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  • Worship in the Early Church: An Anthology of Historical Sources
  • Michael G. Witczak
Worship in the Early Church: An Anthology of Historical Sources, Vol. 1. By Lawrence J. Johnson. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press/A Pueblo Book. 2009. Pp. xxii, 282. $74.95. ISBN 978-0-814-66197-0.)

In this volume, Lawrence J. Johnson, former editor and director of the Pastoral Press, presents sources of the liturgy in translation with an introduction and bibliography. The first volume treats Jewish sources, subapostolic texts, and texts from the second and third centuries in both East and West. The subsequent three volumes treat the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries.

Each entry follows a similar pattern: the title of the work with a note about the source of the translation (usually the author's own), orienting bibliography, and the translation of the text. Johnson offers good orientations to the various texts, as illustrated by the following example. A topic controversial today is that of Hippolytus of Rome and the Apostolic Tradition. Johnson begins with an overview of the complications of the person of Hippolytus and gives an orienting bibliography. He then presents the Apostolic Tradition, giving an overview of the modern critical editions that led to the attribution of the "Egyptian Church Order" to Hippolytus and to the consideration of it as his work. Six pages of bibliography follow, with sources, general studies, and then specialized bibliographies on initiation, Eucharist, orders/ministry, and daily prayer. He offers a translation of the complete text as reconstituted by Bernard Botte and again gives notes for biblical citations and some technical issues of the text. Despite the controversy surrounding the author and date of the document, he makes the decision to treat it as a third-century work of Hippolytus, while alerting the reader to the discussions surrounding the attribution and dating.

The layout and format are clear, the bibliographies substantial and helpful, and the translations straightforward and accessible. This will be a helpful resource for those without access to original languages and critical editions who are looking for a good, brief orientation to important sources of liturgical study in the first six centuries.

Michael G. Witczak
The Catholic University of America
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