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Life Cycles in Jewish and Christian Worship

Edited by Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman

Two Liturgical Traditions

More than a series of rites of passage through the landmarks of growing up and growing old, Jewish and Christian life-cycle rituals give the members of each religious tradition theological and ritualized definitions of what a life should be. In this volume, the fourth in the acclaimed series Two Liturgical Traditions, eight scholars explore the models of human life implicit in Judaism and Christianity by unraveling and exploring the evolution and current condition of their life-cycle liturgies.

By combining the historical-critical method of traditional scholarship with that of more recent theory drawn from the human sciences, Life Cycles in Jewish and Christian Worship provides a novel treatment of Jewish and Christian life cycles, past and present, and is a unique and invaluable guide to the history, practice, and theology of life-cycle liturgy.

Contributors: Lawrence A. Hoffman, Paul F. Bradshaw, Ruth A. Meyers, Debra R. Blank, Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, Stacy Laveson, Marjorie Procter-Smith, and Yoel Kahn.

Paul F. Bradshaw is professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University’s London Centre. Lawrence A. Hoffman is Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Ritual and director of the Synagogue 2000 Initiative for synagogue spirituality, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York. Professor Bradshaw and Hoffman are co-editors of other books in the Two Liturgical Traditions series, including Passover and Easter: Origin and History to Modern Times and Passover and Easter: The Symbolic Structuring of Sacred Seasons, also both published by the University of Notre Dame Press.

Reviews

“For those new to the book’s subject matter, this collection of essays gives an excellent basis for developing the subject and will entice the reader to further research.” — The Heythrop Journal

“An excellent ecumenical introduction to the subject.” — WorshipNet