Leading historical and liturgical scholars reflect on the history and impact of Book of Common Prayer, the most important liturgical text in English.

What is grace? And more important, what difference do the "comfortable words" of grace make in the lives of everyday people? These are the questions to which Paul F. M. Zahl has devoted his life, and this book is a collection of essays written in honor of him that seeks to answer these great questions. From literary theory to exegesis to systematic theology, these essays are representative of the breadth and depth of the influence Dr. Zahl has had on a variety of scholars, and reflect his emphasis on the relationship between theology as an academic discipline and the pastoral impact of "one-way love" on everyday people. Contributors: C. FitzSimons Allison, Todd Brewer, George Carey, James D. G. Dunn, Susan G. Eastman, Mark Mattes, Geiko Muller-Farenholz, Justin S. Holcomb, John D. Koch Jr., Lauren Larkin, Jonathan A. Linebaugh, Jurgen Moltmann, Heinz-Dieter Neef, J. Ashley Null, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Dylan D. Potter, Justyn Terry, Tullian Tchividjian, Jonathan K. M. Wong, Paul F. M. Zahl, and Simeon Zahl.

Thanks to coded notes taken by the teenager John Pynchon, this volume virtually transports the reader back to Sundays in the seventeenth century, when the community gathered to listen to the Rev. George Moxon. The setting was Springfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1636 by John's father William Pynchon. As a note-taker, John recorded just what he heard in this rare resource, which allows the reader to listen in on the weekly sermons he documented in the 1640s. This symbol-by-symbol transcription into a word-for-word text preserves the character of the minister's original remarks, and reveals Moxon as an able, engaging speaker who offered encouragement--and challenge--to the growing plantation he faithfully served through its earliest years on the edge of a wilderness. Not only do the sermons in this collection provide snippets of popular theological discourse at particular moments in the 1600s; they also point to issues of the day, and they help us get inside the thoughts and word patterns of that era.