A thorough look at worship throughout church history. More textbook in nature, but books like this become highly readable for anyone interested in the topic, if a reader takes it slowly, one section at a time. Well researched and an accomplished book.

This publisher has done well in other books of giving a balanced, ecumenical perspective on topics, which is one major reason I wanted to get my hands on this title. I'm also a great lover of research-heavy books, and this one earned my respect in part with the 500+ notes and sources.

The text is divided into 18 essays and begins by covering worship's common roots. One of my favorite parts was the 2 essays on worship in the ancient church. The last 3 parts of the book each focused on the worship of one of the 3 major branches of Christianity: Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism. I enjoyed the section on Orthodoxy the most, as until recently I haven't seen much on it from the bigger Christian publishers. Overall I see this as the best reference manual on this topic currently available to the lay public and also very valuable for academic study.

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This is primarily a collection of 18 academic essays/chapters grouped into 5 parts and written by a different expert focusing on a specific element of christian worship (for most traditions, this means an examination of how the liturgy or worship service evolved) with a significant portion of the book (37%) given over to citations. This was an especially timely read for me as I had just finished by Liturgy and the Sacraments class and had just started my Canon Law class … so this fit right into what I was already learning about. The format of each chapter opened with a bit of context before digging into the subject at hand, then ending with a section on “Practical Implications for Worship” (sort of a where are we now review) and suggested Further Reading … which is great because the biggest complaint that I had was that I always wanted to explore the topic more after finishing the chapter.

Part one of the book looks at what all of the main line christian denominations have in common: baptism, communion/eucharist and celebrations (aka liturgical time). Then in part two, we get a survey of what we think the early church looked like (as well as acknowledging that there is still a lot that we just don’t know). In the next three parts, we get a look at Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholicism and several flavors of Protestant churches. Sadly, the tradition I grew up in (the Stone/Campbell Restoration movement) doesn’t get much press here, but that is okay, because it actually pulls a lot from the traditions that are covered; namely Lutheran, Calvinist/Reform, Anglican/Episcopal, Methodists, Anabaptist, Baptists, Evangelicals and Pentecostals. That last one was perhaps the weakest of the essays (or I just didn’t get it … which is also possible). Still, this book is an easy to read primer on a wide variety of christian societies that would be useful to any academic or lay person interested in ecumenical outreach (which I am).

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#HistoricalFoundationsofWorship #NetGalley

<spoiler>
Introduction
Part 1 - Common Roots of Worship
- 1 Baptism
- 2 Eucharist
- 3 Liturgical Time
Part 2 - Early Christian Worship
- 4 Worship in the Early Church
- 5 Worship in Late Antiquity
Part 3 - Eastern Orthodox Worship
- 6 History of Orthodox Worship
- 7 Icons and Eucharistic Theology
Part 4 - Roman Catholic Worship
- 8 Medieval Catholic Worship
- 9 Reformation in the Catholic Church
- 10 Vatican II and the Liturgical Renewal Movement
Part 5 - Protestant Worship
- 11 Lutheran Practices of Worship
- 12 Calvinist and Reformed Practices of Worship
- 13 Anglican and Episcopal Practices of Worship
- 14 Methodist and Wesleyan Practices of Worship
- 15 Anabaptist and Mennonite Practices of Worship
- 16 Baptist Practices of Worship
- 17 Evangelical Practices of Worship
- 18 Pentecostal and Charismatic Practices of Worship
</spoiler>