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.

"In worship that which we make may re-make us in unpredictable ways if we agree that theology, rooted as it is in the strange activity of liturgy, should engage a full range of human emotion and hopeful imagining, with moments both of fidelity and freedom in liturgical re-enactment. David Jasper is seeking both in the past and in the present for the sensitivity to language to be found in our cultures (if not as yet by 'liturgists') to make possible intercession, thanksgiving and delight in the glorification of God. A book both informative, challenging and to be taken very seriously.

• 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