Church History

Leonel L. Mitchell has obviously devoted much of his religious life to the study of church history, particularly with respect to Christian initiation (including baptism, confirmation, anointing with oil ("chrismation"), the laying-on of hands, and the eucharist) and accompanying liturgical works which have been handed down through the ages. Indeed, he begins his introduction to Worship: Initiation and the Churches (Washington, D.C.: The Pastoral Press, 1991) with the statement: "Thirty years ago, in 1961, my first article on Christian initiation appeared in print" (v). Accordingly, the various chapters in this book are a compilation of other works which have been written and/or revised in the intervening thirty years. Dr. Mitchell is an Episcopal cleric who has served on the Standing Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church, taught at Notre Dame, and is currently a Professor of Liturgics at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.

Worship: Initiation and the Churches is written principally to delineate to Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopal clergy the practices which were adopted by the early Roman church, as documented in the writings of the church fathers such as Tertullian, Ambrose, Hippolytus, Augustine, and others, (particularly of the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries), and which survive today as part of the rich traditions in these denominations. Subsequent writings from the medieval period in the Mediterranean churches and in Spain are exami

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e it tends to offer explanations for the present-day rituals in use in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopal churches, and an appeal to return to former practices. Mitchell's book makes for very interesting reading for those who have an interest in church history, Christian doctrine and dogma, as well as church growth and a desire for greater ecumenical cooperation across all denominational lines. Any pastor, priest, or other minister would be challenged to examine his or her own understanding of baptism, confirmation, anointing, and laying-on of hands as a result of reading Worship. Some of the concepts Mitchell presents are quite foreign to the worship being conducted in some contemporary churches, and would probably enhance the spiritual dimension in their worship experiences. It would offer little of interest, however, to the average Christian lay person who might be attracted to a title dominated by the word "worship"--particularly one who was not associated with either the Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Episcopal denominations (particularly those who would identify themselves as "evangelicals")--because Mitchell's Worship is not about an individual's act of worship, but is instead concerned with the church's curren

Category: Philosophy - C