Springtime of the Liturgy: Liturgical Texts of the First Four Centuries (Classics in liturgy) [Paperback]

Deiss (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 307 pages
• Publisher: Liturgical Pr (June 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814610234
• ISBN-13: 978-0814610237
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,146,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go back to the early Christian worship..., January 26, 2002

By 

David Bennett (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Springtime of the Liturgy: Liturgical Texts of the First Four Centuries (Classics in liturgy) (Paperback)

The Springtime of The Liturgy, by Lucien Deiss, is essentially a collection of early Christian liturgical and worship texts. The work is important in that it gives us a glimpse of early Christian worship and prayer. The content is surprising at times (for instance the Didascalia suggests the bishop give up his place for a poor person if there is no room for the poor person in the congregation), enigmatic (Christians prayed facing East), and familiar (the basic structure of the ancient prayers are still around in today's common liturgies). I read this text with great excitement as I learned many new things about Eucharistic Theology, Confirmation, Baptism, and the offices of Bishop, presbyter, and deacon (and deaconesses). The texts speak for themselves, but Deiss adds helpful introductions and footnotes. The chapters are arranged as follows and contains excerpts from various ancient writings:

1. Sources of Jewish Prayer (Jewish underpinnings of our Liturgy)
2. Institution of the Eucharist (New Testament Eucharistic Texts)
3. Doxologies, Blessings, And Hymns of the New Testament
4. The Didache (A very early Church manual, 100 AD)
5. Clement of Rome (earliest Roman Eucharistic prayer, 95 AD)
6. Witness of St. Justin (Probably the clearest insight into early Christian worship, 150 AD)
7. Melito (His work gives us valuable insight into Jewish Christianity)
8. Clement of Alexandria (200 AD)
9. Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (a valuable, primitive church manual)
10. The Anaphora of Addai and Mari (perhaps the oldest Eucharistic prayer we have)
11. Didascalia of the Apostles (An early 3rd century Syrian Text)
12. Euchology of Serapion (collection of 30 prayers from the 4th century)
13.Strasbourg Papyrus (4th century "Liturgy of St. Mark")
14. Apostolic Constitutions (extensive liturgical book of the 4th century)
15. Euchology of Der Balyzeh (prayers from the 4th-5th centuries)
16. Klasmata (various fragments)
17. Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem (catechism information on the Eucharist, Baptism, etc, by a leader in Jerusalem's Church)

For students of liturgy, scholars, priests/ministers, and historians, this work is very important. The age it covers is truly the springtime of the liturgy, when Church worship was young and not fully developed, but beautiful and mysterious nonetheless.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good study tool, October 19, 2009

By 

Mary K. Mattingly "mkmat" (Third Lake, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Springtime of the Liturgy: Liturgical Texts of the First Four Centuries (Classics in liturgy) (Paperback)

I have this book for a liturgical history class, and it is very good for studying the texts of early documents (in English).