The Language of Liturgy

David Jasper is Professor of Literature and Theology at Glasgow University and Distinguished Overseas Professor at Renmin University of China, Beijing. He holds degrees from Cambridge, Oxford, Durham and Uppsala, and is Doctor of Divinity at Oxford and holds a doctorate in theology (h.c.) from Uppsala. He has published and lectured widely in the field of literature and theology and his most recent book is Literature and Theology as a Grammar of Assent (Routledge, 2016). He is an ordained Anglican priest.

Part I: The Poetics of Liturgy

1. Poetry and the Language of Prayer and Worship
2. The Poetics of Liturgy
3. A Ritual Poetics and the Demands of Liturgical Language

Part II: Language and Performance in the Liturgy of the Early Church

4. Liturgy and Performance
5. Hippolytus and The Apostolic Tradition

Part III: Medieval and Reformation England

6. Liturgical Language and the Vernacular in Late Medieval England
7. Literature and the Prayer Books of the English Reformation

Part IV: The Alternative Service Book and Common Worship

8. Language and Liturgical Revision in the Church of England
9. The Background to The Alternative Service Book
10. From 1980 to Common Worship
11. Reflections on the Eucharistic Body

Conclusion