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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian worship > General
This full-length study investigates how sermons and vernacular
religious drama worked as media for public learning, how they
combined this didactic aim with literary exigencies, and how plays
acquired and reflected authority. The interrelation between sermons
and vernacular drama, formerly assumed to be a close one, is
addressed from historical connections, performative aspects, and
the portrayal of penance. The work demonstrates the subtly
different purposes and contents and outlines the unique ways in
which they operate within late medieval England.
New Seeds of Contemplation is one of Thomas Merton's most widely
read and best-loved books. Christians and non-Christians alike have
joined in praising it as a notable successor in the meditative
tradition of St. John of the Cross, The Cloud of Unknowing, and the
medieval mystics, while others have compared Merton's reflections
with those of Thoreau. New Seeds of Contemplation seeks to awaken
the dormant inner depths of the spirit so long neglected by Western
man, to nurture a deeply contemplative and mystical dimension in
our lives. For Merton, "Every moment and every event of every man's
life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind
carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it
germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the
minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and
are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such
seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the soil of
freedom, spontaneity and love."
Is God missing from our worship? Obstacles to true worship are not
about contemporary or traditional music, electronic gadgetry or
seeker sensitivity. Rather it is the habits of mind and heart,
conditioned by our surrounding culture, that hinder our faith in
the real presence of the transcendent God among his people. Sensing
a real need for renewal, John Jefferson Davis offers a theology of
worship that uncovers the most fundamental barriers to our vital
involvement in the worship of our holy God. His profound
theological analysis leads to fresh and bracing recommendations
that will be especially helpful to all those who lead worship or
want to more fully and deeply encounter the glory and majesty of
God.
First published in 1978 and hailed by "Culture" as constituting
"an important foreshadowing of issues that have become prominent in
more recent anthropology," this classic book, now updated and
extensively revised, examines the theological doctrines and popular
notions that promote and sustain Christian pilgrimage, including
their corresponding symbols and images.
In this classic book, Eleanor C. Merry applies her remarkably
wide-ranging knowledge of world religion and mythology to the
Easter story. A perfect companion to her book The Ascent of Man,
Easter focuses on three particular legends: The Holy Grail and
Perceval, An Old Irish Legend, and The Legend of Faust. With the
Sun, the Moon and Nature forming a continuous background to her
ideas, Merry draws out the common themes which lead ultimately to
the Christian Easter story.
The Christian faith depends to a great degree on persuasion. In one
of his letters to early Christians, the apostle Paul wrote, "Let
your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may
know how you ought to answer everyone" (Col. 4:6). Yet rhetoric-the
art of persuasion-has been largely ignored by most Christians. In
this book, James Beitler seeks to renew interest in and hunger for
an effective Christian rhetoric by closely considering the work of
five beloved Christian communicators: C. S. Lewis, Dorothy L.
Sayers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu, and Marilynne Robinson.
Moreover, he situates these reflections within the Christian
liturgical seasons for the essential truths they convey. These
writers collectively demonstrate that being a master of rhetoric is
not antithetical to authentic Christian witness. Indeed, being a
faithful disciple of Christ means practicing a rhetoric that
beneficially and persuasively imparts the surprising truth of the
gospel. It means having seasoned speech.
Christ Church cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in a catholic
country. Musical and archival sources (the most extensive for any
Irish cathedral) provide a unique perspective on the history of
music in Ireland. Christ Church has had a complex and varied
history as the cathedral church of Dublin, one of two Anglican
cathedrals in the capital of a predominantly Catholic country and
the church of the British administration in Ireland before1922. An
Irish cathedral within the English tradition, yet through much of
its history it was essentially an English cathedral in a foreign
land. With close musical links to cathedrals in England, to St
Patrick's cathedral in Dublin, and to the city's wider political
and cultural life, Christ Church has the longest documented music
history of any Irish institution, providing a unique perspective on
the history of music in Ireland. Barra Boydell, a leading authority
on Irish music history, has written a detailed study drawing on the
most extensive musical and archival sources existing for any Irish
cathedral. The choir, its composers and musicians, repertoire and
organs are discussed within the wider context of city and state,
and of the religious and political dynamics which have shaped
Anglo-Irish relationships since medieval times. More than just a
history of music at one cathedral, this book makesan important
contribution to English cathedral music studies as well as to Irish
musical and cultural history. BARRA BOYDELL is Senior Lecturer in
Music, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
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Explores the role of jazz celebrities like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab
Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams as representatives
of African American religion in the twentieth century Beginning in
the 1920s, the Jazz Age propelled Black swing artists into national
celebrity. Many took on the role of race representatives, and were
able to leverage their popularity toward achieving social progress
for other African Americans. In Lift Every Voice and Swing, Vaughn
A. Booker argues that with the emergence of these popular jazz
figures, who came from a culture shaped by Black Protestantism,
religious authority for African Americans found a place and
spokespeople outside of traditional Afro-Protestant institutions
and religious life. Popular Black jazz professionals-such as Ella
Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou
Williams-inherited religious authority though they were not
official religious leaders. Some of these artists put forward a
religious culture in the mid-twentieth century by releasing
religious recordings and putting on religious concerts, and their
work came to be seen as integral to the Black religious ethos.
Booker documents this transformative era in religious expression,
in which jazz musicians embodied religious beliefs and practices
that echoed and diverged from the predominant African American
religious culture. He draws on the heretofore unexamined private
religious writings of Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams, and
showcases the careers of female jazz artists alongside those of
men, expanding our understanding of African American religious
expression and decentering the Black church as the sole concept for
understanding Black Protestant religiosity. Featuring gorgeous
prose and insightful research, Lift Every Voice and Swing will
change the way we understand the connections between jazz music and
faith.
A simply written little book about prayer and Christian life, this
work beautifully conveys messages from a seventeenth-century
Carmelite monk to those who lived and worked around him. Written so
that each section of the book could stand on its own, the text has
much to say to the modern person trying to live a spiritual life in
the midst of a busy career or home. The book's brevity and
accessibility make this classic of Christian devotion a
particularly good selection with which to begin spiritual studies.
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