Böcker av Paul F Bradshaw

The publication in 2011 of a new Ethiopic text of the Apostolic Tradition changed much of what scholars had previously concluded about the text and character of this ancient church order. In addition to providing more reliable readings where the Latin version was missing, this publication confirmed what had only been conjecture and disproved other theories. As a result, earlier commentaries are now out of date, and this volume aims to furnish a replacement that will meet the needs of the beginner and scholar alike, especially in attempting to distinguish the successive chronological layers of which the document is composed.

'In liturgical study, and especially in English liturgical study, the subject of the daily office has always been something of the poor relation', writes the author in his preface. This volume aims to do something to fill that gap. It begins with a detailed examination of the Jewish background and of the practice of daily prayer in the first three centuries of the Church, and goes on to trace the evolution of the divine office in both its monastic and secular forms in East and West down to the time of St. Benedict. Intended as a replacement for The Influence of the Synagogue upon the Divine Office by C. W. Dugmore (Alcuin Club Collection No. 45), it not only incorporates the results of recent research by continental scholars and others but also challenges traditional assumptions at a number of important points, offering a fresh interpretation of the evidence.