Barry Spurr was a member of the English Department at Sydney University for forty years, and was Australia's first Professor of Poetry. He has published extensively on Renaissance and Modernist poetry, religious literature and liturgical language. His internationally-acclaimed study of T.S. Eliot's Christianity, Anglo-Catholic in Religion, is the standard account of its subject. Professor Spurr is currently Literary Editor of Quadrant.

This book encourages Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike to trust in the words of liturgies which have stood the test of time, and to invest themselves in language which has been purified in the fire of faithful praying. The linguistic richness and semantic density of religious language is an icon of faith itself; and Barry Spurr has produced a passionate apologia for the living stones of language which, by staying still instead of rolling, have gathered layers of truth and power which newer, plainer words cannot rival.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction1 The Language of Liturgy2 The Book of Common Prayer3 Anglican Liturgy Today4 Roman Catholic Liturgy Today5 Music in Liturgy6 Feminisation and Infantilisation of Liturgy7 Silence and StillnessConclusionBibliographyIndex

Barry Spurr was a member of the English Department at Sydney University for forty years, and was Australia's first Professor of Poetry. He has published extensively on Renaissance and Modernist poetry, religious literature and liturgical language. His internationally-acclaimed study of T.S. Eliot's Christianity, Anglo-Catholic in Religion, is the standard account of its subject. Professor Spurr is currently Literary Editor of Quadrant.

This book encourages Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike to trust in the words of liturgies which have stood the test of time, and to invest themselves in language which has been purified in the fire of faithful praying. The linguistic richness and semantic density of religious language is an icon of faith itself; and Barry Spurr has produced a passionate apologia for the living stones of language which, by staying still instead of rolling, have gathered layers of truth and power which newer, plainer words cannot rival.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction1 The Language of Liturgy2 The Book of Common Prayer3 Anglican Liturgy Today4 Roman Catholic Liturgy Today5 Music in Liturgy6 Feminisation and Infantilisation of Liturgy7 Silence and StillnessConclusionBibliographyIndex

Barry Spurr was a member of the English Department at Sydney University for forty years, and was Australia's first Professor of Poetry. He has published extensively on Renaissance and Modernist poetry, religious literature and liturgical language. His internationally-acclaimed study of T.S. Eliot's Christianity, Anglo-Catholic in Religion, is the standard account of its subject. Professor Spurr is currently Literary Editor of Quadrant.

This book encourages Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike to trust in the words of liturgies which have stood the test of time, and to invest themselves in language which has been purified in the fire of faithful praying. The linguistic richness and semantic density of religious language is an icon of faith itself; and Barry Spurr has produced a passionate apologia for the living stones of language which, by staying still instead of rolling, have gathered layers of truth and power which newer, plainer words cannot rival.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction1 The Language of Liturgy2 The Book of Common Prayer3 Anglican Liturgy Today4 Roman Catholic Liturgy Today5 Music in Liturgy6 Feminisation and Infantilisation of Liturgy7 Silence and StillnessConclusionBibliographyIndex