Customer Reviews

Orthodox Worship: A Living Continuity With the Temple, the Synagogue and the Early Church

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This book was written with a specific audience in mind: western Christians, especially Protestants, interested in the history and development of Christian worship. As the sub-title demonstrates, Christian worship developed out of Jewish worship practices, that were informed by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and were transformed by the early Christian church into the core of Christian worship. For most western Christians, and particularly Protestants (and both author's were raised as Protestants) this is a little known fact. Besides tracing the history and development of Christian worship, the book also contains a step-by-step commentary on the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the common Sunday morning service of the Orthodox churches. This book was written for "the common person", and does not require a theological background. It is straight forward and accessible.

"Orthodox Worship" is essentially two books and a pamphlet under one cover.

In Part I: "Understanding the Divine Liturgy", Benjamin D. Williams, explains the development of Christian worship, starting with the Early Church and its roots in Scripture and the Jewish traditions of temple and synagogue worship.

In Part II: Harold B. Anstall takes the reader on "A Journey Through the Liturgy." Here he starts with "The Interior of an Orthodox Church," which is appropriate, since that is usually the first thing someone experiences upon attending any service in the Orthodox Church. The rest of this section goes through a step-by-step explanation of everything that is said and done in a Divine Liturgy, the "main event" of Orthodox Christian worship.

In the conclusion: "A Call to Worship," Williams invites the Western reader to visit, understand and experience liturgical worship as practiced in the Orthodox Church. Here he gives a quick, understandable overview of how Christianity in the West has departed, and continues to travel farther, from its historical roots in liturgical worship.

I first read "Orthodox Worship," after attending a series of lectures by Frank Schaeffer (son of the late Evangelical apologist and theologian, Francis Schaeffer) in 1997. At that point I was firmly entrenched in an Evangelical church as a praise band director and worship leader. Schaeffer explained his departure from Evangelicalism and his "coming home" to the Orthodox Church. (For more about that, see his book "Dancing Alone.") I began visiting a couple of Orthodox churches in our area, and decided I wanted to understand what was going on.

After my first reading of "Orthodox Worship," I concluded that:

1. Liturgical worship does indeed have its roots in Scripture and in the practices of the Early Church, as practiced in the book of Acts.

2. There is a reason for everything that is said and done in the Divine Liturgy, and that it is all based on Scripture and the development of the Christian faith in the first three centuries.

Now, several years later, as I approach the second anniversary of my own "coming home" to the Orthodox Church, I decided to reread this volume. Now that I've gradually let liturgical worship become an integral part of my life, and now that I sing in (and sometimes direct) our parish choir, I found completely different quotes jumping off the page than the ones I highlighted the first time through, such as:

"It is worth noting...that the frequently quoted passage..."where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them" is not a stand-alone proposition. It has a very specific context, and that context is The Church! (page 80)."

I'd recommend this fine introductory volume to people who want to investigate the roots of liturgical Christian worship, to those who are inquiring about the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as to those Orthodox Christians who need a refresher course on the Divine Liturgy. The only drawback of the edition I read was the many typographical errors scattered throughout the book, which was a little distracting.

(...)

I just finished reading this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and found much to learn. I have only been attending DL regularly for a few months and this book helped me to figure out what's happening. However, the biggest problem is that there were a lot of typos (I wonder if the placing of St. Justinian was just such a typo). Most of these were pretty easy to spot (like "form" instead of "from"), but in general they were annoying.

This would be a great book for a serious inquirer into either Orthodoxy or Church History- since much of this type of history is left out of Protestant history.

This is an excellent book. Much to learn for the person who wants to understand the origins of worship. As for the little date mix up, it is but a tiny flaw in comparison to the understandable, easy to digest manner, in which a sometimes very complicated subject, is brought to the level of a lay person's understanding.

There may not be enough, saying the same thing over and over in different ways, to suit the philosophical or theological thinker type.

I bought this at a church book store and was horrified at how horrible it was. The authors speak about the Holy Trinity as developing like the outwards liturgical forms, confuse liturgical functions, and in one part he even places Emperor Saint Justinian the Great in the wrong century (the authors claim he lived in the 7th century when really he ruled in the 6th; 527-565). I would not recommend this book to anyone. Instead, I would recommend "The Orthodox Liturgy: The Development of the Eucharistic Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite" by Hugh Wybrew. I think that would be the best choice.

This is a outstanding book on the history of Eastern Orthodox worship, ritual, and sacramental expression. This book shows how Early Christian worship developed, growing out of the Jewish Temple worship (the Apostles and first Christians were Jewish) and is preserved today in the liturgical worship of the Easter Orthodox Church. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which today is almost universally used in the Orthodox Church, is essentially the same liturgy as that which was celebrated in the early Church. It is shown that early hostorical documents, such as the writtings from Justin Martyr, show that the basic elemnts or worship have remained the same. In a world where rapid change is the norm, it is really amazing that the Orthodox Church remains changeless, living in continuity with the Church of the ancient times, the Church established by the Apostles. This book examines all aspects of the Orthodox Christian life, the daily, weekly, yearly cycles, the Church architecture, the vestments of the priest, the traditions etc. This book is interesting and informative, even if you are a cradle Orthodox, and even more so if you are not yet seeking a deeper form of worship life. Orthodoxy is about entering into the fullness of life - theologically, sacramentally and liturgically.