Journey into the Heart of God Living the Liturgical Year

by Pfatteicher, Philip H.

• ISBN13: 9780199997121
• ISBN10: 0199997128
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-10-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Journey into the Heart of God is a captivating exploration of the history and evolution of the Church Year: the cycle of seasons in the Christian tradition that begins with Advent and culminates with Easter and is marked by the celebrations of saints, feast days, and the reading of Scripture as appointed by the Church.

Primarily through deft examination of the Western Church, Philip H. Pfatteicher reveals how the liturgical calendar has been transformed over thousands of years. It is a work of art--the collaborative achievement of generations of hands and minds. He shows how the church year dramatizes and grounds the strange complexity of the human experience and how it encourages honesty, humility, growth, and maturity in those who live by it.

Pfatteicher also offers insight into the liturgical texts of the Eucharist, the less familiar Daily Office, and the people's theology voiced in hymns from a broad spectrum of ancient and modern traditions. It will be an indispensable resource for both clergy and laity in the liturgical denominations, including Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism.

Author Biography

Philip Pfatteicher was a parish pastor in South Philadelphia and in the South Bronx. For thirty years he served concurrently as Professor of English and Religious Studies and campus pastor at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. He returned to parish ministry as Associate Pastor of First Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh and taught liturgics and hymnology at Duquesne University. He and his wife now live in Melrose, Massachusetts, and he is a member of the staff of the Church of the Advent in Boston.