I recently finished reading the recently updated version of Benjamin D. Williams and Harold B. Anstall’s Orthodox Worship: A Living Continuity with the Synagogue, the Temple, and the Early Church (check it out on the Ancient Faith site here). Part Church history, part explication of the liturgy, the book introduces readers to the legacy of Jewish Temple worship in the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church. In doing so, it touches on the tension between time and timelessness in worship. Why did early Christians continue celebrating in with nearly the same structure and style of their Jewish counterparts? How has our worship changed and adapted, yet remained constant, through the centuries?
To address these questions, you really have to examine what worship even is, at its core–a task this book does not turn away from. Orthodox Worship will give readers a lot to think about and I think it’s a book that will particularly resonate with the Time Eternal crowd!
To give you a taste, I’ve gathered a few of the many talking points from the book that reflect the connections between liturgy, time, history, and eternity.
If you would like a printable version of this infographic, you can access it here: 5 Ways the divine liturgy connects time, history, and eternity INFOGRAPHIC. For parish use only.
