At the Lighting of the Lamps: Hymns of the Ancient Church

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and author of many books of Early and Byzantine Christian culture, as well as several volumes of translations of ancient Christian poetry as well as one book of his own poetry. John Anthony McGuckin is an Archpriest of the Romanian Orthodox Church. . He is the Nielsen Professor of Early Church History at Union Theological Seminary and the Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies at Columbia University in New York

Ancient Hymnody, Poetry, Prayers in Beautiful Language In "At the Lighting of the Lamps" John A. McGuckin has assembled and translated hymns from the Early Church from both the Greek and Latin traditions.Starting with hymns from the New Testament, such as "Hymn to the Creative Word" (from John 1), McGuckin breathes new life into these ancient texts by setting them in contemporary English free verse. On each facing page the reader will find the text to the original Greek or Latin. (He even provides a pronunciation gui. "The rule of prayer is the rule of Faith." according to matt. Although it isn't recognized as such by many American Christians, from the beginning Christianity has been a liturgical religion with the center of worship being the expectation and preparation for the return of Christ. The Gospel even begins with an angelic hymn: "Glory to God in the highest heaven" All theology proper operates from within the worshiping tradition of the Church. Scriptures are liturgical texts, the canon is a liturgical canon, and the sacraments

They range from simple chants such as the Phos Hilaron, comparing Christ to the "cheerful light" of a lamp, to sophisticated pieces by some of the great rhetoricians such as Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Synesios, and Romanos. The hymnal elements in the New Testament are among the earliest of all strands, some of them composed within a decade of the death of Jesus. This collection of some of the most charming of the hymns of the Early Church presents the original Greek and Latin verse with a facing translation and a pronunciation guide for the Byzantine Greek. This is a book that will delight both academic and church readerships.. The Christians, from the very outset, committed their theology and prayer to the form of the song. From the third century onwards it was their custom to light the lamps of the house when dusk fell, and sing a hymn, for the onset of evening marked the new liturgical day in the earliest centuries

Language Notes Text: English, Greek, Latin (translation) Original Language: Greek, Latin