For the past three centuries, studies on the West Syrian liturgy have been mainly concerned with the texts or tracing the history of the rites. West Syrian liturgical theology has received little attention. This is the first book to explain the important orientations of the West Syrian liturgical tradition. What is the role of liturgy in the life and witness of the Church? What does the Church aim to accomplish in and through the liturgy? How is the celebration related to the fundamental principles of the Christian faith? These are some of the questions that this book attempts to answer. An historical sketch of West Syrian liturgy and summary of the structure of the celebrations, namely the Daily Office, Anaphora and other sacraments, sets the context for the deeper explorations into the West Syrian liturgy. Explaining the meaning of the arrangement of the liturgy in various liturgical units, Fr Varghese draws on the West Syrian liturgical commentaries and homilies on liturgical celebrations. Other oriental orthodox liturgical traditions and East Syrian sources are also examined, and key theological principles and ecclesiological and eschatological dimensions are explored. A bibliography of the West Syrian liturgy and a glossary of Syriac terms is provided.

Presents the insights of St. Ephrem and Jacob of Serugh, two of the earliest representatives of the theological world-view of the Syriac church.

In Introduction to Eastern Christian Liturgies, renowned liturgical scholars Stefanos Alexopoulos and Maxwell E. Johnson fulfill the need for a new, comprehensive, and straightforward survey of the liturgical life of the Eastern Christian Churches within the seven distinct liturgical Eastern rites still in existence today: Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopic, East Syrian, West Syrian, and Maronite. This topical overview covers baptism, chrismation, Eucharist, reconciliation, anointing, marriage, holy orders, burial, Liturgy of the Hours, the liturgical year, liturgical ethos and spirituality, and offers a brief yet comprehensive bibliography for further study. This book will be of special interest to masters-level students in liturgy and theology, pastoral ministers seeking an introduction to the liturgies of the Christian East, and all who seek to increase their knowledge of the liturgical riches of the Christian East.

The fundamental intuition of this essay is that liturgical theology does not simply deal with Christian rituals, festivals and sacraments, but with the core of faith itself: God, world, the Christ event, tradition, Church, and redemption.

Tracing the origins of daily prayer from the New Testament and Patristic period, through the Reformation and Renaissance to the present, this book examines the development of daily rites across a broad range of traditions including: Pre-Crusader Constantinopolitan, East and West Syrian, Coptic and Ethiopian, non-Roman and Roman Western. Structure, texts and ceremonial are examined, and contemporary scholarship surveyed. Concluding with a critique of the present tenor of liturgical revision, Gregory Woolfenden raises key questions for current liturgical change, suggests to whom these questions should be addressed, and proposes that the daily office might be the springboard for an authentic baptismal spirituality. The author explores how prayer and poetic texts indicate that the thrust of the ancient offices was a movement from night to morning - from death to resurrection.

The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church exists as a hybrid church by blending the Eastern liturgical elements of the Oriental Orthodox Church and the evangelical ideas of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. This Church is a bridging church, connecting Protestantism and Oriental Orthodoxy. The reformation in the Malankara Church (1836) instigated a new impetus for this church in constructing an ecclesial identity and pattern of mission. A major missiological imperative employed by CMS missionaries in India was solely centered on the scripture. Against this popular understanding, the Mar Thoma Church, through its reformation process showed that liturgy can also be an imperative for mission. The translation and revision of the Eucharistic liturgy is the basic visible expression of reformation in the Malankara Church. Hence, this book explicitly places how the Eucharistic liturgy of the Mar Thoma Church is observed as the foundation for mission in its course of growth. In order to accomplish this objective, the writer has examined the historical evolution and the developmental process of the Eucharistic liturgy of the church, which is a revised version of the liturgy of St. James. In a nutshell, this study is an appraisal of various missiological themes reflected in the Eucharistic liturgy of the church. This study throws ample light on how the Mar Thoma Church integrated liturgy and evangelism in its course of development. The writer systematically illustrates how the church made a serious effort to bring missional themes employed in the liturgy into the practical realm by its ancillary organizations, convention gatherings, and sociocharitable works. This volume asserts that an emphasis on Eucharist-centred ecclesiology guides and motivates the church to enliven a mission-oriented life, which is crucial for accomplishing a relevant mission.

This fourth collection by Sebastian Brock focuses on three areas: the christology of the Church of the East, with the argument that the traditional characterisation of this Church as 'Nestorian' is not only unsatisfactory, but also thoroughly misleading; the distinctive phraseology of the invocations to the Holy Spirit in the Syriac liturgical tradition, hearkening back to Jewish roots; and two important early Commentaries on the Liturgy.

In the decades following the Second Vatican Council, Catholic liturgy became an area of considerable interest and debate, if not controversy, in the West. Mid-late 20th century liturgical scholarship, upon which the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council were predicated and implemented, no longer stands unquestioned. The liturgical and ecclesial springtime the reforms of Paul VI were expected to facilitate has failed to emerge, leaving many questions as to their wisdom and value. Quo vadis Catholic liturgy? This Companion brings together a variety of scholars who consider this question at the beginning of the 21st century in the light of advances in liturgical scholarship, decades of post-Vatican II experience and the critical re-examination in the West of the question of the liturgy promoted by Benedict XVI. The contributors, each eminent in their field, have distinct takes on how to answer this question, but each makes a significant contribution to contemporary debate, making this Companion an essential reference for the study of Western Catholic liturgy in history and in the light of contemporary scholarship and debate.

This volume surveys the 'Syriac world', the culture that grew up among the Syriac-speaking communities from the second century CE and which continues to exist and flourish today, both in its original homeland of Syria and Mesopotamia, and in the worldwide diaspora of Syriac-speaking communities. The five sections examine the religion; the material, visual, and literary cultures; the history and social structures of this diverse community; and Syriac interactions with their neighbours ancient and modern. There are also detailed appendices detailing the patriarchs of the different Syriac denominations, and another appendix listing useful online resources for students. The Syriac World offers the first complete survey of Syriac culture and fills a significant gap in modern scholarship. This volume will be an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Syriac and Middle Eastern culture from antiquity to the modern era. Chapter 26 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

As an ancient Christian community, the Mar Thoma Church with its vibrant life of mission and sacraments, has a pride of place in the Christendom. The evangelization process and constant migration made this church a global Church, which has encountered multi-cultural and multi-ethnic atmosphere and assimilated various cultural practices and faced faith confrontation in its own geographical regions. This confrontation has caused a renewed view of nature, identity and mission of the Church in a positive manner. Mission is, in fact, the lifeblood of the Church. Through its mission-work and revised liturgy, the Mar Thoma Church took a pioneer role in the formation and nurturing of new Christian communities in India and different parts of the world. Hence, this book reflects on the role of liturgy and its influence on the missionary undertakings of the MTC. It elucidates how the revised liturgy functions as a basis for mission and recounts how liturgy and mission are connected. Further, the diverse mission centres of the Church and its cultural specialties, an integration of liturgy and evangelism, importance of liturgicalorientation and training, are also dealt with in detail. Added to this, the various challenges of the Church in its mission fields and diaspora regions are studied in the framework of the liturgy. The scope of liturgical renewal is looked into where the liturgical adaptation and possibilities of contextual liturgies in the Church are studied. This study concludes with some of the pertinent liturgical proposals for the furtherance to sustain the life and mission of the Church. With a living experience and profound theological understanding, this ancient but reformed Church has something unique to offer to the whole Christendom.