3. Word, body, and gesture

Abstract

‘Word, body, and gesture’ examines the Book of Common Prayer in detail, describing the nature and theology of the English services and prayers, and also their witness to gesture, faith, and worship. The Book of Common Prayer is a book of prayer, but also of ritual: a corpus of gestures, practices, and performances. While rejecting so many of the physical forms of the medieval rites, the Book of Common Prayer created its own grammar of social action. The services of Holy Communion, Morning and Evening Prayer, death, and the role of participation and mimesis are discussed. Special attention is paid to how the book’s rubrics changed from edition to edition, from 1549 to 1552 and afterwards.