'In liturgical study, and especially in English liturgical study, the
subject of the daily office has always been something of the poor
relation', writes the author in his preface. This volume aims to do
something to fill that gap. It begins with a detailed examination of the
Jewish background and of the practice of daily prayer in the first three
centuries of the Church, and goes on to trace the evolution of the
divine office in both its monastic and secular forms in East and West
down to the time of St. Benedict. Intended as a replacement for The
Influence of the Synagogue upon the Divine Office by C. W. Dugmore
(Alcuin Club Collection No. 45), it not only incorporates the results of
recent research by continental scholars and others but also challenges
traditional assumptions at a number of important points, offering a
fresh interpretation of the evidence. The Rev. Dr. Paul F. Bradshaw is
Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame. He has written or
edited over twenty books and composed more than ninety essays and
articles in the field of liturgical studies, among them THE SEARCH FOR
THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, which has gone through two editions
since it was first published in 1992 and has been translated into four
languages.
