The Language of Liturgy: A Ritual Poetics

by David Jasper

Overview

How language works in the worship of the church has been vigorously debated during the period of liturgical revision in the twentieth century coming at the end of what is known as the Liturgical Movement.

Focussing upon the Church of England and the Anglican tradition, The Language of Liturgy traces the history of 'liturgical language' as it begins in the Early Church, but with particular emphasis upon the English Reformation liturgies, their background in the Medieval Church and literature and their long and varied life in the Church of England after 1662.

Inter-disciplinary in scope, yet rooted in a literary approach, the volume provides a rigorous study of the effect of liturgy upon the theological and devotional life of the Church.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780334055716
Publisher:	Hymns Ancient & Modern
Publication date:	01/31/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David Jasper is Professor of Literature and Theology at Glasgow University and Distinguished Overseas Professor at Renmin University of China, Beijing. He holds degrees from Cambridge, Oxford, Durham and Uppsala, and is Doctor of Divinity at Oxford and holds a doctorate in theology (h.c.) from Uppsala. He has published and lectured widely in the field of literature and theology and his most recent book is Literature and Theology as a Grammar of Assent (Routledge, 2016). He is an ordained Anglican priest.

Table of Contents

Part I: The Poetics of Liturgy

1. Poetry and the Language of Prayer and Worship
2. The Poetics of Liturgy
3. A Ritual Poetics and the Demands of Liturgical Language

Part II: Language and Performance in the Liturgy of the Early Church

4. Liturgy and Performance
5. Hippolytus and The Apostolic Tradition

Part III: Medieval and Reformation England

6. Liturgical Language and the Vernacular in Late Medieval England
7. Literature and the Prayer Books of the English Reformation

Part IV: The Alternative Service Book and Common Worship

8. Language and Liturgical Revision in the Church of England
9. The Background to The Alternative Service Book
10. From 1980 to Common Worship
11. Reflections on the Eucharistic Body

Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In worship that which we make may re-make us in unpredictable ways if we agree that theology, rooted as it is in the strange activity of liturgy, should engage a full range of human emotion and hopeful imagining, with moments both of fidelity and freedom in liturgical re-enactment. David Jasper is seeking both in the past and in the present for the sensitivity to language to be found in our cultures (if not as yet by ‘liturgists’) to make possible intercession, thanksgiving, and delight in the glorification of God. A book both informative, challenging, and to be taken very seriously.”

—Ann Loades

Editorial Reviews

"In worship that which we make may re-make us in unpredictable ways if we agree that theology, rooted as it is in the strange activity of liturgy, should engage a full range of human emotion and hopeful imagining, with moments both of fidelity and freedom in liturgical re-enactment. David Jasper is seeking both in the past and in the present for the sensitivity to language to be found in our cultures (if not as yet by 'liturgists') to make possible intercession, thanksgiving and delight in the glorification of God. A book both informative, challenging and to be taken very seriously.

Ann Loades

In worship that which we make may re-make us in unpredictable ways if we agree that theology, rooted as it is in the strange activity of liturgy, should engage a full range of human emotion and hopeful imagining, with moments both of fidelity and freedom in liturgical re-enactment. David Jasper is seeking both in the past and in the present for the sensitivity to language to be found in our cultures (if not as yet by ‘liturgists’) to make possible intercession, thanksgiving, and delight in the glorification of God. A book both informative, challenging, and to be taken very seriously.”

—Ann Loades

From the Publisher