The Christians, from the very outset, committed their theology and prayer to the form of the song. 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. 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. 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. 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. This is a book that will delight both academic and church readerships.

About the Author:

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. 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.

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At the Lighting of the Lamps

John McGuckin

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