Paul F. Bradshaw - Reconstructing Early Christian Worship

Reconstructing Early Christian Worship

Paul Bradshaw is Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, and holds a PhD from London University, a DD from Oxford University, and an honorary DD from the General Theological Seminary, New York. Between 1995 and 2008 he served as Director of Notre Dames London Undergraduate Program, and still teaches there periodically. He is an honorary Canon of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana, priest-vicar of Westminster Abbey, and a member of the Church of England Liturgical Commission. He is also one of only two people ever to have been president of both the North American Academy of Liturgy (199394) and the international Societas Liturgica (199395), and from 1987 to 2005 he was editor-in-chief of the journal, Studia Liturgica. Before beginning to teach at Notre Dame in 1985, he was successively Director of Studies at Chichester Theological College, Course Director in the St Albans Diocese Ministerial Training Scheme, and Vice-Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford.

Dr Bradshaw has written or edited more than twenty books, together with over ninety essays or articles in periodicals. His major publications include Daily Prayer in the Early Church (SPCK, 1981; Oxford University Press, 1982; Wipf & Stock, 2008), The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship (SPCK/Oxford University Press, 1992, 2nd edn 2002; translated into French and Italian, with Japanese and Russian translations forthcoming), and Eucharistic Origins (SPCK/Oxford University Press, 2004).

This book is dedicated to the one

from whom I constantly learn so much

First published in Great Britain in 2009

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

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London SW1P 4ST

Copyright Paul F. Bradshaw 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Scripture and other primary sources are by the author.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780281060948

E-ISBN 9780281062973

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset and eBook by Graphicraft Ltd., Hong Kong

Printed in Great Britain by Cromwell Press

Produced on paper from sustainable forests

Contents

Part 1
EUCHARIST

Part 2
BAPTISM

Part 3
PRAYER

This book does not pretend to be a complete description of what early Christian worship might have been like. Such a venture would in any case be impossible because of the limitations of our historical information and the caution that modern critical methods place upon what we may assume with regard to the gaps in our knowledge. Instead, it builds upon the approach set out in my Search for the Origins of Christian Worship(2nd edn, SPCK, London/Oxford University Press, New York 2002) and attempts to drill down, as it were, at several key points beneath the surface impression that has been accepted in most earlier studies of the primary sources. Its aim has been to see whether a somewhat different picture emerges when one examines that material with altered presuppositions and a more questioning attitude towards it. Thus, each of the chapters begins from the conventional depiction of its topic, and subjects the sources to an assessment from the perspective of the methodology set out in my earlier work, which then leads to new conclusions. This change in our perception not only affects how we reconstruct our vision of the past but also how we use the past as precedent for worship practice today. As an indicator of the effect that it might have on the latter, each chapter ends with a comment, even if in some cases only brief, on the possible modern application of these discoveries.

Many of the chapters are versions or major revisions of material that has been published in other places. Chapter 1, originally given as a public lecture at the University of Notre Dame in 2006, will also appear in Maxwell Johnson (ed.), Issues in Eucharistic Praying (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville 2010). Chapter 2 is an adaptation of The Reception of Communion in Early Christianity, Studia Liturgica 37 (2007), pp. 16480.Chapter 3 is a new composition that draws in part upon Yet Another Explanation of Didache 910, Studia Liturgica 36 (2006), pp. 1248 and Hippolytus Revisited: The Identity of the So-Called Apostolic Tradition, Liturgy 16 (2000), pp. 711. Chapter 4 is a very substantial revision of The Gospel and the Catechumenate in the Third Century, Journal of Theological Studies 50 (1999), pp. 14352. Chapter 5 is adapted from The Profession of Faith in Early Christian Baptism, published both in Ecclesia Orans 23 (2006), pp. 33755 and in Evangelical Quarterly 78 (2006), pp. 10115. Chapter 6 has been contributed to a forthcoming Festschrift for Bryan Spinks, The Serious Business of Worship, edited by Simon Jones and Melanie Ross (Continuum, London). Chapter 7 is a greatly updated version of Cathedral vs Monastery: The Only Alternatives for the Liturgy of the Hours?, in J. Neil Alexander (ed.), Time and Community: Studies in Liturgical History and Theology (Pastoral Press, Washington, DC 1990), pp. 12336. Chapter 8 is lightly revised from From Word to Action: The Changing Role of Psalmody in Early Christianity, in Martin Dudley (ed.), Like a Two-Edged Sword: The Word of God in Liturgy and History (Canterbury Press, Norwich 1995), pp. 2137. Chapter 9 recently appeared as The Emergence of Penitential Prayer in Early Christianity, in Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline(eds), Seeking the Favor of God, vol. 3: The Impact of Penitential Prayer beyond Second Temple Judaism (Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2008), pp. 18596 (Copyright Society of Biblical Literature, used by permission).

PAUL F. BRADSHAW

The answer to the question posed in my title might seem obvious: Of course he did; we have the evidence of the Synoptic Gospels to prove it. But as you may well have guessed already, I do not think it is as simple as that. Otherwise, this would turn out to be a very short chapter.

The Fourth Gospel

Let us start with St Johns Gospel, where there is no account of the institution of the eucharist within the narrative of the Last Supper. Commentators usually say that John has deliberately missed it out and for his own reasons replaced it with the account of Jesus washing the disciples feet. But that is to assume that the Evangelist and every Christian of the time knew that the account of the institution of the eucharist really did belong with the Last Supper, and he chose not to put it there. But that is precisely to beg the question. We do not actually know whether anyone in the first century other than the writers of the Synoptic Gospels and St Paul thought it took place on the night before Jesus died and even St Paul does not say that occasion was a Passover meal as the others do. So if we suppose for the sake of argument that the writer of the Fourth Gospel did not know of a tradition that Jesus said that bread and wine were his body and blood at the Last Supper, is there anywhere else in that Gospel that might look like an institution narrative?