Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: the enigma of the sanctus
- PART I
- PART II
- PART III
- 7 Developments in East and West to the Reformation
- 8 The Reformation rites
- 9 Protestant and Anglican liturgies, 1662–1960
- 10 The sanctus in some contemporary eucharistic prayers
- 11 The sanctus in perspective
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of modern authors
- Index of eucharistic prayers and liturgical rites
11 - The sanctus in perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: the enigma of the sanctus
- PART I
- PART II
- PART III
- 7 Developments in East and West to the Reformation
- 8 The Reformation rites
- 9 Protestant and Anglican liturgies, 1662–1960
- 10 The sanctus in some contemporary eucharistic prayers
- 11 The sanctus in perspective
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of modern authors
- Index of eucharistic prayers and liturgical rites
Summary
this study of the anaphoral sanctus began with its pre-history in Judaism. The cultic chant is cited first in the Book of Isaiah, overheard being sung in honour of Yahweh by the seraphim who attended the throne. We may conjecture that this chant was probably part of the Temple liturgy at that time, and may reflect a combination of a Yahweh–Sabaoth–Zion cultic theology with the kabod theology which was later to replace it. It may be at least, therefore, as old as Isaiah's vision, 742 or 736–5 BCE. The prophetic concept of being admitted to God's throne-room or divine council recurs in later Jewish thought in the apocalyptic literature, such as Daniel, and in the eschatological community of Qumran. Righteous men and the elect may be admitted to God's presence with the angelic host. The sanctus, or qeduššah, was one of the chants that seers and the elect might hear, as witnessed in the Pseudepigrapha (even allowing for Christian interpolations). The ‘mystical tendency’ of the joining of earth and heaven in praise to God was kept alive and developed in various Jewish groups, making its mark on some of the Pseudepigrapha and hekhalot literature, and by the inclusion of qeduššah in the Synagogue berakot. This same tendency also influenced certain Christian groups, as is witnessed by John 12:41, Revelation 4 and the Passio of Perpetua and Felicity, as well as by the preservation of Pseudepigraphal works.
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- The Sanctus in the Eucharistic Prayer , pp. 194 - 206Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991