The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship

by Anonymous (Editor)

"In an extraordinary way, The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship is a massive and comprehensive undertaking designed to provide the biblical context out of which worship is celebrated and enacted. It establishes the working definition for worship through the specific vocabularies of the Old and New Testaments and highlights the use of symbolism, sacrifice, a sense of the numinous, and the myriad of responses to salvation history. It culminates with the history of Israelite/Jewish and New Testament worship, the biblical institutions of worship and those who lead in its celebration, and then reaches its zenith with the depiction of the use of music and art in its varied forms and other sacred acts which are integral parts of the worship tradition."
—Richard A. Rollins, Liaison Officer, National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.

356 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Glenn Crouch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book aims to present an Encyclopaedic Layout for easy access to specific topics, that is also readable from beginning to end - and I think for the most part they have achieved this. The various "articles" are compiled by different authors, and just like an Encyclopaedia that may be argued to be "objective" overall, each of the articles has of course the bias of the Author. Not that I found this to be a problem, as I enjoyed the Ecumenical approach this book takes. I would also say that it does endeavour to look for the strengths in alternate Christian views, rather than highlighting flaws.

I did think that some sections had more robust bibliographies than others - and do see that as a bit of a weakness.

Overall this is quite a pleasant way to cover both the Old Testament and New Testament roots of Christian Worship, as well as to include Second Temple Judaism (good coverage of Synagogues for example), Greek and Roman approaches around the First Century, and early Christian writings. The book is quite well thought out and laid out.

I would say that I learnt quite a bit from this book, and I am looking forward to moving on to the next volume.