The Gospel of John has been examined from many different perspectives, but a comprehensive treatment of the theme of worship in this Gospel has not yet appeared. John Paul Heil offers a contribution toward a remedy of this deficiency by analyzing the entire Gospel of John from the perspective of its various dimensions of worship. The aim is to illustrate that three different but complementary dimensions of worship - confessional, sacramental, and ethical - dominate this Gospel. Indeed, these different types of worship represent the ways one expresses and demonstrates the faith that includes having divine life eternal, which is the stated purpose for writing the signs Jesus did in this Gospel - "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name" ( John 20:31).

The Gospel of Matthew encourages and inspires its audience to practice the true, authentic, and holistic worship required for believers in Jesus to live in the kingdom of Heaven. In accordance with all that Jesus taught and exemplified regarding authentic worship, believers are invited to complement their worship of God by worshipping and praying to Jesus, who, as God's beloved Son, represents 'God with us'. They are also invited to complement their ritual worship - especially the Baptism and Eucharist - instituted for them by Jesus, with an ethical worship that extends to others, especially to disciples, children, and 'the least ones' with whom Jesus identifies himself, the mercy God desires for a holistic worship. Indeed, a compassionate mercy toward all is the distinctive and noteworthy hallmark that characterizes the theme of worship in the kingdom of Heaven, according to the Gospel of Matthew.

In his commentary, John Paul Heil presents two new proposals regarding Paul's letter to the Galatians. First, he demonstrates an entirely new chiastic structure embracing the entire letter, based on strict linguistic and textual criteria rather than on conceptual or theological themes. This chiastic structure accords with the view that Galatians was originally performed orally in a setting of communal worship. Second, Heil offers a new proposal for a key theme that runs throughout Galatians, as expressed by the subtitle of this book - 'Worship for Life by Faith in the Crucified and Risen Lord'. Here, 'worship' is considered to be a comprehensive concept that includes liturgical, cultic, or ritual worship as well as the moral behaviour that is to complement it as ethical worship in accord with the biblical tradition. 'Life' refers both to the present way of living as well as to future eternal life. 'Faith' refers to the acceptance of divine grace available to the believer because of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

'1-3 John' treats the three letters of John as a unified epistolary package. Taking a thorough and scholarly approach, John Paul Heil proposes two important contributions to the study of 1-3 John. First, he presents new comprehensive chiastic structures for each of the three letters of John based on concrete linguistic evidence in the text. These chiastic structures serve as the guide to a better understanding of for whom John's epistles were meant, and why they were written. Secondly, it treats these letters from the point of view of their worship context and themes. Not only were 1-3 John intended to be performed orally as part of liturgical worship, but together these three letters plead with their audience to engage in a distinctive kind of ethical worship. The three letters of John are most concerned with giving their audience the experience of living eternally by the worship that consists of loving God and one another.

The Letters of Paul as Rituals of Worship places the epistles of Paul the Apostle in their original context as epistolary rituals of worship. Paul is rightly considered a great missionary, evangelist, teacher, preacher, and pastor; but people often ignore the fact that his letters were written to be performed publicly in a liturgical assembly. The letters frame the issues and problems that Paul addresses through them within the context of public worship. Heil analyses each of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul with these considerations in mind, and offers an innovative new approach that gives the reader a greater understanding of the original purpose and meaning to Paul's letters. Using liturgical and ritualistic language Paul worships through the letters themselves, addressing the audience about theological concepts, particular problems and pressing concerns. Understood in the biblical tradition that dynamically combines liturgical and ethical worship, Paul's letters transcend their immediate context and become meaningful for the moral worship of everyday lives outside the liturgical assembly. John Paul Heil is Professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He is the author of 'Ephesians: Empowerment to Walk in Love for the Unity of All in Christ' (2007). 'When Heil calls the thirteen letters of Paul 'rituals of worship', he means that each is written as a script to be performed for a community gathered for worship over which Paul presides through the letter, thereby evoking and sharing in the prayer of his audience. Heil also explores how the language of the letters uses imagery from temple worship metaphorically, to interpret Christian life itself as worship. Heil manages to provide a fresh, pastoral reading of the Pauline corpus as a whole'. Dennis Hamm, S.J., Department of Theology, Creighton University

About the Contributor(s): John Paul Heil is Professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He is the author of The Letter of James: Worship To Live By (2012).