Daily Liturgical Prayer: Origins and Theology. By Gregory W. Woolfenden. Pp. xii + 326. (Liturgy, Worship and Society series.) Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. isbn 0 7546 1600 2 and 1601 0. Hardback £55; paper £16.99

Abstract

As the title of the book implies, this work is as much an exercise in theology as in history. Indeed, whereas there is much history in this work, little in the work may properly be described as a discussion of the origin of daily liturgical prayer, as the main historical emphasis is laid on the period after Constantine, extending well into the medieval period. The theological point made is that the times of prayer in the daily office are not arbitrary, as is sometimes assumed, but convey a sacramentality, that in particular the vigil office is the key to this sacramentality, as the days and nights are alike marked out as times of looking for the presence of God, the offices marking a daily movement out of darkness into light, reflecting the resurrection of Christ as the dawning of a new day upon God's people. As already noted, the section dealing with the origins of daily liturgical prayer is brief. This is followed by more extended chapters dealing with developed offices in a vast range of eastern and western communities. It is in these chapters that the detailed historical scholarship within the book is to be found, as each tradition is investigated in detail, both employing and building on earlier works of specialist scholarship (including Woolfenden's own contribution to the study of the Spanish office) and essaying suggestions regarding the possible developments of these offices. The tables setting out the structures of all these offices are also extremely useful. Throughout these chapters, however, we do not lose sight of the author's fundamental theological conviction, which he attempts to demonstrate through reference to the psalmody, Scripture, and structure employed.