This invaluable study reveals the richness of the Eastern Christian tradition, writes Robin Gibbons.

An invaluable study reveals the richness of the Eastern Christian tradition

Introduction to Eastern Christian Liturgies
STEFANOS ALEXOPOULOS and MAXWELL E. JOHNSON
(LITURGICAL PRESS, 472 PP, £47.99)
Tablet bookshop price £43.19 • tel 020 7799 4064

I wish that this book had been available to me in the years when I taught liturgy, and when I had to devise and write up a complete course for third-year undergraduates on the Eastern Christian tradition. It would have been invaluable for its comprehensive overview of the eucharistic rites, liturgical hours of daily prayer, sacraments and the “occasional offices” set across all the Eastern ritual traditions. But it does far more than this, setting out a methodological and comparative framework for deeper study. The source materials used, and the bibliography, set out according to rite, are impressive, and it is well worth the effort of examining the footnotes used throughout.
As a comprehensive introduction to Eastern liturgy, this is perhaps the first work of its kind, particularly important as some of the Eastern Churches struggle to retain their identity in the lands of their origin (particularly the Middle East), and suffer dramatic collapses in numbers, due to politics, war, persecution and migration. The wider Christian community needs to be familiar with the crucial role these Churches have in both the history and culture of various peoples. So the book is important for opening up the treasure and patrimony of the Eastern Christian liturgical traditions, challenging all of us involved in academic, ecumenical and pastoral work to learn more and widen our own horizons in the field of comparative Eastern liturgics.

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