The Book of Before & After is the traditional name given to the book of commonly-used portions of the liturgy of the hours of the Church of the East (the branches of which are now the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Apostolic Assyrian Church of the East, and the Malabar Catholic Church). This volume will present, for the first time, a complete English translation (from the original Aramaic/Syriac) of all the Ordinaries and Commons of the Liturgy of the Hours used by all the Churches of this Tradition. It will also include a complete translation of the Psalter as included in the liturgical books (with antiphons and prayers between sets of Psalms), the full collection of the famous “Martyr Hymns,” and extensive selections of the Propers for each week of the Liturgical Year. Finally, the volume will also include translations of the Introductions written by the various Chaldean and Assyrian Patriarchs who published editions of the Hudhra (the full liturgy of the hours) over the past two centuries, as well as a comprehensive Introductory Essay by Younan. Many of the hymns translated in this volume will be singable according to their original melody.

Bread from Heaven offers a contemporary theological synthesis on the Eucharist that brings together classical and critical biblical exegesis, debates on the early history of the Christian liturgy, patristic doctrine, the teachings offered by the Councils of Florence, Trent and Vatican II, and the Church’s lex orandi, all within a framework provided by the Eucharistic theology of Thomas Aquinas. The volume begins with Christ’s Bread of Life discourse in John 6, in light of the Old Testament theme of the manna, and the Synoptic accounts of the Last Supper. These biblical texts offer solid foundation for a theology of Eucharistic sacrifice, presence and Communion. It then continues with a historical and systematic study of the institution of the Eucharist by Christ, with special attention given to the emergence of the first Eucharistic prayers. Then follows a survey of key Christological and ecclesiological themes which undergird Eucharistic theology. The chapters on Eucharistic sacrifice and presence form the heart of the work. Here, the focus moves to key conciliar, patristic and Thomistic insights on these themes. Bread from Heaven clarifies misunderstandings of Eucharistic sacrifice and renders transubstantiation accessible to beginners. Blankenhorn concludes with a study of the consecration, the minister of the Eucharist and the fruits of communion. The chapter on the debate over the words of institution and the epiclesis gives a fresh perspective that integrates both eastern and western tradition. The study of the Eucharistic celebrant strikes a balance between a spirituality of the priest as acting in persona Christi and of the priest as praying in persona ecclesiae. The concluding chapter centers on the Eucharist’s unitive, mystical fruits in the Church. This textbook is ideal for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course on Eucharistic theology. It also seeks to advance the debate on several controversial historical and speculative issues in sacramental theology.

At once scholarly and entertaining, Christ on a Donkey is a study of Palm Sunday processions and related royal entries as both spectacular instances of processional theater and highly charged interpretations of the biblical narrative to which they claim allegiance. Harris’s narrative ranges from ancient Jerusalem to modern-day Bolivia, from imperial white horses to wheeled wooden images of Christ on a donkey, from veneration to iconoclasm, and from Christ to Ivan the Terrible. A curious theme emerges: those embodied representations of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem that were labeled blasphemous, idolatrous, or superstitious by those in power were arguably most faithful to the biblical narrative of Palm Sunday, while those staged with the purpose of exalting those in power and celebrating military triumph were arguably blasphemous pageants.

The shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral was one of the most popular pilgrim destinations in medieval Europe, as well as the focal point for the liturgy of the cathedral’s monastic community. In 1428 the keepers of the shrine composed a customary detailing its day-to-day operation, including the opening hours, decoration, maintenance, and staffing. This unique survival offers a rare glimpse into the realities of organizing a pilgrimage site in a major medieval church, and the Latin text with facing English translation is provided for the first time. A comprehensive introduction and extensive notes set the Customary within the context of the cathedral, its liturgy, and pilgrim practice more widely.

The Second Vatican Council urged Eastern Catholics to cultivate their share of divine revelation for the benefit of the entire Catholic Church. Yet, more than 50 years later, the Eastern Catholic Churches frequently remain on the margins, both in the theological academy and in the life of the Church more broadly. In an effort to remedy this situation, at least in part, this volume offers a scholarly reflection on the unique patrimony of the Eastern Catholic Churches, divided according to the categories of Liturgy, Theology, Spirituality, Discipline, and Culture. In so doing, it both follows the categories used to define a Church sui iuris in the Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Churches, and builds on the legacy of the Rev. Peter Galadza, to whom the volume is dedicated. On one hand, the volume and its essays are intentionally introductory, revealing the worlds of Eastern Catholicism and the variety of theological approaches that take place there. Emerging in part from the experience of teaching and preaching by scholars of Eastern Christianity, who are frequently asked for a basic introduction to Eastern Catholic theology, and have little to offer in response, these essays gather an international group of scholars engaging in critical, theological reflection from an Eastern Catholic perspective. This approach is rounded out by contributions from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant scholars, who articulate their own reception and appreciation of the Eastern Catholic theological heritage.  At the same time, however, several of the essays in this volume relate the history and current reality of Eastern Catholicism to the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, yet without ignoring how frequently Eastern Catholics live, worship, and theologize without self-conscious regard for their unique ecclesial situation. Indeed, these authors show, Eastern Catholic theology can be unself-consciously grounded in the patristic tradition, and Eastern Catholics can simply “do” theology, without worrying about ecclesial politics. Readers will thus find here the best of both worlds: both an introduction to the unique and frequently ignored patrimony of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and a series of essays that avoids the all-to-common pitfall of reducing these traditions to a parody of other Churches, Eastern or Western. Instead, by engaging with the sources of the Christian tradition – as Eastern Catholics, yes, but first and foremost as Christians – the authors reveal how much their tradition can offer the Catholic Church as a whole.

Medieval women were active in many performative activities, including plays and ceremonies performed in nunneries. This volume focuses on monastic performances and, in particular, on performances given in the English abbey of Barking. The Barking ceremonies, commonly referred to as the Elevatio and Visitatio sepulchri, display complex ties with both drama and liturgy. The book uses historical and archaeological evidence to propose a discussion of the nuns’ participation in these ceremonies—as performers, but also as scribes, composers, and patrons—and of the Elevatio and Visitatio’s potential effects on their performers and spectators. It goes on to address related questions through the lens of a modern performance of the ceremonies, considering their relevance today. Discussion is presented within the context of a general overview of female performance in the Middle Ages. 

This volume offers a selection of essays from the pages of Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, the official organ of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. The Society was founded in 1995 as a multidisciplinary association of Catholic scholars, teachers, pastors, and ecclesiastical professionals in the Anglophone world, with the aim of promoting the scholarly study and practical renewal of the sacred liturgy.

Carlos Granados and Luis Sánchez-Navarro propose reading the Bible with Christian faith, not as one approach among many, but as a disposition demanded by the New Testament for proper interpretation of both the Old and the New. Even so, the authors’ faith never leads them to dismiss history or to discard the tools of the historical-critical method. On the contrary, these sciences allow the faithful reader to take a holistic approach to biblical truth. When the reader also takes full account of the ecclesial reality in which the Bible was formed and transmitted, and in which it must be read still today, he or she encounters the word proclaimed by the text. Indeed, the words of Holy Writ ultimately proclaim the Word (Logos), Jesus Christ, in whose Spirit they were written. This book’s thirteen essays are grouped into three parts. Part I, “The Church, Living Subject of Sacred Scripture,” takes up a foundational theme of the whole book: sacred Scripture calls for a reading within the community of the People of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the same People constitute the living subject of Scripture. In Part II, “Christ, Exegete of the Fulfillment,” the authors focus on the relationship between the two biblical testaments. They argue that the Christian can both respect and venerate the Old Testament on its own terms, even as they find in Jesus, as presented in the New Testament and encountered in faith, the key for unlocking the Old Testament’s deepest meaning. The third and final part of this book, “The Teaching in Benedict XVI’s Verbum Domini,” examines Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the word of God in the life and mission of the Church. The authors’ years of shared prayer, study, conversation, and ministry have led to this coauthored book bearing witness to that ongoing unity that they live as confreres. Not surprisingly, they frequently reference the same theologians, especially Brevard Childs, Paul Beauchamp, SJ, and Pope Benedict XVI.

Introduction to Sacramental Theology presents a complete overview of sacramental theology from the viewpoint of the body. This viewpoint is supported, in the first place, by Revelation, for which the sacraments are the place where we enter into contact with the body of the risen Jesus. It is a viewpoint, secondly, which is firmly rooted in our concrete human bodily experience, thus allowing for a strong connection between faith and life, creation and redemption. From this point of view, the treatise on the sacraments occupies a strategic role. For the sacraments appear, not as the last of a series of topics (after dealing with Creation, Christ, the Church), but as the original place in which to stand in order to contemplate the entire Christian mystery. This point of view of the body, which resonates with contemporary philosophy, sheds fruitful light on classical themes, such as the relationship of the sacraments with creation, the composition of the sacramental sign, the efficacy of the sacraments, the sacramental character, the role of the minister, or the relationship of the sacrament with the Church as a sacrament. As a result of this approach, the Eucharist takes on a central role, since this is the sacrament where the body of Jesus is made present. The rest of the sacraments are seen as prolongations of the eucharistic body, so as to fill all the time and space of the faithful. This foundation of the theology of the sacraments in eucharistic theology is supported by an analysis of the patristic and medieval tradition. In order to support its conclusions, Introduction to Sacramental Theology examines the doctrine of Scripture (especially St. John and St. Paul), the main patristic and medieval authors (St. Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas), the response of Trent to the protestant challenges, up to modern authors such as Scheeben, Rahner, Ratzinger, or Chauvet, including the teaching of Vatican II about the Church as a kind of sacrament.

The first complete translation into a modern language of a major authority on the medieval Christian liturgy.

Honorius Augustodunensis’s Jewel of the Soul (the Gemma animae) gleams as one of the most attractive liturgical commentaries from the twelfth century. A lively and effective teacher, Honorius strives to unveil the meaning behind the sacred texts, objects, music, and ritual of the Roman Mass and Divine Office for young initiates. Building on the allegorical approach pioneered in the Carolingian era by Amalar of Metz, he shows readers how their souls are beautified by the liturgy as gold is by a jewel. His flowing and comprehensive commentary gained widespread influence in Western Christendom and was an important source for later liturgical treatises. For the modern scholar this work remains key to understanding the medieval allegorical approach to worship and provides valuable documentation about how these offices were celebrated in the twelfth century. These volumes offer the first complete translation into a modern language of this foundational Latin text on Christian liturgy.

The first complete translation into a modern language of a major authority on the medieval Christian liturgy.

Honorius Augustodunensis’s Jewel of the Soul (the Gemma animae) gleams as one of the most attractive liturgical commentaries from the twelfth century. A lively and effective teacher, Honorius strives to unveil the meaning behind the sacred texts, objects, music, and ritual of the Roman Mass and Divine Office for young initiates. Building on the allegorical approach pioneered in the Carolingian era by Amalar of Metz, he shows readers how their souls are beautified by the liturgy as gold is by a jewel. His flowing and comprehensive commentary gained widespread influence in Western Christendom and was an important source for later liturgical treatises. For the modern scholar this work remains key to understanding the medieval allegorical approach to worship and provides valuable documentation about how these offices were celebrated in the twelfth century. These volumes offer the first complete translation into a modern language of this foundational Latin text on Christian liturgy.

The purpose of this book is to explore what a liturgical approach to the Bible looks like and what hermeneutical implications this might have: How does the liturgy celebrate, understand, and communicate Scripture? The starting point is Pope Benedict's affirmation that “a faith-filled understanding of sacred Scripture must always refer back to the liturgy” (Verbum Domini 52). The first part of the book (based on SC 24) provides significant examples to demonstrate: The liturgical order of readings intertextually combines Old Testament and New Testament readings using manifold hermeneutical principles, specifically how the psalms show the wide range of interpretations the liturgy employs. Prayers are biblically inspired and help to appropriate Scripture personally. The hymns convey Scripture in a poetic way. Signs and actions such as foot-washing or the Ephphetha rite enact Scripture. The study considers the Mass, the sacraments and the Liturgy of the Hours. In the second part, Benini systematically focuses on the various dimensions of liturgical hermeneutics of the Bible, which emerge from the first part. The study reflects the approaches the liturgy offers to Scripture and its liturgical reception. It explores theological aspects such as the unity of the two Testaments in Christ’s paschal mystery or the anamnesis as a central category in both Scripture and liturgy. The liturgy does not understand Scripture primarily as a document of the past, but celebrates it as a current and living “Word of the Lord,” as a medium of encounter with God: Scripture is sacramental. Liturgical Hermeneutics of Sacred Scripture seeks to contribute not only to the comparison of the Roman, Ambrosian, and Byzantine Rite regarding the Word of God, but most of all to the overall “liturgical approach” to Scripture. As such, it promotes an interdisciplinary dialogue of liturgical and biblical studies.

In this volume, Fr. Franck Quoëx responds to Joseph Ratzinger’s call for a renewed appreciation of liturgical rite. A student of Pierre Gy, OP, he brings to this study of Aquinas’s liturgical theology a rare combination of expert knowledge of liturgical sources and history and the best of modern historical-critical research guided by sound theological judgment. Fr. Quoëx frames his study with an overview of the problem of rite in modern theological-anthropological discourse, before turning to Aquinas’ theory of worship in the treatise on the virtue of religion. He then explores Aquinas’ doctrine on the cultic dimensions of the Eucharist and other sacraments in his sacramental theology more broadly, finishing with a close study of the mass commentary of the Tertia Pars. Although there has been increasing attention to Thomas’s treatment of religion as a virtue, none have approached him from an anthropological angle with a focus on the nature of liturgical rite, or fully exploited the perspectives of liturgical scholarship to shed light on sacramental theology. Quoëx’s work, as the work of a Thomist, liturgist, and medievalist well versed in medieval liturgical development and in the genre of often-allegorical liturgical commentary, opens up this crucial but neglected facet of Aquinas’ theological synthesis. Few books have been published on Aquinas’s liturgical theology. Now that interest in Aquinas’s virtue theory and sacramental theology is growing rapidly, Quoëx’s studies are an invitation to further reflection on the topic of Aquinas’s liturgical theology with its manifold ramifications for and connections with other theological topics in his Summa, including his theological anthropology, his soteriology, his treatment of the Old and New Laws, and his account of the virtue of religion in connection with the other virtues.

Pope Benedict XVI was known for his brilliant mind, but he also had a heart in love with the Lord. In this careful selection from his papal homilies, readers can not only learn from his encyclopedic knowledge of the Christian tradition, but grow in their own love for God as they journey with Benedict through the seasons and feasts of the liturgical year. Lord I Love You! Volume 1 includes the holiest days of Lent and Easter as well as other important solemnities such as Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi, making it an excellent choice for spiritual reading and a great Lenten gift idea for those who appreciated the late pope's message of the centrality of Christ and the reliability of the Catholic tradition. Pope Benedict was not a charismatic preacher in the mold of his predecessor John Paul II, but the texts themselves are gems of Christian exhortation and reflection that are best appreciated on one's knees in a chapel or held in one's hands in a quiet place in one's home--that is, in a book like this and not scrolling through a website. For scholars and students of the late pope, the collection also provides a helpful distillation of his main themes and principal concerns into short, easily digestible pieces. The editor, Fr. Pietro Rossotti, uses the official Vatican translation with only minor spelling modifications and added footnotes with bibliographical references whenever possible.

Pope Benedict XVI was known for his brilliant mind, but he also had a heart in love with the Lord. In this careful selection from his papal homilies, read­ers can not only learn from his encyclopedic knowledge of the Christian tra­dition, but grow in their own love for God as they journey with Benedict through the seasons and feasts of the liturgical year. Lord I Love You! Volume 2 includes the joyful seasons of Advent and Christmas as well as important Marian feasts and other saints’ days throughout the year, making it an excel­lent choice for spiritual reading and a great Advent/Christmas gift idea for those who appreciate the late pope’s message of the centrality of Christ and the reliability of the Catholic tradition. Pope Benedict was not a charismatic preacher in the mold of his predecessor John Paul II, but the texts themselves are gems of Christian exhortation and reflection that are best appreciated on one’s knees in a chapel or held in one’s hands in a quiet place in one’s home—that is, in a book like this and not scrolling through a website. For scholars and students of the late pope, the collection also provides a helpful distillation of his main themes and princi­pal concerns into short, easily digestible pieces. The editor, Fr. Pietro Rossot­ti, uses the official Vatican translation with only minor spelling modifications and added footnotes with bibliographical references whenever possible.

Laments of the Virgin Mary represent a devotional genre that offered its clerical and lay audiences of the High and Late Middle Ages a deeply inspiring, yet at the same time ambiguous, religious experience. Through the deeply emotional and markedly animated representation of the Passion, seen as if through the eyes of the mother of God, audiences and performers were not only reminded of the redemptive power of the Cross, but encouraged to experience Christ’s sacrifice in a more personal and intimate manner. In the pious practice of imitatio Mariae, believers mirrored the sorrow of the mother through their own bodies in order to develop a kind of visceral empathy towards, and hence a deeper understanding of, the divine.

This book offers a fresh, approachable look at medieval pilgrimage in the Christian West, the first of its kind in over twenty years and the first to take account of prevailing trends in anthropological studies of pilgrimage. Previous works have described pilgrimage as it happened in the medieval period, but this study also offers a framework for understanding the concept of pilgrimage. The book first challenges the reader to question the definition of pilgrimage itself and provides a critical overview of the key historical and anthropological literature. It then presents readers with a short history of medieval pilgrimage, fleshing out the core argument that pilgrimage was both contested and dynamic, and firmly rooted in its local and regional contexts. It concludes by exploring the vexed question of reconstructing the medieval pilgrim experience, emphasizing the messiness and unpredictability of pilgrim behaviour.

Amalar of Metz’s On the Liturgy (the Liber officialis, or De ecclesiastico officio) was one of the most widely read and circulated texts of the Carolingian era. The fruit of lifelong reflection and study in the wake of liturgical reform in the early ninth century, Amalar’s commentary inaugurated the Western medieval tradition of allegorical liturgical exegesis and has bequeathed a wealth of information about the contents and conduct of the early medieval Mass and Office. In 158 chapters divided into four books, On the Liturgy addresses the entire phenomenon of Christian worship, from liturgical prayers to clerical vestments to the bodily gestures of the celebrants. For Amalar, this liturgical diversity aimed, above all, to commemorate the life of Christ, to provide the Christian faithful with moral instruction, and to recall Old Testament precursors of Christian rites. To uncover these layers of meaning, Amalar employed interpretive techniques and ideas that he had inherited from the patristic tradition of biblical exegesis—a novel approach that proved both deeply popular and, among his contemporaries, highly controversial.

This volume adapts the text of Jean Michel Hanssens’s monumental 1948 edition of Amalar’s treatise and provides the first complete translation into a modern language.

Amalar of Metz’s On the Liturgy (the Liber officialis, or De ecclesiastico officio) was one of the most widely read and circulated texts of the Carolingian era. The fruit of lifelong reflection and study in the wake of liturgical reform in the early ninth century, Amalar’s commentary inaugurated the Western medieval tradition of allegorical liturgical exegesis and has bequeathed a wealth of information about the contents and conduct of the early medieval Mass and Office. In 158 chapters divided into four books, On the Liturgy addresses the entire phenomenon of Christian worship, from liturgical prayers to clerical vestments to the bodily gestures of the celebrants. For Amalar, this liturgical diversity aimed, above all, to commemorate the life of Christ, to provide the Christian faithful with moral instruction, and to recall Old Testament precursors of Christian rites. To uncover these layers of meaning, Amalar employed interpretive techniques and ideas that he had inherited from the patristic tradition of biblical exegesis—a novel approach that proved both deeply popular and, among his contemporaries, highly controversial.

This volume adapts the text of Jean Michel Hanssens’s monumental 1948 edition of Amalar’s treatise and provides the first complete translation into a modern language.

Cantate Domino is a five-volume commentary on the texts of the newly translated hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours. The hymns which recently appeared for the first time as a single corpus of English texts, will be included in the forthcoming USCCB revised edition of the Liturgy of the Hours. The hymns are drawn from among the very finest authors of the first millennium: Ambrose, Prudentius, and Gregory the Great together with later authors such as Thomas Aquinas, Leo XIII, and twentieth century authors who composed new hymns to be used in the psalter and celebration of the saints in the present Universal Calendar. The commentary concentrates on the Latin texts of the Liturgia Horarum, elucidated by the recently approved International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) translations. Commentaries have been prepared by a team of international scholars who bring both the depth of their knowledge together with the insights of those who have prepared liturgical texts in English during the sixty years of ICEL's existence. Previously unpublished material from ICEL's archives, including documents of the Consilium, which prepared the Latin texts for the liturgical books promulgated after the Second Vatican Council, will appear alongside commentaries which identify and explain biblical, classical, and liturgical allusions in the liturgical texts in a way that is of service to clergy, religious, liturgists, and students of the liturgy as well as the non-specialist reader, and all who seek to pray the Prayer of the Church with greater understanding.

Christians had always been concerned, since the faith’s inception, about the relationship between violence and belief. In Byzantium, this tension was explored not only in abstract theological texts but in the songs people sang: hymns, a multivalent, fluid form of devotion that served as the meeting place between theological conviction and lived religious experience.

Sacralizing Violence in Byzantium is the first book to examine the complex and shifting perceptions of premodern Christians toward violence and war through the lens of hymnography. This book argues that the liturgical reflection on violence in Byzantium underwent a profound transformation—a sacralization of violence—at approximately the same time that Persian and then Arab armies conquered Jerusalem in the early seventh century, a turn that persisted into the tenth century.

By focusing on hymnography, George E. Demacopoulos provides both correction and nuance to historical assessments of Eastern Christian attitudes toward war and violence and reveals how Byzantine culture dramatized, authorized, and even celebrated violence.

Christians had always been concerned, since the faith’s inception, about the relationship between violence and belief. In Byzantium, this tension was explored not only in abstract theological texts but in the songs people sang: hymns, a multivalent, fluid form of devotion that served as the meeting place between theological conviction and lived religious experience.

Sacralizing Violence in Byzantium is the first book to examine the complex and shifting perceptions of premodern Christians toward violence and war through the lens of hymnography. This book argues that the liturgical reflection on violence in Byzantium underwent a profound transformation—a sacralization of violence—at approximately the same time that Persian and then Arab armies conquered Jerusalem in the early seventh century, a turn that persisted into the tenth century.

By focusing on hymnography, George E. Demacopoulos provides both correction and nuance to historical assessments of Eastern Christian attitudes toward war and violence and reveals how Byzantine culture dramatized, authorized, and even celebrated violence.

The Sacramental Theology of Marriage offers a comprehensive vision of the dogmatic theology of marriage. It takes into account biblical and patristic sources, the teaching of the Magisterium (with particular emphasis on the Councils of Trent and Vatican II), and the most important contemporary theological contributions. It begins with a vision of the sacrament of mar­riage as the sacrament that integrates the order of creation into the order of sacraments. This dual dimension of marriage justifies the division of the book into two parts: marriage as a sacrament of creation and marriage as a sacrament of redemption instituted by Christ. To describe the coordinates of marriage in creation, the book refers to St. Augustine (the goods of marriage), St. Thomas Aquinas (the ends of marriage), and modern personalism as re­flected in the Second Vatican Council (the gifts of marriage). The book also draws on the theology of St. Bonaventure, who emphasized the institution of marriage by God in creation. The presentation of marriage as a sacrament of the new law is rooted in the way Christ lived the various meanings of the body. Marriage’s foundation in the body and in the experience of love sheds new light on the key milestones of its sacramentality: its matter and form, its signification, the grace it transmits, its liturgy and ministers, its indissolubil­ity, its role in building up the Church, and the path of holiness it opens to the spouses. In all of this, marriage emerges as a pivotal sacrament for articulating Christianity’s relationship to the cosmos and to society. The Sacramental The­ology of Marriage includes modern philosophical and theological explorations of the language of the body and the meaning of love (including the proposal of St. John Paul II). It also outlines the main principles for the pastoral care of marriage and family.

The study of medieval liturgy can contribute richly to the discourses of textuality and culture in the Middle Ages. It can tell us a great deal not only about the worship of the church, but also about the people who practised it. However, existing scholarship can be problematic and difficult to use.

This short book aims to unsettle the notion that liturgiology is a mysterious, abstruse, and monolithic discipline. It challenges some scholarly orthodoxies, hints at the complexity of the liturgy as a subject for study and shows that it needs to be examined in ways quite different from the summary treatment it often receives. It also seeks to encourage the reader in his or her own (future) investigations of the topic by introducing some of the key ideas, resources, and methods, and proposes ways in which they might be explored.