ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WORSHIP
This introduction to the origins of Christian worship illuminates the importance of ancient Christian worship practices for contemporary Christianity. Andrew McGowan, a leading scholar of early Christian liturgy, takes a fresh approach to understanding how Christians came to worship in the distinctive forms still familiar today. Deftly and expertly processing the bewildering complexity of the ancient sources into lucid, fluent exposition, he sets aside common misperceptions to explore the roots of Christian ritual practices--including the Eucharist, baptism, communal prayer, preaching, Scripture reading, and music--in their earliest recoverable settings. Students of Christian worship and theology as well as pastors and church leaders will value this work.
From the Inside Flap
"One of our best liturgical historians has written the book we hoped he would. In readable and engaging prose, Ancient Christian Worship draws together a quarter century of recent scholarship on the origins of Christian worship. It will soon be required reading for anyone interested in the critical study of the ancient Christian church, including students and scholars of the New Testament and Late Antiquity."
--Charles A. Bobertz, St. John's University
"The proliferation of detailed studies of ancient Christian worship leaves nonspecialists in want of a reliable and well-researched survey. Andrew McGowan comes to our aid in this splendid volume. Informed by an expert knowledge of the field and a keen methodological awareness, yet writing with a clarity that renders the work accessible to any educated reader, McGowan surveys the early Christians' communal eating and drinking, teaching and preaching, song and dance, initiation and prayer, and feasts and fasts. He gives due attention to the diversity attested in the first four centuries but also recognizes commonalities discernible in the sources. When students inquire about early Christian worship, this will now be the book I recommend as the starting point for serious research."
--Jeffrey Peterson, Austin Graduate School of Theology
"Ancient Christian Worship is a wonderfully broad but deep introduction to the sources and complex history of early Christian liturgical traditions. Readers will find here not only an astute interpretation of the backgrounds and foregrounds of early liturgy but also a vivid demonstration of what the various components of early worship services actually looked and sounded like. Here indeed is a treasury of insights into the formative theology of worship."
--Paul Blowers, Emmanuel Christian Seminary