A historical and philosophical study of how evangelical worship styles have changed with each great spiritual awakening from the Early Church era to the modern Praise and Worship movement.

The Sun is the giver of life to the whole planetary system. The Moon is the giver of life to our globe. The Hindus proudly call themselves descendants of Solar and Lunar dynasties. The Christians pretend to regard such beliefs as idolatry, yet they adhere to a religion entirely based upon solar and lunar worship. Mystery 1. The lowest key to the androgynous Moon is anthropomorphic and phallic. The highest key is purely theogonic and divine. The Jewish god, with which the Christians have burdened themselves, is no higher than the lunar symbol of Nature’s reproductive or generative faculty. The entire Pantheon of lunar gods and goddesses consists of “sons” and “husbands” of their “mothers,” and is identical with the Christian Trinity. Mystery 2. The riddle of the Two Ones unriddled. The One Divine Essence, ever unmanifested, perpetually begets a second One, manifested and androgynous in its nature. The latter brings forth immaculately everything macro- and micro-cosmical in the universe. But human procreation in the infernal regions of matter is far from divine, it is a deadly sin. Deus Lunus, a male lunar deity, became overtly androgyne in the Lemurian Race of our Round when sexes separated. Later on, its dual hermaphrodite power was exploited by Atlantean sorcerers. Still, in the present Aryan Race, the same lunar-solar worship continues, dividing nations into two distinct and essentially antagonistic factions and cults. Pagan and Papal cosmogonies are diametrically opposed. The one is an ever-youthful Mother-Nature, antitype of Sun and Moon, creating immaculately the ideal universe; the other, by concocting an infernal “Virgin Mary” who brings forth a “son” of the earth earthy, degrades everything divine and sacred to the lowest anthropomorphic goddess of the rabble. The “virgin” goddess of the Latin Church is a faithful copy of the old pagan goddesses, albeit counterfeit; the twelve apostles stand for the twelve tribes, the latter being personifications of the twelve great gods and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The liberal adoption by the Latin Church of such symbols as water, fire, sun, moon, and stars, and a good many other things, is a continuation of the old worship of Pagan nations under different names. The belief that Fire finds refuge in Water was not limited to the old Scandinavians. It was shared by all nations before taken up by the early Christians, who symbolized the Holy Ghost under the shape of Fire, the breath of the Father-Sun, descending into the Water or Sea, Mother, Mare, Mary, etc.

Places of Worship in the Middle Ages describes Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and its impact on the people of medieval Europe. Shows how the people built these buildings of worship and the ceremonies they had there.

In Story-Shaped Worship Robbie Castleman attempts nothing less than to uncover the fundamental shape of worship. Right worship doesn't require a traditionalist return to earlier forms of church, she argues, but a fresh response to God in light of the revealed patterns of worship we find in the Bible and church history.

An exploration of the history of the Book of Common Prayer and its revisions, beginning with the 1549 English Prayer Book and continuing up to the present. This revised and expanded version finishes the story of the final adoption of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Sydnor explores why each revision was necessary, what was changed, added, omitted, as well as what was retained in the “new” book. By understanding the delicate balance between the need for change and the preservation of what is timeless, William Sydnor believes that Episcopalians will “find anew that common ground of common prayer which is our legacy, our inspiration, and our joy.”

"The Church has always sought a dynamic balance between the expressive and the formative attributes of liturgical music. (This book) traces the development of the Church's music through the ages and is a chronicle of the music we have used in the earthly Liturgy of the Church. .... " [from back cover]

An Important Study on the Worship of the Early Church This introduction to the origins of Christian worship illuminates the importance of ancient liturgical patterns for contemporary Christian practice. Andrew McGowan takes a fresh approach to understanding how Christians came to worship in the distinctive forms still familiar today. Deftly and expertly processing the bewildering complexity of the ancient sources into lucid, fluent exposition, he sets aside common misperceptions to explore the roots of Christian ritual practices--including the Eucharist, baptism, communal prayer, preaching, Scripture reading, and music--in their earliest recoverable settings. Now in paper.