Read, Mark, Learn and Inwardly Digest: The Prayer Book and Private Devotion in Prayer Book Commentaries from Sparrow to Mant

Benjamin Crosby

doi:10.1017/s1740355321000504

Abstract

AbstractBetween the Restoration and the rise of the Oxford Movement, a burgeoning literature of commentaries upon the Book of Common Prayer were produced and circulated in England. This article traces the emergence and development of this little-studied commentary tradition in order to explore the role of the Book of Common Prayer in private devotion. It groups the literature into three primary categories based on genre and function: descriptive, historical and biblical commentaries; devotional commentaries; annotated Books of Common Prayer. I argue that this literature sought not only to defend the prayer book from criticism or inform users of its history and function but to encourage devotional engagement with the prayer book itself. Exploring the devotional strategies that this literary tradition teaches and models deepens our understanding of how the leaders of the Church of England during the long eighteenth century sought to encourage private engagement with the Book of Common Prayer.

Highlights

Between the Restoration and the rise of the Oxford Movement, a burgeoning literature of commentaries upon the Book of Common Prayer were produced and circulated in England
Exploring the devotional strategies that this literary tradition teaches and models deepens our understanding of how the leaders of the Church of England during the long eighteenth century sought to encourage private engagement with the Book of Common Prayer
Upon the restoration of the liturgy, King Charles II called for a careful instruction in the Book of Common Prayer for an English laity who had largely been without it for the past fifteen years, Church of England divines could draw upon a tradition of prayer book defense stretching back to the Elizabethan Church

Summary

Devotional Commentaries on the Prayer Book

The long eighteenth century saw the emergence of a body of material on the prayer book more clearly devotional in character. While for the daily office Bennet’s paraphrases tend to be quite expansive on the devotional model we saw in Comber, his treatment of the Collects and the Holy Communion service is significantly sparer, aimed primarily at elucidating confusing words or phrases.53 Another significant example of the paraphrase method is George Stanhope’s A Paraphrase and Comment upon All the Epistles and Gospels Appointed to Be Used in the Church of England. Bennet and Comber in particular argue that private devotional engagement with the liturgy has value even outside preparation for worship; the prayer book text is well suited, they believe, for the various spiritual needs of Christians These texts use particular methods, especially the paraphrase, to inspire devotion, making reading the texts themselves an experience which should lead to prayer. In the hands of these authors, the prayer book, mediated through the commentaries they write, becomes central the private spiritual exercises of ordinary Christians

Annotated Books of Common Prayer

Making Prayer Book People