Worshiping with the Church Fathers
Overview
Christopher Hall invites us to accompany the fathers as they enter the sanctuary for worship and the chapel for prayer. He also takes us to the wilderness, where we learn from the early monastics as they draw close to God in their solitary discipline. The focus of this book is not liturgy but more broadly worship in its corporate and individual dimensions. We enter into the patristic understanding of baptism and the Eucharist. And we come under the instruction and discipline of great spiritual teachers of prayer. In two previous books, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers and Learning Theology with the Church Fathers, Christopher Hall has ushered us alongside the church fathers as they study the Scriptures and plumb the depths of theology. In this survey of the spiritual life of worship he informs and challenges Christians in faithful living today. Hall weaves his own experiences into his observations of the fathers’ practices and teachings and so helps us close the gap of the centuries. Readers will enjoy a rich and rare schooling in developing their spiritual life.
Top Highlights
“The church’s sacramental understanding of the Eucharist, what we will call sacramental realism in this chapter, was firmly established by Tertullian’s day.” (Page 53)
“Latin writers such as Ambrose connect sacramentum and mysterion in phrases such as sacramenta mysteriorum and mysteria sacramentum. In these phrases the sacramentum designates what we can see, for instance bread and wine, while the mysterion is the interior aspect of the sacrament, the spiritual reality the sacrament is conveying and communicating. ‘The sacramenta introduce us to the mysteria and, in turn, the mysteria make us understand the outer sign, the sacramenta.’” (Page 25)
“Either the writings of the apostles or the prophets were read to the gathered community” (Page 28)
“Gregory of Nyssa develops the implications of the incarnation to enrich the church’s understanding of the Eucharist. He compares ‘God the Word’ indwelling and transmuting Christ’s human body and God the Word transmuting or transforming the bread of the Eucharist. ‘The body … by the indwelling of God the Word was transmuted [transformed] to the dignity of godhead. If this is so, we are right in believing that now also the bread which is consecrated by the Word of God is transmuted into the body of God the Word.” (Page 55)
“What if, however, careful and consistent teaching helped Christians to understand that the invitation to the Eucharist is a call to come to the table by faith, to commune with Christ by feasting in faith on his body and blood, with the happy result that our personal faith and trust in Christ is ever more deeply strengthened?” (Pages 59–60)
In recent years, more and more evangelicals who are looking for spiritual depth and congregational vitality have started to explore the thought and practice of the early church. Christopher Hall is a wise, experienced guide through the twists and turns of this often strange and unfamiliar territory. This volume provides a clear, readable exposition of what the leading church fathers understood about baptism, the Lord's Supper, prayer and spiritual disciplines. A special strength of this book is that Hall explains the biblical and theological reasoning used by the fathers as they developed their approaches. This book is essential reading for pastors, lay leaders and students who are looking for a reliable introduction to the spirituality of the early church.
Jeffrey P. Greenman, associate dean of biblical and theological studies and professor of Christian ethics, Wheaton College
Christopher Hall helps us to read the church fathers contextually and not anachronistically. At the same time he manages to incorporate his own life experiences of worship in ways that make the book deeply personal as all prayer life must be. The result is a rich treasure trove of the prayers of the church."
James M. Houston, founding principal of Regent College, Vancouver, and Emeritus Professor of Spiritual Theology
In the end Christopher Hall has not written a book about the early fathers' views on worship and prayer. Instead, with expertise and humility, he invites us to join an ongoing conversation with Christian siblings who centuries ago reflected on distractions in prayer, self-deception, passions and other concerns central to the Christian life. Chris has mined the ancient resources, uncovered the gems, and set them in a context that makes them highly accessible for consideration by Protestant evangelicals (of which he is one) and all others in the Christian family who want to deepen their understanding and practice of worship and prayer. You won't want to read this book hurriedly as if you were gulping down spiritual junk food. Feast on a richly laden table as you slowly savor each bit of insight and advice from those who have come before us.
Dennis Okholm, professor of theology, Azusa Pacific University, and author of Monk Habits for Everyday People
Worshiping with the Church Fathers deserves a place on your bookshelf for no other reason than the way it reveals the grand and spacious horizons of Christ’s kingdom. But it offers more that. By mapping out the patristic terrain it provides a colorful landscape in which we are invited to celebrate the wonder of God.
Chris Castaldo, The Gospel Coalition
- Title: Worshiping with the Church Fathers
- Author: Christopher A. Hall
- Publisher: IVP Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2009
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Worship › History--Early church, ca. 30-600; Fathers of the church
- ISBNs: 9780830867127, 9780830838660, 0830867120, 083083866X
- Resource ID: LLS:WRSHPNGCHRFTHRS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:11:04Z