This book does not pretend to be a complete description of what early Christian worship might have been like. Such a venture would in any case be impossible because of the limitations of our historical information and the caution that modern critical methods place upon what we may assume with regard to the gaps in our knowledge. Instead, it builds upon the approach set out in my Search for the Origins of Christian Worship (2nd edn, SPCK, London/Oxford University Press, New York 2002) and attempts to drill down, as it were, at several key points beneath the surface impression that has been accepted in most earlier studies of the primary sources. Its aim has been to see whether a somewhat different picture emerges when one examines that material with altered presuppositions and a more questioning attitude towards it. Thus, each of the chapters begins from the conventional depiction of its topic, and subjects the sources to an assessment from the perspective of the methodology set out in my earlier work, which then leads to new conclusions. This change in our perception not only affects how we reconstruct our vision of the past but also how we use the past as precedent for worship practice today. As an indicator of the effect that it might have on the latter, each chapter ends with a comment, even if in some cases only brief, on the possible modern application of these discoveries.
Many of the chapters are versions or major revisions of material that has been published in other places. Chapter 1, originally given as a public lecture at the University of Notre Dame in 2006, will also appear in Maxwell Johnson (ed.), Issues in Eucharistic Praying (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville 2010). Chapter 2 is an adaptation of ‘The Reception of Communion in Early Christianity’, Studia Liturgica 37 (2007), pp. 164–80. Chapter 3 is a new composition that draws in part upon ‘Yet Another Explanation of Didache 9–10’, Studia Liturgica 36 (2006), pp. 124–8 and ‘Hippolytus Revisited: The Identity of the So-Called “Apostolic Tradition”’, Liturgy 16 (2000), pp. 7–11. Chapter 4 is a very substantial revision of ‘The Gospel and the Catechumenate in the Third Century’, Journal of Theological Studies 50 (1999), pp. 143–52. Chapter 5 is adapted from ‘The Profession of Faith in Early Christian Baptism’, published both in Ecclesia Orans 23 (2006), pp. 337–55 and in Evangelical Quarterly 78 (2006), pp. 101–15. Chapter 6 has been contributed to a forthcoming Festschrift for Bryan Spinks, The Serious Business of Worship, edited by Simon Jones and Melanie Ross (Continuum, London). Chapter 7 is a greatly updated version of ‘Cathedral vs Monastery: The Only Alternatives for the Liturgy of the Hours?’, in J. Neil Alexander (ed.), Time and Community: Studies in Liturgical History and Theology (Pastoral Press, Washington, DC 1990), pp. 123–36. Chapter 8 is lightly revised from ‘From Word to Action: The Changing Role of Psalmody in Early Christianity’, in Martin Dudley (ed.), Like a Two-Edged Sword: The Word of God in Liturgy and History (Canterbury Press, Norwich 1995), pp. 21–37. Chapter 9 recently appeared as ‘The Emergence of Penitential Prayer in Early Christianity’, in Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline (eds), Seeking the Favor of God, vol. 3: The Impact of Penitential Prayer beyond Second Temple Judaism (Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2008), pp. 185–96 (Copyright © Society of Biblical Literature, used by permission).
PAUL F. BRADSHAW