Barry Spurr – författare

Language in the Liturgy is an historically-based, linguistically-focused account of the development of liturgical language in English in the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches over the past half-century. It analyses issues of style and expression in a wide range of texts, setting this analysis within larger contexts of ecclesiastical and societal change since the 1970s. The Book of Common Prayer is taken as the benchmark of classical liturgical composition in English, not only because it was the first liturgy to be composed in the language, but also because of the universally acknowledged beauty of it. Professor Spurr makes a detailed comparative and analytical linguistic study of the Prayer Book and the liturgies composed in English in the modern idiom. He argues for a 'renewal of the renewal' by the restoration of an appropriate solemnity and sacredness of linguistic expression, as exemplified in the traditional Prayer Book rites. The book also includes chapters on the role of music and of silence in worship. This stimulating study will be of interest to all concerned about the future direction of liturgies in English in the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.

This engaging introduction to poetry covers the entire tradition of poetry in English, providing close readings of interesting and varied texts. In this updated second edition, coverage has been expanded to cover medieval poetry and to give more weight to literary theory and women poets, while a new chapter focuses on key contemporary poets.

Barry Spurr's eagerly-awaited, definitive study of T.S. Eliot's Anglo-Catholic belief and practice shows how the poetís religion shaped his life and work for almost forty years, until his death in 1965. The author examines Eliot's formal adoption of Anglo-Catholicism, in 1927, as the culmination of his intellectual, cultural, artistic, spiritual and personal development to that point. This book presents the first detailed analysis of the unique influence that Anglo-Catholicismís doctrinal and devotional principles, and its social teaching, had on Eliot's poetry, plays, prose and personal life. An informed presentation and discussion of Anglo-Catholicism at the time of Eliot's conversion and through the subsequent decades of his Christian faith and practice. Significant new material from correspondence and diaries which sheds light on Eliot's thought, poetry and prose. This book is essential reading for all scholars and readers of T.S. Eliot and his circle; for students and devotees of Anglo-Catholicism, and scholars of the interaction between literature and theology, especially in the twentieth century. It will also be of use to senior and Honours-level undergraduates and postgraduate research students working in the fields of Modernism and its principles and belief systems, and for students of religion, especially Western Christianity and Anglicanism.