Robert G. Hunter maintains that the impact of the Protestant Reformation on the Elizabethan mind was in great part responsible for the emergence of the outstanding tragedies of the age. Luther and Calvin caused men to ask how God can be just if man is not free, and Shakespeare's greatest tragedies confront the vexing problems posed by these altered conceptions of man's freedom of will and God's providential control of natural circumstance.
Shakespeare's audiences were not single-minded. He wrote for semi-Pelagians, Augustinians, Calvinists, and men and women who did not know what to think. Confl icting certainties, doubts, and uncertainties were his raw material, both within his mind and the minds of the audience. Hunter shows how Shakespeare uses the major attitudes toward God's judgment in creating" Richard III," "Hamlet," "Othello," "Macbeth," and" King Lear." He notes that Shakespeare's different viewpoints are the heart of the tragedies themselves. Even after Shakespeare's imaginative considerations of the mysteries, the tragedies seem to consistently provide questions rather than answers, and what they inspire in their beholders is more likely to be doubt than faith.

Theological and psychological interpretations of Shakespeare's most problematic play have been pursued as complementary to each other. In this bold reading, Walter N. King brings twentiethcentury Christian existentialism and post-Freudian psychological theory to bear upon Hamlet and his famous problems. King draws on the support of Paul Tillich, John Macquarrie, and Nicolai Beryaev, who radically reinterpreted the Christian doctrine of providence, and presents an unconventional thesis. He derives illuminating psychological insights from Erik Erikson, the pioneer in the modern study of identity, and Viktor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy.

Father Anscar Chupungco fondly recalls his first class as a student at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in 1965. Professor Salvatore Marsili 'famed theologian, liturgist, and cofounder of the institute 'entered the lecture hall, and after a prolonged and awkward silence finally asked, And so, what is liturgy?"

This seemingly simple question underlies Chupungco's untiring love for liturgy and his lifetime of searching for answers. His is a passion deeply rooted in tradition, which is evident in this volume. Relying on Scripture, patristic writers, and conciliar and postconciliar documents 'and with great skill, prudence, and the fundamental virtue of obedience 'he carefully examines current liturgical trends that are the subject of fierce debate. At a time when we focus so intently on the debate itself, Chupungco cautions us to remember: "At the end of the day what matters are not personal opinions but what truly contributes to making the prayer of the Church an encounter with the person of Christ." It is this most sacred encounter that is at the heart of "What, Then, Is Liturgy?" And it is this encounter that will lead us day by day to the ultimate heavenly liturgy, our eternal and perfect offering of praise to God.

"Anscar Chupungco is a Benedictine of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat in Manila. He is former president of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome, where he taught history of the liturgy and liturgical inculturation. Chupungco was Executive Secretary of the Philippine Episcopal Commission on Liturgy for eighteen years and is currently Secretary of the Asian Liturgy Forum. He has served as consultor to both the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, was a member of the Advisory Committee of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) for ten years, and for some time served as Chair of ICEL's Translations and ReVisions Subcommittee. Chupungco edited the five-volume "Handbook for Liturgical Studies "and is author of "Liturgical Inculturation" (both published by Liturgical Press), Cultural Adaptation of the Liturgy, and Liturgies of the Future.""

Unlike weddings, funerals rarely take place after extensive planning. Often the deceased is not someone the pastor has known well, and preparations for the service of death and resurrection take place in the midst of pastoral care of the grieving, writing the funeral sermon, and the pastor s regular duties. These circumstances make it especially hard to plan an appropriate and meaningful order of worship for the funeral service.

Christian Funerals will help pastors as they attend to this crucial ministry of the church. Drawing on the books of worship from a number of denominations and traditions, it provides several options for each of the elements of the funeral service, from gathering texts to opening prayers to scripture lessons to final prayers. The book is bound in a way that makes it suitable for use at church services and at the grave side."

Before he was one of the best-known church consultants in the country, Bill Easum served a lengthy pastorate in San Antonio, Texas. When he arrived at the church it was in serious decline, with the possibility of having to close its doors beginning to loom over it. By the time he left it was the most vibrant, fastest-growing congregation in its city and region. Shortly after he arrived, Easum preached a series of sermons on the book of Acts that challenged the congregation to become an authentic New Testament church. He called on parishioners to step out of their comfort zones, stop expecting their pastor to be a personal chaplain, and join together to reach their city with the message of Jesus. Preaching for Church Transformation provides updated versions of the sermons Easum preached as he issued this challenge to the congregation shortly after his arrival. Interspersed with the sermons is commentary telling the reader how to adapt them for her or his own situation. Anyone wanting to lead a congregation from the status quo to growth and faithful witness will find Preaching for Church Transformation an indispensable resource.

It is by means of worship that man recognizes his absolute dependence upon God, comes into His presence, and gains practical knowledge of His goodness and sovereign majesty.
Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, founder of the Congregation of St. John and one of the twentieth century s most profound theological and pastoral minds, takes us back to the First Commandment, back to the primacy of worship, in You Shall Worship One God. For only by recognizing the singular importance of worship, of making ourselves an offering of love before God, can we hope to fulfill the other commandments and develop a deep and lasting spiritual life.
Divine revelation, says Father Philippe, presents true worship to us in the form of sacrifice. The Old Testament stories in which goods and lives are offered to God, and the holocausts and oblations of the Jewish Temple, train God s people to express their love and fidelity and penitence through sacrifice. In so doing they also prefigure and prepare us for the Passion of Our Lord on Calvary, the perfect and lasting sacrifice that completes and gives meaning to all the others. Christ s offering of Himself is at root a sacrifice of filial worship, glorifying the Father in the truest way possible and thereby effecting the greatest spiritual fruits.
You Shall Worship One God is a fascinating study of the development of sacrificial worship throughout salvation history, a rich meditation on the mystery of the Cross, and a necessary reminder to our busy world that the heart of Christianity is found not in service to our fellow man, but in recognizing the Lord s supreme majesty before all. Such worship is essential to salvation, says Father Philippe, for it makes us die to ourselves in order to proclaim that God is first.

New from Saint Benedict Press.

Christians are identified by their participation in liturgy. In this primer, Catherine Vincie introduces readers to current liturgical theology by providing them with the foundational themes of the field. She explains that liturgy draws us into the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, that it should create a space in which we attempt to name toward God by employing an abundance of metaphors and images, and that the sacraments are communicated and understood through the use of symbols. Vincie is grounded in the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. As such, "Celebrating Divine Mystery" seeks to draw readers into full, conscious, and active participation" in the liturgy by informing them about recent scholarship and challenging them to enter the divine mystery as informed and engaged participants.

"Catherine Vincie, RSHM, PhD, is professor of sacramental and liturgical theology at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. She is also author of "The Role of the Assembly in Christian" Initiation and many articles on initiation, Eucharist, and liturgy and justice. As a practicing liturgical musician, she is also interested in the role of the arts in past and current liturgical celebration.""

Intercessions for Daily Prayer offers patterns of intercessory prayer for every day of the church year, including weekdays. It is ideal for anyone, lay or ordained, who carries out the discipline of Daily Prayer and who seeks inspiration and structure to improve their prayers for the Church and the world. Arranged season by season, it provides sets of intercessions, with appropriate responses, for each day of the week during: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Ascension-Pentecost, Ordinary Time (two sets) and All Saints.

For the many thousands of clergy, readers and lay preachers who, week by week, seek inspiration as they prepare sermons on the lectionary readings, here is an expert, wise and extremely down to earth guide. A companion to the main volume covering the Sunday readings in years A, B & C, this invaluable volume covers all the principal feasts and festivals that do not, or do not necessarily, fall on a Sunday - major saints' days, holy days such as Christmas Day, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Ascension Day, other special Sunday celebrations such as Mothering Sunday, Bible Sunday, Harvest Festival, Remembrancetide and more. John Pridmore's outstanding gifts as a preacher and writer were learned in Cambridge where he taught theology and the hard reality of the East End of London where there was absolutely no room for platitudes or escapist readings of the Scriptures. Wisdom, strongly tempered by reality, shines out from every paragraph. Many such lectionary commentaries and companions exist already, but John Pridmore's contribution to this genre will be widely welcomed.

Let us bring our prayers to the Lord."

Each week when the community comes together for Mass, we gather to listen to the Word, to partake of the Eucharist, and to pray. The Prayer of the Faithful is marked by the same needs from week to week, but it is always an opportunity to approach God collectively in a way that reflects the richness of our particular celebration. This series of prayers by Father Michael Kwatera is rooted in the present moment: the liturgical season, lectionary readings, and the needs of the church. He draws on the readings, as well as the significance of feasts and of other celebrations. He is also attuned to the many ways we approach God, in language that is clear and attentive to the oral quality of the prayer.

"To place prayerful words on human lips and in human hearts is a most sacred work," writes Father Kwatera in the introduction. The fruit of this work is a set of texts that invites the community to draw near to God each week in prayer.

"The Collegeville Prayer of the Faithful-"a convenient compilation of the previously published volumes, with additional feasts added-includes a CD-ROM of intercessions that can be easily adapted for parish use. Each prayer is provided in a Word file that allows users to easily personalize the intercessions for their own parish.

"Father Michael Kwatera, OSB, PhD, is Director of Oblates and Director of Liturgy for Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota. He is also a teacher and practitioner of Christian Liturgy and is the author of several Liturgical Press books, including "Come to the Feast: Liturgical Theology of, by, and for Everybody "(2005), and the coauthor of "To Thank and Bless: Prayers at Meals "(2007).""

Every year, thousands of couples choose to marry in an Anglican church using the words of the Common Worship marriage service. This expanded version of the best-selling Marriage booklet has been designed to help couples and clergy plan the service with ease. Featuring both the contemporary Common Worship form of the service and the traditional language Solemnization of Matrimony (as popularised by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge), it also contains popular hymns, readings and prayers suitable for weddings, as well as advice on how couples can personalize the service. It makes an ideal gift for clergy to give to couples and can be used as an order of service on the day of the wedding itself.

Distinguished liturgical historian and theologian Frank Senn here ventures behind the liturgical screen, behind the texts, and behind the rubrics to reconstruct the everyday religious expression in Christian history. Senn's magisterial Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (1997) has been widely hailed not only for its comprehensive treatment of Christian liturgy in all ages and communions but also for its appreciation of the dynamic role of culture in shaping liturgical expression. In The People's Work, Senn delves further into the cultural home of liturgy, judiciously and insightfully looking at processions and pilgrimage, communion practices and spiritual reading, fasting and feasting--all the myriad liturgical practices that have been the concrete life and primary work of the body of Christ.

Cardinal Yves Congar is universally known and respected as the great ecclesiologist of Vatican II whose seminal ideas helped to reconfigure the landscape of Catholic theology following the council. Less well known is his role in contributing far-reaching insights to the emerging liturgical movement in the church. This collection represents several of Congar's decisive contributions. Reading them makes possible a deeper and more cogent reception of the key ideas of the council documents. These texts are at once both erudite and exciting, both essential and pastorally incisive. There has never been a better time to disseminate these critically important liturgical insights than the present moment.

"Cardinal Yves Congar, OP, who died in 1995, was a French Dominican widely recognized as one of the most important Roman Catholic theologians of the twentieth century and a major influence upon the theology of the documents of Vatican II. Congar drew from biblical, patristic, and medieval sources to revitalize the discipline of contemporary theology. He was an early advocate of ecumenism and also contributed to shaping the theological agenda of the twentieth-century liturgical movement."

"Pal Philibert, OP, is a retired professor of pastoral theology who has taught in the United States and abroad. He is a Dominican friar of the US Southern Province. His 2005 Liturgical Press book, "The Priesthood of the Faithful: Key to a living Church, " reflects the theology of these essays of Cardinal Yves Congar. His translation of Congar's masterpiece, "True and False Reform in the Church, "will soon be published by Liturgical Press."

Would many believers consider a wake or funeral an act of worship? What does it mean to say that in anointing the sick or administering Viaticum to the dying humans are healed? Such questions plumb the biblical and traditional depths of the paschal mystery. Just as Jesus' ministry at the social-religious margins revealed the center of his faith in God' s reign, so also the church's ministry to sickness and death reveals much about the baptismal and Eucharistic worship so central to its entire life.

"In Divine Worship and Human Healing" Bruce Morrill turns to the rites serving the sick, dying, deceased, and grieving to show why sacramental liturgy is so fundamental to the life of faith. Readers will appreciate both his compelling narratives from actual pastoral experience and his engagement with biblical, theological, historical, and social-scientific resources. Morrill invites readers to discover how the liturgical ministry of healing discloses God's merciful love amid communities of faith.

Jesuit Father Bruce Morrill discusses new book on Liturgical Theology from Jesuit Conference USA on Vimeo.

"Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, holds the Edward A. Maloy Chair of Catholic Studies in the divinity school at Vanderbilt University where he is also Professor of Theological Studies. In addition to numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reviews, he has published several books, most recently" Encountering Christ in the Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, and Sacrament "(Paulist Press, 2012). His most recent book with liturgical Press is" Divine Worship and Human Healing: Liturgical Theology at the Margins of Life and Death "Pueblo/Liturgical Press, 2009).""

Jesus: God's Unlikely Revelation Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Services includes biblically-based sermons, suggested scriptures, children's time, hymn and prayers, as well as litanies for lighting the Advent wreath. Also included are suggestions for seasonal funerals. These services offer a completing message of hope during this important church season, when people often visit a church for the first time. Each service focuses on and celebrates a different aspect of the theme: Jesus: God's Unlikely Revelation 1. First Sunday of Advent- Jesus: The Unlikely Image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; Colossians 1:15-17) 2. Second Sunday in Advent Jesus: The Unlikely Gift from God (Isaiah 55:1-9) 3. Third Sunday of Advent Jesus: The Unlikely Story of God with Us (Matthew 1:18-25) 4. Fourth Sunday of Advent Jesus: The Unlikely Messiah (John 7:25-31) 5. Christmas Eve Jesus: An Unlikely Peacemaker (Luke 2:8-20) 6. Christmas Day An Unlikely Christmas Card (Matthew 2:13-23) 7. Epiphany John the Baptizer: Jesus' Unlikely Herald (John 1:1-14) Seasonal Funerals

This first volume focuses on the basic order of service - the classic fourfold shape of gathering, word, sacrament and sending. In simple, non technical language leading writers in the field get to the heart of the matter and provide invaluable guidance to clergy, ordinands, Eucharistic ministers, study groups and individuals who wish to understand the Eucharist more fully. Subsequent volumes will focus on Engaging with Scripture, Entering into Communion, Modes and Moods of Prayer and Celebrating the Christian Year.

Myra Nagel has written a resource to help readers grow in their faith as they "journey to the cross" during the season of Lent. Using the Gospel of Mark, this thoughtful guide invites the reader to "Come to the Story", "Reflect on the Story", and "Live the Story". The themes for each week of reflections are as follows:

Week 1

Teacher, Let Me See!

Week 2

She Has Done What She Could

Week 3

You Will All Fall Away

Week 4

Do This, Remembering Me

Week 5

Not What I Want, but What You Want

Week 6

Crucify Him!

Week 7

Their Eyes Were Opened

This Lenten resource will inspire its users to recall the biblical story of Christ's death and resurrection in a new and engaging way. Study questions are provided for individuals and groups.

This is a serious, scholarly of liturgy analysis combining historical, philosophical, musicological and liturgical. The volume, like the series, will be aimed at moving the debate about liturgy out of the narrow confines of either 'pastoral liturgy', 'reform of the reform' or nostalgia and bemoaning of the ruination of liturgical tradition to an entirely higher plane, of serious, scholarly, measured analysis combining historical, philosophical, musicological and liturgical. This book advances a provocative and controversial set of proposals for the development of future liturgical reform in its attempt to re-engage with a traditional sense of the Roman Rite. The author is uniquely placed to make the case he does. A mediaevalist and musicologist of unparalleled experience and breadth, Dobszay combines - almost uniquely - a profound knowledge of the history of the development of the Roman Rite - especially the Antiphonary - with a personal interest and passionate concern for the lived experience of the rite itself. The result is a lively and vigorous text based around the idea of the actual liturgical sense of the Roman Rite - meaning a respect for its integrity as an historical tradition that found multiform expression across Europe and also across at least 1600 years, combined with a sympathy for the fact that the rite is still a living entity with a long future ahead of it. "T&T Clark Studies in Fundamental Liturgy" offer cutting edge scholarship from all disciplines related to liturgical study. The books in the series seek to reintegrate biblical, patristic, historical, dogmatic and philosophical questions with liturgical study in ways faithful and sympathetic to classical liturgical enquiry. Volumes in the series include monographs, translations of recent texts and edited collections around very specific themes.

Building on the success of his earlier book Hear Our Prayer: Resources for Worship and Devotions, and believing that Christians should experience worship as vocational rather than vacational, Rainsley writes these prayers and parables in a manner in which readers and listeners can recognize God in the midst of the ordinary. This resource can be used in worship or in Sunday bulletins and church newsletters. It includes calls to worship, opening prayers, words of assurance, pastoral prayers, prayers of dedication, benedictions, prayers for special occasions, and parables.

This timely and provocative book asks whether the widespread falling away of the appeal of religious worship is connected with the simplification of liturgical practice over recent decades. Has a well-meant policy of making the language and style of worship more accessible resulted in a loss of the sense of mystery - and has this accelerated the decline? The author, who was involved with the development of Common Worship, surveys five hundred years of change in the Anglican tradition against the wider backdrop of the Catholic and the Orthodox traditions. He explores what the search for re-enchantment might mean in a post-modern society where the corporate practice of religion is in decline and where religious language and religious worship have lost much of their appeal. ANDREW BURNHAM is the Bishop of Ebbsfleet He was formerly Vice-Principal of St Stephen's College, Oxford, and served on the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England. He is the compiler of A Manual of Anglo-Catholic Devotion. JONATHAN BAKER is the Principal of Pusey House Oxford and the author of Consecrated Women? He is currently a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England.

This latest work from leading liturgical theologian Gordon Lathrop explores the extent to which the central symbols and interactions of Christian liturgy yield, for their participants, a new proposal for their understanding and experience of the world. In the process, it considers various kinds of world-making, the diverse maps, and the differing senses of "cosmology" in which we all live. Finally, the book examines how certain liturgical reforms can contribute to a refreshed sense of ecological ethics-to a Christian sense of the holiness of the earth itself.

C. E. Hammond's Antient Liturgies provided a valuable resource at an early stage in comparative liturgical studies. Free of extensive critical apparatus, Antient Liturgies presents a collection of historic forms of worship from the Western, Eastern, and Oriental Churches. This extract from the book focuses on the Clementine Liturgy, an important early liturgy, apparently known even to Justin Martyr. Rendered in Greek and with an analytical introduction this early study continues to provide a broad overview of early Christian worship made available in an accessible and convenient format for students and scholars.