Liturgical Prayer Research Articles

Developments in Early Eucharistic Praying in Light of Changes in Early Christian Meeting Spaces

Abstract: Performance criticism (Tambiah) and the Egyptian textual and material evidence strongly suggest that there is a correlation between the size of Christian worship spaces and the length of early Eucharistic prayers that likely holds outside of Egypt as well. Liturgy as an embodied experience not only includes liturgical texts, but also art, architecture, sounds, smells, gestures, and movements. Attending to the non-textual dimensions of the liturgical celebration provides a fuller picture of how Christians, especially in the early Church, celebrated their liturgies. This article looks at the way Eucharistic texts and spaces related to one another in the early church in order to evaluate and substantiate the theory that the shift from house churches to basilicas in the fourth century meant that the short and often improvised Eucharistic prayers of the pre-Nicene period were no longer suitable to the larger purpose-built liturgical spaces that emerged in the post-Nicene period. Despite the abundance of Eucharistic texts and spaces in the early church, no one has attempted to corollate changes in space and liturgical texts. Egypt is the ideal region to serve as a case study since there are a number of early Christian meeting spaces and Eucharistic texts preserved in that region. This article will test the theory that larger spaces required longer liturgical prayers and show that the expansion of Christian congregations, their meeting spaces, and their prayers was part of a broader process of ritual involution that we would expect to find in other aspects of their rituals as well.

Knowledge of God – as an inner human experience

From the Old Testament perspective, wisdom is not man's ultimate destination, but it is the way “by which” we can reach God. Travelling through life with wisdom, man finds his true theological destination by dwelling in the mystery of the revealed word. Thus, “Wisdom has built her house” (Prv 9:1), living spiritually in people who discover in the mystery of the spoken word the redemptive work of Christ in the intimacy of humanity that he came to redeem from sin. This interiority, understood as the dwelling of the Word of God in the human heart, in its spiritual abode, is interpreted by Holy Scripture, patristic and philocalic literature, as well as by the liturgical prayer of the Church as an incarnation of the Word in us, which we understand it as a food of doxological words and the communion of Eucharistic Christ, Divine Body and Blood, Liturgy of God with us in the Church of His Glory, which is His ecclesial Body.

Orthodox Perspectives on the Church as an Evangelizing, Eucharistic Community

This article presents a case study of the Orthodox parish of St John of Kronstadt in Bath, UK, an Orthodox Christian lay community founded in 1980 in response to the inspiration of St John of Kronstadt and Fr Alexander Schmemann. Based on interviews withparishioners and the author’s own experience of the community, the article delineates the main features of the parish’s communal life of liturgical prayer, hospitality and witness in the wider community. The second part of the article explores the broader contribution of St John and Fr Alexander to the development of Orthodox ecclesial and missional understandings and practices in the contemporary world. It delineates the historical, ecclesial and theological contexts in which their teachings and practices originated and argues that amidst these contexts we can trace the origins of the Eucharistic ecclesiology and understandings of human personhood and community which have pervaded Orthodox theology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These have laid the groundwork for the perspective that Christian mission and witness are a continuation of the Eucharistic community’s experience of the Kingdom of God, the ‘liturgy after the liturgy’. The article concludes with a plea for greater dialogue based on the common ground between Western missiological discourse on the nature of post-Christendom evangelism and the ecclesial experience of Orthodox diaspora communities.

The liturgical service of the deacon during the performance of the Bishop's Divine Liturgy in accordance with the rubrics of the liturgical books

This study reveals the relevance of deacon service in the light of the modern challenges of the Church of the third millennium. As Pope Paul VI said, a deacon serves both God's people and the church hierarchy. Both for the local Church and for the community in the broader sense of the word. The deacon is a mediator who must announce the needs and desires of the people of God to the church hierarchy so that they can satisfy these spiritual and physical needs. At the Liturgy, the deacon acts as an angel of prayer, uniting the prayers and intentions of the assembled faithful both through incense and through numerous litanies at the Divine Liturgy. With liturgies, he takes the beauty and sophistication of liturgical prayers and translates them into petitions that can be understood by the faithful.

The Moral Perspectives of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari in the Syro-Malabar Liturgy

Liturgical prayers comprise a myriad of moral concepts. This is obvious in the anaphora of Addai and Mari, one of the earliest liturgies in the East Syrian tradition. Prayers of this anaphora are a source of Christian moral tradition. This article argues that there are fundamental moral concepts, moral values, and special moral cases in the anaphora of Addai and Mari. The prominent moral themes of this anaphora include conscience, justice, love, communion, holiness, gratitude, mercy, peace, and eco-theology. Moreover, participation in the Holy Qurbana incites moral imagination and subsequently helps one to arrive at good moral decisions. The result is the moral response (counter-gift) of the participation in the Holy Qurbana. The article also explores the similarities between the moral concepts of Acts of Thomas, Ephrem's hymns, Aphrahat's Demonstrations and the anaphora of Addai and Mari. This article reasons that a deep relationship exists between liturgy and morality, and one can obtain mature moral perspectives from the anaphora of Addai and Mari in the present context.

Ecology and the Eucharist: Pope Francis’s Liturgical Theology of Caring for Our Common Home

Ten years into his papacy, this article explores Pope Francis’s concern for ecology and the environment in relation to the church's liturgy and sacraments, especially the eucharist. How Christians pray liturgically, especially at the eucharist, should inform Christian ethics, including our care for our common home. Drawing from Francis’s Laudato Si’ and Desiderio Desideravi, as well as from various works by liturgical and sacramental theologian Kevin Irwin, this article aims to demonstrate the close connection that exists in Francis’s thought between the church's liturgy and the church's relationship with the natural world. Though it has been particularly emphasized in recent decades, care for creation can be grounded theologically in the church's tradition, especially in its liturgical prayer and sacramental theology. As Francis writes, “It is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation” ( Laudato Si’, 236).

Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia' by Helena Phillips-Robins

Reviewed by: Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia' by Helena Phillips-Robins Alejandro Cuadrado Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia'. By Helena Phillips-Robins. (The William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature, 19) Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 2021. xvi+307 pp. $60. ISBN 978–0–268–20068–8. The impressive slate of Dante-related publications by Notre Dame's Devers Series has its most recent instalment in Helena Phillips-Robins's Liturgical Song and Practice in Dante's 'Commedia', a well-researched and interdisciplinary reading of the [End Page 249] role of liturgy in Dante's poem. In this book Phillips-Robins not only articulates the presence of liturgical song in Purgatorio and Paradiso, but argues that these songs invite readers of the Commedia to participate in the same performance as the souls depicted in the poem. The first chapter, 'Liturgy and Community', examines two liturgical moments that bookend a soul's time in Purgatory: the 'In exitu Israel de Aegypto' sung aboard the angelic ferry to Purgatory in Purgatorio ii and the Gloria sung in celebration of Statius's completed purgation in Purgatorio xx. Using evidence from liturgical practices attested in medieval Italian ordinals, Phillips-Robins hypothesizes a reader response in which Dante's reader would pause to complete the psalm or Gloria, and in doing so participate in a transformation similar to that experienced by the penitent souls in Purgatorio. The second chapter, 'Liturgy and Participation in Christ', continues the argument that Dante invites readers to participate in the psalms of the Commedia, first by examining the two psalms of Purgatorio xxiii ('Labïa mea, Domine' and 'Elì'). Leaning on patristic sources, Phillips-Robins argues that these psalms invite the reader to adopt the principle of imitatio Christi. The chapter then broadens its scope to include the liturgical songs in Paradiso x and Purgatorio xi as 'explicit invitations to the reader to engage in devotional activity' (p. 108). A section in the middle of the chapter catalogues at breakneck pace the passages in the Commedia in which Dante indicates that he is only partially citing a liturgical song. Given Phillips-Robins's convincing close reading of Purgatorio xxiii, one wishes she had given more attention to each passage listed. In 'The Shared Voice of Liturgical Prayer' (Chapter 3) Phillips-Robins turns her attention to the liturgical songs in the final cantos of Purgatorio: the 'In te, Domine, speravi' of Purgatorio xxx and the 'Asperges me' of Purgatorio xxxi. She also treats the Prayer to the Virgin of Paradiso xxxiii, arguing that intercessory prayer in Dante's Commedia involves both those praying and those being prayed for. The second half of this chapter turns to Giovanni di Paolo's celebrated manuscript illuminations in Yates Thompson 36, especially those that depict Marian devotion (three of these are reproduced in black and white). Phillips-Robins argues that 'Giovanni di Paolo shows himself to be particularly attuned to Dante's invitations to his readers to engage, in the first person, with the divine' (p. 163). The final chapter, 'Liturgy and Love', is at once the most successful and the one that strays furthest from the book's central theme. In this chapter Phillips-Robins traces a historical itinerary of the idea of 'believing in' from Augustine through to thirteenth-century theologians, including the prominent preacher Giordano da Pisa. Against this historical and theological context, Phillips-Robins offers a careful close reading of Dante's Credo in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, arguing that his creed engages in a 'movement in love toward' God (p. 191). One limitation is the extent to which Phillips-Robins insists that certain materials such as the Florentine ordinals are 'all but unknown in Dante studies' (p. 13) or 'as yet all but untapped in Dante studies' (pp. 14 and 31). A visit to her extensive and well-documented footnotes (especially nn. 50 and 57 in the Introduction) shows [End Page 250] that Dante scholars have tapped some of these sources, most notably in Francesco Ciabattoni's Dante's Journey to Polyphony (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010). Similarly, Alessandro Vettori's recent...

The Heavenly Field: A Reconsideration of Mother Earth in the Æcerbot Rite

The Heavenly Field: A Reconsideration of Mother Earth in the <i>Æcerbot</i> Rite

“A Blessing for a Proud Home”: When the Anthropologist of Religion Was Tasked with Composing a Prayer

Abstract: “A Blessing for Home” is a liturgical prayer text seeking protection against sorrow, troubles, disputes, and disasters within the home. Traditionally, this blessing was often displayed on the wall near the front door or inscribed on decorative items and Judaica. It’s worth noting that this prayer lacks a specific source or a singular version—something that invites creative versions of this prayer. This essay introduces the “Blessing for a Proud Home” and is accompanied by a reflective discussion outlining my rationale as an ethnographer for composing such a prayer. In this discussion, I engage with sociocultural arguments regarding the essence of the prayer and shed light on the process of its creation, drawing from my sources of inspiration and the challenges faced during its composition.

Po cichu czy głośno? Osobno czy razem? Za zamkniętymi drzwiami czy jawnie? – pytania dotyczące sprawowania Boskiej Liturgii

The article analyses the problem of the silent/secret reading of Orthodox liturgical prayers, especially the Anaphora. It points to the original practice of saying them aloud, the origins and possible causes of silent reading, and its complex consequences. The description of contemporary practice and the history of attempts to return to reading the prayers aloud are linked to the history of Orthodox liturgical renewal in the 20th century, its current state and the question of the possibility of its further development.

The Primacy of God. The Virtue of Religion in Catholic Theology by R. Jared Staudt

Reviewed by: The Primacy of God. The Virtue of Religion in Catholic Theology by R. Jared Staudt Robin Ward R. Jared Staudt The Primacy of God. The Virtue of Religion in Catholic Theology Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Academic, 2022 424 pages. Hardback. $49.95. St. Thomas Aquinas gives a characteristically succinct and apposite account of the virtue of religion in the Summa Theologiae, that nevertheless conceals an intriguing hinterland which has much potential for creative theological reflection. The classic Thomist definition of religion as a virtue is to consider it as a part of the virtue of justice, in that it pertains to the service of cult that humankind owes to God. However, St. Thomas readily admits that religion is a "potential" rather than an integral aspect of the cardinal virtue of justice, and he considers (while ultimately rejecting) the argument that it is in fact more easily understood as acting as if it were a theological virtue, orchestrating faith, hope and charity towards their end in God. Although Thomists of the stricter observance have characteristically insisted on maintaining Thomas' refusal to admit religion to the theological virtues, perhaps most economically summed up in Dom Odon Lottin's little work L'Ame du culte: La vertu de religion d'après S. Thomas d'Aquin, there has nevertheless been a willingness [End Page 128] to treat the virtue of religion in the taxonomy of the Christian life as something rather more than just the payment of a debt due. Without formally rejecting St. Thomas' position, we see for example in the great moral compendium of the Salmanticenses a distinctive treatment of religion as a precept of the first commandment of the decalogue, and in Tanqueray's innovative Synopsis Theologiae Moralis et Pastoralis of 1912 (incidentally one of the earliest seminary manuals to be organised around the virtues rather than the commandments) religion is treated separately between the theological and the cardinal virtues, indicating its distinctive role. More recently, even the idea that religion—the duty of worship owed by humankind to God—is a virtuous activity has come under intense critical scrutiny from opposing theological perspectives. First, Barthian Reformed theologians see religion as fundamentally prone to the idolatrous, and always in need of the redemptive light of revelation, within which thus purged it has a quiet and insignificant role to play as a thankful expression of what has been received purely by divine grace. Second, Catholic theologians most influenced by Karl Rahner place love of neighbour as the primary duty of the moral life, to which the obligations of religious cult are to be subordinated. It is therefore timely and important that Jared Staudt has chosen to repristinate the classic teaching about the primacy of religion in the moral life, the consequences of which are far reaching and of great importance for the work of liturgical formation, so that the people of God might come to an authentic participatio actuosa in the Christian cult. Staudt begins by dealing with justice in relation to God and does so with a thorough and satisfying account of how St. Thomas' understanding of justice as fundamentally orientated towards God remains robust and convincing in contradistinction to the Kantian exaltation of justice as fundamentally autonomous. In doing so, Staudt is careful to place the Thomist understanding of the debt of justice paid by religion in the context of salvation history, and in particular the unfolding of the obligation of religious cult through the apprehension of the natural law, the law of the Old Covenant and the law of Christ. This is no mere formalism: Staudt is clear that "True and perfect worship must stem from a filial union of the soul [End Page 129] with God by knowledge and love, creating a bond of friendship with him" (136). In the second section of the book, Staudt attends to the fundamental importance of the worship of Christ—Christ who as head of the Church offers perfect worship to his Father. He relates this oblation to the trinitarian character of Christian worship, and then applies this to the context of liturgical prayer, comparing the texts of the Roman Rite with those of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom...

Imago Deiin Early Christian Anaphoras

Genesis expresses human creation in God's image and likeness. This Divine image— imago Dei—given to humanity, was an important notion in the liturgical prayers of early Christians. This paper shows that early Christian anaphoras of the first five centuries utilize image language to introduce the economy of salvation, emphasizing a need for Christ's salvific incarnation, while highlighting traditional descriptions of the imago Dei. Two descriptions of the imago Dei emerge in early anaphoras. One focuses on the immortality and rationality of the human soul as the depiction of the Divine image, seen in the anaphora of St Mark, the Armenian Anaphoras of St Basil, the Byzantine Anaphora of St Basil, and the Apostolic Constitutions. The second description of the imago Dei—best seen in the anaphora of St Gregory the Theologian and the Apostolic Constitutions—ties image to authority and complements Genesis 1:26, which references humanity's dominion after creation in the Divine image. These descriptions seem to take a secondary role, since introducing the salvation narrative remains the most dominant use of the imago Dei language, which highlights the link between creation and incarnation.

Praying Truthfully: Sincerity and the Inducing of Belief

ABSTRACTIn a Jewish context, it seems, it is a naïve consensus view that in praying liturgically one aims to express to God, in the manner of ordinary, interpersonal conversation, those thoughts stated by the text. But on this ordinary conversation model (OCM), a problem of insincerity arises when, as commonly happens, the text states a claim the practitioner does not believe. The idea of redeeming one's prayer by reinterpretation is, I argue, incompatible with OCM. Another strategy, which finds some encouragement in Jewish tradition, is to try inducing the missing belief. I further argue, however, that for one's expression of a belief to be proper, in the sense of being authentic, this belief must be corroborated by the evolving, diachronically largely‐coherent understanding distinctive of one's person—a requirement which an induced, otherwise‐missing belief cannot fulfill. This, I suggest, provides some reason to seek a model of liturgical prayer different from OCM.

“O Good One, Open the Door of Your Mercy…”

Abstract: This paper is a study of certain notions of ‘Divine Mercy’ in the West Syriac liturgical tradition in the light of Word of God and liturgical prayers. The author tries to explore the theme of ‘Mercy’ (rahme) in the liturgical prayers in West Syriac liturgical tradition using certain technical phrases coined with the word rahme. Some of the phrases are “Door of Mercy” (tar’o drahme), “Dew of Mercy” (talā drahme), “Sea of Mercy” (yamā drahme) and “Wings of Mercy” (kenfe drahme).

Definitive, etymological and semantic definition of the terms "typicon" and "statute"

The aim of the article is to trace the historical formation of the liturgical statute, to outline the causal relationship of various Byzantine statutes with the Union typicons. Consider in detail the development of the liturgical charter among the Kiev Church, which in the late sixteenth century. restored unity with the Apostolic See. Research methodology: the basis is the use of a chronological method of presenting the material, although sometimes it may seem that in one or another part of scientific research we go back to the previous era. Such references are quite justified, because the liturgical charter needs multifaceted coverage, even within one era. We will also use the historical-critical method to objectively illuminate the context of the development of the liturgical statutes in different time periods, from the first centuries to the present. In the article we apply analytical and synthetic research methods that are necessary in the analysis of ancient printed types. Of course, it is impossible to do without the method of comparative liturgy, which in this work, however, is only partially used. This is due to the need to analyze the typicons themselves, not the texts of the liturgical books. The method of comparative liturgy will help to more objectively assess the affiliation of a particular typicon to a particular tradition, as well as indicate borrowings from other traditions or statutes. The scientific novelty is that for the Church of Christ worship is her life and breath. It is the liturgical prayer that allows the Church to be not just an «institution», but already here on earth, to take part in the divine life of the Holy Trinity. Especially the Eastern Church, through worship, helps people to attend the Heavenly Liturgy, so it is not surprising that the Byzantine rite, which is also used by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, is characterized by a very accurate expression «heaven on earth». In order to regulate worship, in the first centuries, there is a need for special statutory books that would help to properly combine the very rich psalmic, hymnographic, song, biblical and ritual heritage of the Church, in a particular worship, on a given day. This is how the first typicons appeared - liturgical books, which contain clear rules for regulating and conducting all worship services. Unfortunately, in the Greek Catholic Church, with the exception of the study of Mr. Igor Vasylyshyn, Doctor of Liturgical Theology, there have been no attempts to analyze and study in detail the process of creating a constitution, its development and features in the union environment. This fact prompted him to write a scientific paper, which would be one of the first bricks in the construction of modern liturgical theology of the Greek Catholic Church in the field of liturgical statutes. The first manuscripts, which contained a description of certain norms concerning the prayer and liturgical life, come from the monastic environment. The most famous and influential of these are the Statutes of St. Sava the Blessed (later known as the Jerusalem Statutes) and Theodore the Studite (later known as the Studite Statutes). Translated into Church Slavonic, the book Τυπικον is called the "Charter". So today the term "statute" can be considered to correspond, though not the absolute equivalent, to the term of Greek origin "typicon", given their alternating practical application in modern liturgical theology. Moreover, the term "typicon" is most often understood as a liturgical book, and the term "charter" expresses the full scope of the liturgical charter.

Four Early Christian Documents from Egypt Regarding Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Abstract Thus far, the topic of early Christian prayer to the Holy Spirit has not received much scholarly attention. Only a few studies are available that present relevant primary sources (Tertullian, De baptismo 8; Origen, Hom. Lev. I 1; Acts of John 94 and 96; Acts of Thomas 27 and 50; Phōs Hilaron). This article discusses four documents from ancient Egypt that are absent from these studies. The apocryphal writing The Ascension of Isaiah (5:14) is a witness to second-century early Christian (and perhaps also first-century Jewish) prayer to the Holy Spirit. Clement of Alexandria’s Pedagogue (3.12.101.1–2) dates from around 190 CE and provides very early evidence for liturgical prayer of thanksgiving addressed to the entire Trinity, with express reference to the Holy Spirit. The Apostolic Tradition dates from approximately the same time and contains several references to laudatory (eucharistic) prayers to the Trinity. In spite of its similar wording, the Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1786 from the late third century CE is probably not to be considered a witness to praying to the Holy Spirit.

The Political Dimension of Liturgical Prayers of Remembrance: Lists of Rulers in the Confraternity Books of the Carolingian Period

The confraternity books (Libri vitae) of the Early Middle Ages record the names of individuals to be remembered in liturgical prayer. Since the middle of the 20th century, they have come more sharply into focus as historical source material. The records of rulers were of particular interest even then. In order to understand the lists of rulers in the Liber Vitae, the first subject of study is the development of prayers of remembrance for the living and the dead, and the subsequent emergence and shaping of liturgical commemoration of the ruler from late antiquity to the Carolingian period. These diverse developments merge with those of the liturgical Memoria in the confraternity books, indicating that the monasteries, in particular, were important keepers of monarchical Memoria. Taking as examples the Salzburg Liber Vitae (783) and the Reichenau Confraternity Book (824), the steps and methods are followed through and the lists of rulers interpreted in their historical context. The two confraternity books prove to be a source for the legitimisation of Carolingian sovereignty, particularly in terms of substantiating it historically and securing it liturgically. The regional perspective of each monastic community plays a major role here. Complex reference and interpretative systems are exposed in the confraternity books, whose orderliness, structure and prayer also served as a counterbalance to the disorder and crisis prevalent in the world.

Spirit-Empowered Liturgy: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Traditional Christian Worship

Sometimes perceived as dead ritual in contemporary Christian churches, liturgy provides a time-tested means of experiencing the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in corporate worship. When understood within its own historical use, liturgy, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, enables a community of faith to consistently remember and participate in God’s saving acts in history, culminating in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and actively look forward to the eschatological hope of Jesus’ return. Like the banks of a river, liturgy plays an important role to effectively facilitate the consistent and reliable movement of the Holy Spirit in communal worship. This study 1) provides a brief scriptural and historical background of liturgical worship; 2) explores examples of liturgical prayers from Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican traditions that reflect a Spirit-empowered ethos; and 3) suggests unity and mission are two of the primary purposes of Spirit-empowerment in liturgical worship. This study is not by any means exhaustive on the topic of liturgy but functions as a reminder for those familiar with it and an introduction for those who are not.

Liturgical Dogmatics: How Catholic Beliefs Flow from Liturgical Prayer by David W. Fagerberg

Reviewed by: Liturgical Dogmatics: How Catholic Beliefs Flow from Liturgical Prayer by David W. Fagerberg Matthew Dugandzic David W. Fagerberg Liturgical Dogmatics: How Catholic Beliefs Flow from Liturgical Prayer San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2021 262 pages. Paperback. $19.95. Trite as it might sound to repeat the dictum that theology ought to be done on one's knees, this is an apt description of David Fagerberg's approach to what he calls "Liturgical Dogmatics," the aim of which is to see—in a noetic sense—the dogmas of the Church with liturgically formed "eyes." This is perhaps the most unique feature of Fagerberg's book; it is neither purely devotional nor academic, but some amalgam of the two. The book is essentially a long, heartfelt reflection on a series of dogmas through a liturgical lens that aims to make the reader's mind and heart resonate with the author's. The distinctiveness of this approach cannot be overemphasized. In adopting this approach, Fagerberg explicitly eschews examining dogma and liturgy in the overly formal "philosophical categories" (14) of the scholastics, and yet the book borrows its "structural outline from dogmatics" (15). The approach thus combines logic and poetry, argument and reflection, word and image, such that it cannot be reduced to any member of these dyads. The title of this book is therefore more suitable than it might first appear, as the book's style is, in a sense, liturgical. In a word, for this book, the medium very much is the message. The method is a bold one, and Fagerberg pulls it off with great success, but like any method, it also has its weaknesses. Among the greatest strengths of Fagerberg's quasi-liturgical analysis of dogma is the breadth of influences on which he draws. Although Fagerberg deliberately avoids footnotes (11–12) and limits explicit references to other scholars and to writers of ages past, the discerning eye can identify influences from both east and west, from writers old and new, and from both liturgical and theological sources. For example, Fagerberg's avoidance of the overly formal style of the scholastics does not prevent him from using scholastic categories, nor does his clear admiration for the East prevent him [End Page 90] from borrowing elements from Byzantine thought that might shock those of the Western tradition. Consequently, Aquinas's essence-existence distinction is used harmoniously alongside Palamas's essence-energies distinction with not so much as a hint that there might be any incompatibility between the two. The book also draws copiously on examples from the liturgical texts of both the Roman and Byzantine liturgies. Of particular interest regarding the former is the use of prayers that are found in both the Tridentine Mass as well as the post-conciliar Roman Missal, which feels like a deliberate attempt to reinforce one of the book's implicit messages: that any authentic liturgical act of the Church can shed some light on dogma, regardless of its provenance. The only fault to be found here is that Fagerberg draws almost exclusively on the words of the liturgy, and not on the gestures or images to be found therein, the inclusion of which would seem to be in better harmony with the overall approach of the book. When Fagerberg's method and the breadth that he brings to it are considered together, another major strength of this book is brought to light: this book presents a veritable challenge to its reader. It is not simply the case that this book is hard to read, though the mixing of literary genres can make it so at times, but rather that this book will challenge whatever liturgical presuppositions the reader brings to the table. Fagerberg's enthusiasm for the liturgy in all its forms is infectious, such that the traditionalist and the modernist, and the Roman and the Byzantine, will all be made to consider the value of a variety of forms of liturgical expression, each of which can contribute positively to one's spiritual life and, more to the point, to the illumination of dogma in one's mind. Furthermore, in addition to the breadth of sources that Fagerberg draws on, there is also...

True Harmony Between Liturgy and Popular Piety: Expressing The Thomasian Faith in The Sabuaga Festival

True Harmony Between Liturgy and Popular Piety: Expressing The Thomasian Faith in The Sabuaga Festival