The Place of the Prayer Book in the Western Liturgical Tradition

1950 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Massey H. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Catholic Church

The theme of this address, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the First Book of Common Prayer, may be stated in the words of the late Miss Evelyn Underhill:Anglican worship is a special development of the traditional Christian cultus; and not merely a variant of Continental Protestantism. … It forms, with the Bible or Lectionary, the authorized Missal and Breviary of the English branch of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory, and its contents declare in unmistakable terms the adherence of that Church to the great Catholic tradition of Christendom and the general conformity of its worship to the primitive ritual type.

The battle of the books: the Authorized Version and the Book of Common Prayer at the Restoration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bagchi
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Common Prayer

This chapter examines the theme of disruption and continuity in English religious life at the Restoration with reference to the differing fortunes of those twin pillars of the Anglican establishment, the Authorized Version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. The AV had commanded broad acceptance under the Commonwealth and its re-authorization in 1660 was unproblematic. The BCP, by contrast, had long been reviled by hotter Protestants for its conservatism, especially in Archbishop William Laud’s 1637 version which had helped trigger civil war. Its re-introduction in 1662 occasioned the resignation of one-fifth of the clergy. This chapter challenges the characterization of the 1662 Prayer Book (in contrast with the AV) as solely divisive, however. It argues that universal acceptance of the book was impossible under the circumstances but that, by rejecting the most offensive Laudian innovations, Convocation successfully minimized the inevitable backlash and avoided any larger-scale secession or civil unrest.

Preambles: Time and the Prayer Book

2020 ◽  
pp. 36-59
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Liturgical Year ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Common Prayer

The “prelims” of the Book of Common Prayer include a number of tables, rules, schedules, and lists. All of these are necessary for specifying components of Divine Service that vary from day to day, most importantly the reading and recitation of passages from Christian scripture. The specification is significant in two ways, which this chapter will discuss. On the one hand, the various instructions situate Prayer Book worship in time, and more particularly within the annual sequence of holydays and seasons known as the ecclesiastical or liturgical year. On the other hand, they define the relation of the Book of Common Prayer to the still more sacred text of the Bible.

Johannes Dietenberger and his Counter-Reformation German Bible

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Fischer ◽  
Jourden Travis Moger
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Frankfurt Am Main ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
The Catholic Church

AbstractJohannes Dietenberger (ca. 1475–1537), native of Frankfurt am Main, university-trained Doctor of Theology, and Dominican friar, served as prior in Frankfurt and Koblenz during the 1525 Urban Revolt of the German Peasants’ War and the early Protestant Reformation, respectively. Like Martin Luther, Dietenberger translated the Bible into the vernacular German after consulting recently published Greek and Hebrew biblical texts; however, unlike Luther he produced a translation that remained true to the Latin Vulgate and the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church. Dietenberger aimed to counter those parts of Luther’s translation which contradicted Catholic tradition, and at the same time to provide a translation whose language was less coarse and offensive. Still, there were more commonalities between the translations of Luther and Dietenberger than earlier research in controversial theology assumed. Overshadowed by the famous Wittenberg reformer and slandered by polemical Protestant scholarship of previous centuries, Dietenberger and his Bible translation have never received the scholarly attention they deserve. This article represents an attempt to correct the oversight.

The Book of Common Prayer: A Guide

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Corporate Worship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

This book surveys the contents and the history of the Book of Common Prayer, a sacred text which has been a foundational document of the Church of England and the other churches in the worldwide community of Anglican Christianity. The Prayer Book is primarily a liturgical text—a set of scripts for enacting events of corporate worship. As such it is at once a standard of theological doctrine and an expression of spirituality. The first part of this survey begins with an examination of one Prayer Book liturgy, known as Divine Service, in some detail. Also discussed are the rites for weddings, ordinations, and funerals and for the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. The second part considers the original version of the Book of Common Prayer in the context of the sixteenth-century Reformation, then as revised and built into the Elizabethan settlement of religion in England. Later chapters discuss the reception, revision, rejection, and restoration of the Prayer Book during its first hundred years. The establishment of the text in its classical form in 1662 was followed by a “golden age” in the eighteenth century, which included the emergence of a modified version in the United States. The narrative concludes with a chapter on the displacement of the Book of Common Prayer as a norm of Anglican identity. Two specialized chapters concentrate on the Prayer Book as a visible artifact and as a text set to music.

The Historical Background of the English Lectionary of 1955

1958 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Geoffrey G. Willis
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The People ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

The preface to the Book of Common Prayer, entitled Concerning the Service of the Church since 1662, but before that simply The Preface, was derived substantially from the preface to the revised Breviary of Quiñones, which was one of the sources for the revised daily offices of the Church of England. It appeals from what it considers the corruptions of the medieval office to the ‘godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers’. This order, it says, was devised for the systematic reading of holy scripture in the offices of the Church, and it was the intention of the compilers of the English Prayer Book to restore such a regular order of reading for the instruction of the people. It represented a revolt against three features of the lessons in the medieval breviary: first, against the frequent interruptions of the reading of scripture in course by the occurrence of feasts with proper lessons; secondly, the lack of completeness and continuity in the lessons themselves; and thirdly, the use of non-biblical material in the lessons. Even if the daily office of the breviary, which is based on the ecclesiastical year, were not interrupted by any immoveable feasts having proper lessons, it would still not provide for the reading of the whole of scripture, as its lessons are too short, and also the variable lessons are confined to the night office.

The Prayer Book Printed

2020 ◽  
pp. 253-284
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Printed Text ◽  
Prayer Books ◽  
Common Prayer

This chapter considers several aspects of the material embodiment of the Prayer Book in paper and ink. The topics range from general questions, such as identifying the sequence of words that constitute the Book of Common Prayer and how their integrity is maintained, to details such as orthography, punctuation, editorial updates, the use of red ink and blackletter type, printers’ interventions, and the curiously named Black Rubric. The chapter also touches on nonverbal features of Prayer Books as books, such as typography, and design. Included are a number of examples of illustrations, unofficially added to various editions, which both interpret the printed text and indicate how it was understood.

The Golden Age

2020 ◽  
pp. 202-233
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Common Prayer

The long eighteenth century has been called the Prayer Book’s golden age. Nothing in the text itself changed. But the text was disseminated in works meant to aid and encourage the personal and domestic devotions of families and individuals. There were thoughtful but not hostile proposals for revising the Prayer Book, two of which are discussed in this chapter as indications of what the text was expected to be and do in an enlightened age. And beyond the limits of the ecclesiastical establishment, the eighteenth century saw the beginning of a development that won its way to acceptance in Scotland and influenced a new version of the Book of Common Prayer in the newly independent United States.

Preambles: “But One Use”

2020 ◽  
pp. 76-86
Author(s):  
Charles Hefling
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the Prayer Book’s self-presentation in its preliminary, nonliturgical prose: the two Acts of Uniformity (1559 and 1662) that define the constitution of the text and regulate its use in the Church of England; and the three prefatory essays, two of which were written by Thomas Cranmer for the original, 1549 Book of Common Prayer, and have been retained ever since. These texts are themselves primary sources that provide a preliminary context in which to understand the origins and purpose of the liturgies they precede. They outline the successive revisions of the Prayer Book, and indicate both the political and the theological dimensions of its contents.

4. Politics and religion

2018 ◽  
pp. 64-84
Author(s):  
Brian Cummings
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
Radical Reformation ◽  
Political Act ◽  
Common Prayer

Until recently it was commonplace to assume that a prayer book in the English vernacular was an act of popularization and even democratization. Cranmer, in his preface, explicitly appeals to broadening the reach of liturgy, opening it out to a wider audience and a popular register. However, the Book of Common Prayer, as well as a radical reformation of devotion, was a political act of religion. ‘Politics and religion’ outlines the political changes that had an impact on the use and amendments to the Book of Common Prayer, with new editions appearing in 1552, 1559, and 1662 after Parliamentary Acts, making it the only permitted form of religious ritual and public prayer.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document