Liturgy and Interpretation

The receiving and handing on of Christian tradition always entails adaptation and re-configuration for the reception to be useful. These essays exemplify many facets of this 'handing on', from the Lord's Prayer, through sermons on and expositions of the Transfiguration, to the contributions of divines from Peter Chrysologus to Lancelot Andrewes and Michael Ramsey. In Kenneth Stevenson's words, they show 'worship and theology living at ease' - words that also encapsulate his own life and work in Church and academy.' Bryan D. Spinks, Goddard Professor of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School 'This collection of essays is Kenneth Stevenson at his very best - showing a breadth and depth of theological and liturgical scholarship that few can equal, from New Testament texts and patristic homilies to classic figures of seventeenth-century Anglicanism and beyond. And yet all of this applied with a lightness of touch and with a pastoral sensitivity shaped by the years of his own ministry.' Paul Bradshaw, Professor of Liturgy, University of Notre Dame 'Kenneth Stevenson's last book reads as the quintessential autobiography of a questing, restless, puckish scholar - a series of studies linking his chosen areas of liturgical scholarship, biblical interpretation, and the insights of the Caroline divines, all shot through with those humbling insights on the glory of transfiguration, brought him by his final, fatal illness. Si monumentum requiris, tolle et lege.' David Stancliffe, liturgical scholar and former Bishop of Salisbury Kenneth Stevenson was until autumn 2009 Bishop of Portsmouth. He died in January 2011. His books include The Lord's Prayer: A Text in Tradition, Take, Eat: Reflections on the Eucharist and Watching and Waiting: A Guide to the Celebration of Advent.