This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the internal arrangement of church buildings in Western Europe between 1500 and 2000, showing how these arrangements have met the liturgical needs of their respective denominations, Catholic and Protestant, over this period. In addition to a chapter looking at the general impact of the Reformation on church buildings, there are separate chapters on the churches of the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions between the mid-sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, and on the ecclesiological movement of the nineteenth century and the liturgical movement of the twentieth century, both of which have impacted on all the churches of Western Europe over the past 150 years. The book is extensively illustrated with figures in the text and a series of plates and also contains comprehensive guides to both further reading and buildings to visit throughout Western Europe.

Vividly evoking the sights, sounds, smells - even the tastes - of the Holy land, Tom Wright takes us on a contemporary pilgrimage to help us respond to Jesus' call today. An ideal introduction to the Christian faith, The Way of the Lord aims to lead us into a greater knowledge and love of the One who journeys with us - whether our pilgrimage is physical, or merely of heart and mind. Capturing the real excitement of 'Come and see the place' it heightens out awareness that Jesus journeys with us as he calls us out into the wider world of discipleship. For, in the glorious message of Easter: 'He is not here - he is risen!'

In this third and final volume in a series of ceremonial guides to worship in the Episcopal Church according to "The Book of Common Prayer," Leonel L. Mitchell focuses on the pastoral and occasional liturgies. Beginning with the celebration of the Daily Office, he goes on to discuss the seasonal liturgies beyond the Lent-Easter cycle, including Advent Lessons and Carols, Candlemas, and Rogation processions. The pastoral offices include baptism, marriage, the blessing of homes, reconciliation, ministry to the sick, and burial.Finally, Mitchell concludes with the services involving bishops, including celebrations of new ministries, consecrations of churches, and ordination rites.Like its two companion volumes, Howard E. Galley s "The Ceremonies of the Eucharist" and Mitchell s "Lent, Holy Week, Easter," and "the Great Fifty Days," this new guide offers clear descriptions of ways of celebrating the rites as well as the theological and historical reasons behind them. The book is designed to be useful in churches of all sizes, small and large.

Christian Ethics provides a biblical, historical, philosophical and theological guide to the field of Christian ethics. Prominent theologian David S. Cunningham explores the tradition of a ~virtue ethicsa (TM) in this creative and lively text, which includes literary and musical references as well as key contemporary theological texts and figures.

Three parts examine:

• the nature of human action and the people of God as the a ~interpretative communitya (TM) within which ethical discourse arises
• the development of a a ~virtue ethicsa (TM) approach, and places this in its Christian context
• significant issues in contemporary Christian ethics, including the ethics of business and economics, politics, the environment, medicine and sex.

This is the essential text for students of all ethics courses in theology, religious studies and philosophy.

Based in records and iconography, this book surveys medieval festival playing in Britain more comprehensively than any other work to date. The study presents an inclusive view of the drama in the British Isles, from Kilkenny to Great Yarmouth, from Scotland to Cornwall. It offers detailed readings of individual plays-including the York Creed Play, Pentecost and Corpus Christi plays and the little studied Bodley plays, among others - as well as a summary of what is known of their production. Clifford Davidson here extends the usual chronological range to include work typically categorized as early modern, enabling a juxtaposition of earlier plays with later plays to yield a better understanding of both. Complementing documentary evidence with iconographic detail and citation of music, he pinpoints a number of common misconceptions about medieval drama. By organizing the study around the rituals of the liturgical seasons, he clarifies the relationship between liturgical feast and dramatic celebration.

'Children are equal members of the Church by virtue of their baptism', writes Stephen Lake 'and therefore should have full access to the sacraments, the signs of God's love, and most especially to the bread and wine of the Eucharist.' This valuable resource book will assist all parishes in welcoming children to communion now that the Church of England has approved new Regulations. Let the Children Come to Communion: encourages the admission of baptized children to communion; summarizes in one place relevant practice, information and theology; shares the experience of those who have already taken this step; aims to help move the debate on, encouraging the Church into full participation. The author's fervent hope is to stir the Church into action on an important issue and to stimulate decision-making about introducing and developing this ministry with children. There are extended interviews with leading practitioners including: David Stancliffe, Stephen Venner, Diana Murrie, Margaret Withers and Mark Russell. Stephen Lake is Sub Dean and Canon Residentiary of St. Albans Cathedral. Stephen served his curacy at Sherborne Abbey before becoming Vicar of Branksome St. Aldhelm, an urban parish in Poole. He was also Rural Dean. After nine years in Branksome he moved to St. Albans in 2001. He is married to Carol and they have three children, all of whom receive Holy Communion. He is the author of the hugely successful Confirmation Prayer Book (SPCK), and also of Using Common Worship: Marriage (Church House Publishing). "Stephen Lake has written a fine, timely guide to the current discussion. I hope his vision will invite and persuade, and that we shall as a Church continue to discover the riches that await us as we listen more thoughtfully and generously to Christ's youngest friends" Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

"Dr. Harris has preempted a field almost unto himself: the study of contemporary festivals that have their origins in tradition, history, and the great religious celebrations of the past.... [This book] represents a masterful achievement." -- Milla Cozart Riggio, James J. Goodwin Professor of English, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

With a riotous mix of saints and devils, street theater and dancing, and music and fireworks, Christian festivals are some of the most lively and colorful spectacles that occur in Spain and its former European and American possessions. That these folk celebrations, with roots reaching back to medieval times, remain vibrant in the high-tech culture of the twenty-first century strongly suggests that they also provide an indispensable vehicle for expressing hopes, fears, and desires that people can articulate in no other way.

In this book, Max Harris explores and develops principles for understanding the folk theology underlying patronal saints' day festivals, feasts of Corpus Christi, and Carnivals through a series of vivid, first-hand accounts of these festivities throughout Spain and in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad, Bolivia, and Belgium. Paying close attention to the signs encoded in folk performances, he finds in these festivals a folk theology of social justice that-- however obscured by official rhetoric, by distracting theories of archaic origin, or by the performers' own need to mask their resistance to authority-- is often in articulate and complex dialogue with the power structures that surround it. This discovery sheds important new light on the meanings of religious festivals celebrated from Belgium to Peru and onthe sophisticated theatrical performances they embody.

This book shows how necessary ritual is to human freedom and to social processes of liberation. It aims to reflect upon the deep human longing for ritual and to interpret it in the light of our physical, social, political, sexual, moral, aesthetic, and religious existence.

Ecologies of Resonance in Christian Musicking Rexplores a diverse range of Christian musical activity through the conceptual lens of resonance, a concept rooted in the physical, vibrational, and sonic realm that carries with it an expansive ability to simultaneously describe personal, social, and spiritual realities. In this book, Mark Porter proposes that attention to patterns of back-and-forth interaction that exist in and alongside sonic activity can help to understand the dynamics of religious musicking in new ways and, at the same time, can provide a means for bringing diverse traditions into conversation. The book focuses on different questions arising out of human experience in the moment of worship. What happens if we take the entry point of a human being experiencing certain patterns of (more than) sonic interaction with the world around them as a focus for exploration? What different ecologies of interaction can be encountered? What kinds of patterns can be traced through different Christian worshiping environments? And how do these operate across multiple dimensions of experience? Chapters covering ascetic sounding, noisy congregations, and Internet live-streaming, among others, serve to highlight the diverse ecologies of resonance that surround Christian musicking, suggesting the potential to develop new perspectives on devotional musical activity that focus not primarily on compositions or theological ideals but on changing patterns of interaction across multiple dimensions between individuals, spaces, communities, and God.

This compact liturgy provides alternative services and prayers for many occasions. It includes: Prayers before Worship; Early Morning Prayer; Morning Prayer; Evening Prayer; Night Prayer; A Service of Marriage; In Praise of Creation; A Funeral Service; A Service of Healing; Prayers of Intercession; A Celtic Calendar of the Lives of the Saints; Selected Psalms, and an Historical Overview.

Edwards discusses spiritual gifts from a biblical perspective, and guides us in the discovery of our particular spiritual gifts through step-by-step exercises and challenging self-evaluation. This book is particularly useful for those leading workshops on spiritual gifts and encouraging lay persons to discover the talents they have been given to carry out ministry in the parish.

In this fascinating study of contemporary Christian worshippers, David L. Moody analyzes Christian rap music against traditional Christian theology. For many, mixing the sanctified worship of God with music originating from unconsecrated avenues has become difficult to accept. From the back alleys and streets of "the hood" to the club scene of urban America, Christian rappers walk to a different beat than the preacher at the pulpit. However, similar to a street evangelist, the Black Christian rapper is about singing praise to God and delivering the gospel message to his "lost homies" on the streets. Moody examines the emergence of hip hop based ministries and their place among youth with the Black community.

First full-scale survey and examination of liturgical practice and its fundamental changes over four centuries. At the heart of life in any medieval Christian religious community was the communal recitation of the daily "hours of prayer" or Divine Office. This book draws on narrative, conciliar, and manuscript sources to reconstruct the history of how the Divine Office was sung in Anglo-Saxon minster churches from the coming of the first Roman missionaries in 597 to the height of the "monastic revival" in the tenth century. Going beyond both the hagiographic "Benedictine" assumptions of older scholarship and the cautious agnosticism of more recent historians of Anglo-Saxon Christianity, the author demonstrates that the early Anglo-Saxon Church followed a non-Benedictine "Roman" monasticliturgical tradition. Despite Viking depredations and native laxity, this tradition survived, enriched through contact with varied Continental liturgies, into the tenth century. Only then did a few advanced monastic reformers conclude, based on their study of ninth-century Frankish reforms fully explained for the first time in this book, that English monks and nuns ought to follow the liturgical prescriptions of the Rule of St Benedict to the letter. Fragmentary manuscript survivals reveal how monastic leaders such as Dunstan and AEthelwold variously adapted the native English liturgical tradition - or replaced it - to implement this forgotten central plank of the "Benedictine Reform". Jesse D. Billett is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College, Toronto.

During the Nineteenth-Century a major revival in religious pilgrimage took place across Europe. This phenomenon was largely started by the rediscovery of several holy burial places such as Assisi, Milano, Venice, Rome and Santiago de Compostela, and subsequently developed into the formation of new holy sites that could be visited and interacted with in a wholly Modern way. This uniquely wide-ranging collection sets out the historic context of the formation of contemporary European pilgrimage in order to better understand its role in religious expression today. Looking at both Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Europe, an international panel of contributors analyse the revival of some major Christian shrines, cults and pilgrimages that happened after the rediscovery of ancient holy burial sites or the constitution of new shrines in locations claiming apparitions of the Virgin Mary. They also shed new light on the origin and development of new sanctuaries and pilgrimages in France and the Holy Land during the Nineteenth Century, which led to fresh ways of understanding the pilgrimage experience and had a profound effect on religion across Europe. This collection offers a renewed overview of the development of Modern European pilgrimage that used intensively the new techniques of organisation and travel implemented in the Nineteenth-Century. As such, it will appeal to scholars of Religious Studies, Pilgrimage and Religious History as well as Anthropology, Art, Cultural Studies, and Sociology.

"Gertrud Nelson has written a book on ritual that is one of a kind. Her exquisitely written volume covers the history, psychology and spirituality of ritual in general and Christian ritual in particular. Enlivened by pithy and insightful examples, many of them drawn from her own family life, Ms. Nelson penetrates to the heart of the meaning of ritual and ceremony in a fresh way. She manages to escape the trap of many writers on this subject-superficial piety-and makes relevant for the modern reader the importance of ritual for connecting us to the meaning and flow of life. I would not have thought in today's rationalistic age that the ceremonies of life could be made vital again as cogently and splendidly as has been don in this book. Sometimes even single sentences speak volumes: 'It is Advent, and we, a people, are pregnant.' This is a book to be read carefully, perhaps only a few pages a day. Reading the book can become a ritual, especially for Christian people to whom it is primarily addressed. Beautiful illustrations by the author add to the expressiveness of this carefully composed work. This book may prove to be a classic treatment of the meaning of ritual for this modern era." -John Sanford

Through his work as a physician, Karl Koenig explored the relationship between the rhythm of the seasons, the Christian festivals, thinking in particular about their effect on human beings and communities. This fascinating collection of Koenig's essays, lectures and notes looks at the cycle of the year and the different aspects of all the Christian festivals, from Easter to the Twelve Holy Days of Christmas. Koenig discusses the idea that human beings can derive inner strength from festival celebrations through an active social life and participation in community, and also that a strong, healthy community life relies on the celebration of festivals.

This comprehensive work represents a complete but accessible survey of everything related to the Orthodox Church's divine services and is helpfully illustrated throughout. The author begins with a discussion of the nature and origin of Divine worship. He describes the church building, the clergy who perform divine services and their vestments, and the cycles of public worship. The services of Great Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy are reviewed in detail, as are festal services, and different services of need: Baptism and Chrismation, Confession, Ordination, Matrimony, Unction, Prayer Services, Monastic Tonsure and Burial, and the Consecration of a Church. The reader will also find a rare discussion of the rite of the Coronation and Anointing of the Tsar. This manual was originally translated and printed before the Russian Revolution. It is suitable both as an introduction to Orthodox worship for the inquirer and as a convenient handbook for those already familiar with the intricacies of Orthodox services.

Learning about one another's faiths provides the key to respect and tolerance. 'Initiation Rites' provides one angle from which to develop knowledge of different faiths, by focusing on the huge diversity in the customs and attitudes underlying initiation ceremonies in the world's religions. The collection includes notes and comments from senior figures of the faiths in question, and is an invaluable resource for teachers preparing their pupils for life in the multi-faith 'global community' of which we are already members 'Initiation Rites' is one of a series of three books in the Living Faiths series. The other titles are 'Marriage and the Family' (ISBN 978-0718824440), and 'Death' (ISBN 9780718830861). The series promotes a comprehensive inter-faith understanding by outlining the diverse attitudes and ceremonies found in different faiths. The series has close links with the Standing Conference on Inter-Faith Dialogue in Education, of which the series editor was former Publications Secretary.

William Law is best remembered today for his Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. To those interested in his spirituality, however, other works have greater impact, in particular The Spirit of Prayer and The Spirit of Love, which are considered the finest and most appealing. In the years in which they were written, his vision had reached its fullest and most characteristic development, and his literary power was at its height. It is in these books that the profound influence of Jacob Boehme can be most clearly seen. His great synthesis of the mystical outpourings and orthodox Christian theology, provide an English spiritual classic. Law's understanding and interpretation of mysticism was more original than traditional, being dynamic and creative. He believed in the life of God working from within, and the flame of divine love being a link with and an understanding of God. He conceived that mysticism was a matter of life, that relied on willing rather than knowing, and that ultimately rested on trust in God. Despite holding no official position he was widely regarded in his own time and later as a spiritual guide, and his trilogy The Spirit of Prayer, The Spirit of Love and The Way to Divine Knowledge was the mature expression of his theology and religion.

A critical analysis of the eucharistic, baptismal and confirmation rites in the Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish liturgies, showing how all Reformed worship rests upon the Christian doctrine of God, centred in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In this sense he claims that to be Reformed, or Presbyterian, it is essential to be Christian, Catholic and Calvinist not only in doctrine but in worship.

Many philosophical approaches today seek to overcome the division between mind and body. If such projects succeed, then thinking is not restricted to the disembodied mind, but is in some sense done through the body. From a post-Cartesian perspective, then, ritual activities that discipline the body are not just thoughtless motions, but crucial parts of the way people think. Thinking Through Rituals explores religious ritual acts and their connection to meaning and truth, belief, memory, inquiry, worldview and ethics. Drawing on philosophers such as Foucault, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein, and sources from cognitive science, pragmatism and feminist theory, it provides philosophical resources for understanding religious ritual practices like the Christian Eucharistic ceremony, Hatha Yoga, sacred meditation or liturgical speech. Its essays consider a wide variety of rituals in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism - including political protest rituals and gay commitment ceremonies, traditional Vedic and Yogic rites, Christian and Buddhist meditation and the Jewish Shabbat. They challenge the traditional disjunction between thought and action, showing how philosophy can help to illuminate the relationship between doing and meaning which ritual practices imply.

Many philosophical approaches today seek to overcome the division between mind and body. If such projects succeed, then thinking is not restricted to the disembodied mind, but is in some sense done through the body. From a post-Cartesian perspective, then, ritual activities that discipline the body are not just thoughtless motions, but crucial parts of the way people think. Thinking Through Rituals explores religious ritual acts and their connection to meaning and truth, belief, memory, inquiry, worldview and ethics. Drawing on philosophers such as Foucault, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein, and sources from cognitive science, pragmatism and feminist theory, it provides philosophical resources for understanding religious ritual practices like the Christian Eucharistic ceremony, Hatha Yoga, sacred meditation or liturgical speech. Its essays consider a wide variety of rituals in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism - including political protest rituals and gay commitment ceremonies, traditional Vedic and Yogic rites, Christian and Buddhist meditation and the Jewish Shabbat. They challenge the traditional disjunction between thought and action, showing how philosophy can help to illuminate the relationship between doing and meaning which ritual practices imply.