy; where necessary, pages from The Huntington Library copy have been substituted.

Advent-the season in which we prepare for the coming of the Savior-provokes a certain ambivalence among modern believers. We know that Christ has come in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth, and we live anticipating his return, knowing that our true home is one which he has gone ahead to prepare for us. In the meantime, we are left living between those two worlds. Moorehead uses the witness of the scriptures, her wealth of experience in long years of ministry, and the wisdom of her own life of prayer to guide us in praying the ambiguity of living faithfully between "here and now" and "there and then.

The Liturgies of Quakerism explores the nature of liturgy within a form of worship based in silence. Tracing the original seventeenth century Quakers' understanding of the 'liturgy of silence', and what for them replaced the outward forms used in other parts of Christianity, this book explains how early Quaker understandings of 'time', 'history', and 'apocalyptic' led to an inward liturgical form. The practices and understanding of twenty-first century Liberal Quakers are explored, showing that these contemporary Quakers maintain the same kind of liturgical form as their ancestors and yet understand it in a very different way. Breaking new ground in the study of Quaker liturgy, this book contrasts the two periods and looks at some of the consequences for the study of liturgy in general, and Quakerism in particular. It also explores evangelical Quaker understandings of liturgy.

The Christian mystery, celebrated in the Roman Catholic liturgy, is a sensible mystery, and calls out for artistic expression. Living Beauty explores the Christian mystery and points to the need for a liturgical aesthetic as a means to encounter the divine mystery. A liturgical aesthetic gives an account of Christian worship in terms of a new set of categories that includes divine beauty, a theology of sensibility, and the new notion of a unitive revelatory experience. These categories help to reveal the aesthetic dimensions of the Church's watershed document on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. The Church today stands in need of a new conversation on the aesthetic dimension of the liturgy and the role of the arts. Contrary to common opinion, the arts provide more than an environment or mere extrinsic ornamentation for the liturgy; they are intrinsic to the very nature of liturgy. They provide the means of being sanctified in the encounter with divine beauty that is the mystery of Christian worship. Artistic expression enables the worshiping community to receive the divine mystery in beauty.

The first of four volumes, containing the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship and for each of the annual commemorations in Engand and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Since the sixteenth century, the governments and established churches of the British Isles have summoned the nation to special acts of public worship during periods of anxiety and crisis, at times of celebration or for annual commemoration and remembrance. These special prayers, special days of worship and anniversary commemorations were national events, reaching into every parish in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Ireland. They had considerable religious, ecclesiastical, political, ideological, moral and social significance, and they produced important texts: proclamations, council orders, addresses and - in England, Wales and Ireland - prayers or complete liturgies which for specified periods supplemented or replaced the services in the Book of Common Prayer. Many of these acts of special worship and most of the texts have escaped historical notice. National Prayers. Special Worship since the Reformation, in four volumes, provides the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship and for each of the annual commemorations. The first volume, SpecialPrayers, Fasts and Thanksgivings in the British Isles 1533-1688, has an extended Introduction to the four volumes and a consolidated list of all the occasions of special worship. It contains texts and commentaries which revealthe origins of special occasions of national worship during the Reformation in both England and Scotland, the development of fast days and wartime prayers later in the sixteenth century, and what we know about the origins of special national worship in Ireland. It also shows how special worship became a recurrent focus and expression of religion and political contention during the seventeenth century. Edited by Natalie Mears, Alasdair Raffe, Stephen Taylor and Philip Williamson (with Lucy Bates).

A critical analysis of the liturgical rites in the Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish churches, showing how all Reformed Worship rests upon the Christian doctrine of God, centred in the person and work of Jesus Christ.