Liturgical Works

Among the invaluable manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are numerous fragments of liturgical texts pertaining to the ritual life of Jews living around the turn of the common era. These fascinating writings include prayers for annual festivals, a covenant renewal liturgy, a mystical liturgy for Sabbath sacrifices, a grace ceremony for mourners, daily and weekly prayers, liturgies of purification, and perhaps even a wedding ceremony. In this volume, the first to be published in the Eerdmans Commentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls series, James Davila introduces, translates, and provides a detailed exegesis of these important documents. The book begins with a general introduction to the Qumran library and Jewish liturgical traditions. Davila then provides an introduction, translation, notes on the original Hebrew, and line-by-line commentary for each of the Qumran liturgical works. Davila's excellent translation work combines overlapping fragmentary manuscripts into a single, smoothly flowing text, and his commentary includes numerous fresh insights and observations on these writings. Giving full attention to parallel texts found in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian writings through late antiquity, Davila firmly situates the Qumran liturgical works in their historical context in Second Temple Judaism and discusses their significance as background to the Jewish liturgy, Jewish mysticism, and Christian origins. Shedding light on a period of Jewish history whose ritual life formerly lay almost entirely in darkness, this volume makes--and subsequent ECDSS volumes will make--a valuable contribution to our understanding of the biblical world.

This is a book about the High Church movement in the German Lutheran Churches, particularly about its two major branches, the Church Union (Hochkirchliche Vereinigung) and its inner circle the Confraternity of St. John and the movement of Berneuchen, the Confraternity of St. John and the movement of Berneuchen, the Confraternity of St. Michael (Evangelische Michaelsbruderschaft) and related groups.

This edition includes: "History of the Christian Church" is an eight volume account of Christian history written by Philip Schaff. In this great work Schaff covers the history of Christianity from the time of the apostles to the Reformation period. "The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes" is a three volume set in which Schaff is classifying and explaining many different statements of belief and articles of faith throughout the Christian history. He deals with the history of the creeds, starting with the Ecumenical creeds, and moving to Greek and Roman creeds, then Old Catholic Union creeds, and finally to the Evangelical creeds and Modern Protestant creeds.

Modern missional movements have often viewed the historic Christian traditions with suspicion. The old traditions may be beautiful, the thinking goes, but they’re too insular, focused primarily on worship and on the interior life of the church, and not looking outward to evangelism and good works. In Liturgical Mission, Winfield Bevins argues that the church's liturgy and sacramental life are in fact deeply missional. He explores the historic practices of the Christian church, demonstrating how they offer a holistic framework for everyday Christian discipleship and mission in the twenty-first century. The result is a book that not only invites all Christians back to the historic liturgy of the church, but also invites those already in liturgical churches to rediscover the missional life that has too often remained latent in their own traditions.