The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition, Edited by Samuel L. Bray and Drew Nathaniel Keane
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer
Hardback
  • Length: 832 pages
  • Dimensions: 4 × 6 in
  • Published: March 02, 2021
  • Imprint: IVP Academic
  • ISBN: 9780830841929
Other Formats:

A Prayerbook for All Christians and All Nations

The Book of Common Prayer (1662) is one of the most beloved liturgical texts in the Christian church, and remains a definitive expression of Anglican identitytoday. It is still widely used around the world, in public worship and private devotion, and is revered for both its linguistic and theological virtues.

But the classic text of the 1662 prayer book presents several difficulties for contemporary users, especially those outside the Church of England. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition gently updates the text for contemporary use while retaining some of the spelling and style of the original seventeenth-century English. In this volume, readers will find:

  • state prayers of England have been replaced with prayers that can be used regardless of nation or polity;
  • obscure words and phrases have been modestly revised for clarity, while theprayer book’s original cadence, including many of its traditional spellings and expressions, have been intentionally preserved; and
  • a selection of treasured prayers from later Anglican tradition has been appended.

The 1662 prayerbook remains a vital resource today, both in the Anglican Communion and for Christians everywhere. Here it is presented for continued use for today's Christians throughout the world.

"Anglicans in North America today are not sufficiently familiar with the classic Book of Common Prayer (1662). Accordingly, I heartily endorse this accessible new edition of this essential Anglican formulary. It has long been needed and the editors are to be strongly commended for their care and restraint."Gillis Harp, Grove City College
"The Prayer Book—in the classic edition of 1662—has been attacked, denigrated, dismissed, damned with faint praise, patronized, patted on the head, and torn in shreds. It's too Protestant, it's too Catholic, it's a typical Anglican muddle, it doesnot express the new insight of the modern age, it's not open to the Spirit, it's not relevant. Yet all these cantankerous and often sophistical cavillations fall away when you pray according to the rule of prayer it sets forth with an open heart andan open mind. What then meets you in these pages is a pure scriptural teaching, deeply embedded in the catholic tradition, turned into the language of prayer, and in the corporate action of liturgy, with a craftmanship that is quietly breathtaking.Its prose is not Tudor but timeless, not purple but plain in its elegance (simplex munditiis); and in its clarity, dignity, and quiet beauty it carries the weight of conviction as almost nothing else does. That is why it survived the Marianreaction, the Puritan interregnum, and the diktats of modern liturgists; that's why it will encourage and embolden the faithful in the new dark ages of skepticism and hostility to religion. Though this prayer book came out of the Church of England, it belongs not to the English, nor even to Anglicans, much less to Anglophiles (fruity accents and whatnot)—as this edition makes clear, it is a prayer book for English-speaking Christians throughout the world."Gavin Dunbar, rector of St. John's Church, Savannah, Georgia (the Episcopal Church), and president of the Prayer Book Society of the USA
"In an age when each new wave of liturgical reform seems doomed to obsolescence almost before it is completed, Bray and Keane's call to 'Look to the rock from whence you were hewn' is a breath of fresh air. Amid the wreckage of discarded innovations that litter the liturgical landscape, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer still stands as the classic expression of Anglican spirituality, the finest edition of a prayer book that has nurtured the faith of countless millions. Bray and Keane are to be praised and saluted for retrieving this forgotten gem, polishing it up, and demonstrating its enduring value as a guide for public and private devotion. In the process, they have also proven the folly of overhasty modernizations of older devotional texts, showing that archaic language can be not merely beautiful but still thoroughly intelligible. Judiciously edited and beautifully presented, this edition is a great gift to the church today; I pray that it will be gratefully received and widely adopted."Brad Littlejohn, president of the Davenant Institute
"By sensitively updating the language and adapting the content for use by the worldwide Anglican Communion, this 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, makes a most welcome contribution toward making the classical liturgy of Anglicanism accessible to younger people and to a wider audience. Those who use it will rediscover a liturgical tradition that has shaped the spiritual life of generations of faithful Anglicans and be strengthened in their faith as they make their pilgrim way to the celestial city."Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School
"The official prayer book of the Church of England remains the revised version of 1662. And beyond the United Kingdom, the 1662 edition continues to wield enormous influence in the Anglican Communion as well as in other churches around the world. Believers who still wish to pray from this time-tested prayer book now have a gorgeously produced, reader-friendly edition with which to do so. A greater gift for lovers of the Book of Common Prayer can hardly be imagined."Wesley Hill, associate professor of New Testament at Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania
"This splendid new edition of the Book of Common Prayer, adapted for international contemporary use, opens up a unique liturgical treasure for the benefit of all Christians and all nations."Catherine Pickstock, Norris-Hulse Professor ofDivinity, University of Cambridge
"I think this is a beautiful project, and one that will be useful to churches and families that want to take advantage of the great beauty and theological power of the old prayer book, without being distracted by irrelevant or obscure language."Alan Jacobs, Baylor University
"The Book of Common Prayer is and has been the Anglican rule of life for centuries. While many Anglican provinces assert the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as one of their formularies, this assertion often remains an ideal rather than a practice. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, makes the 1662 Prayer Book more accessible to Anglicans and others today. It will be, I pray, an integrating force among Anglican churches in a global Anglicanism that is all too rapidly disintegrating."Charles Erlandson, professor of church history at Cranmer Theological House
"The Book of Common Prayer—with its timeless liturgies, lectionary, psalms, and prayers—has long held worldwide Anglicanism together. This splendid new 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, preserves the beauty, power, and majesty of the original text while making modest linguistic updates throughout and offering judicious amendments to the prayers and psalter. The editors and publisher deserve high praise for presenting this authoritative, affordable, and accessible text for Christians worldwide to use in their private devotions and public worship."John Witte Jr., Emory University
"The editors of The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, International Edition, are to be congratulated on making every effort to preserve the substance and form of traditional common prayer in a manner accessible to the widest possible community of Anglican worshippers. The rhythm, meter, and musicality of the language, so critically important for liturgical expression, have been preserved intact. The editors' discerning decision 'to update the language of rubrics most; prayers less; and Psalms, canticles, and biblical texts least of all' is admirable indeed, and strikes just the right balance of minimal but acceptable modification. 'O worship the Lord in beauty of holiness. Let the whole earth stand in awe of Him.'"Torrance Kirby, McGill University
More

The 1662 Common book of Prayer (International Version) Flat View

The 1662 Common book of Prayer (International Version) Side View

The 1662 Common book of Prayer (International Version) Interior View

The 1662 Common book of Prayer (International Version) Spine View

Read an Excerpt

CONTENTS

The Prefaces
How the Psalms and Scriptures Are to Be Read
The Tables, Rules, and Calendar of Lessons
Morning Prayer
Evening Prayer
The Creed of St. Athanasius
The Litany
Prayers and Thanksgivings
TheCollects, Epistles, and Gospels
The Holy Communion
Baptism Both Public and Private
Baptism for Those of Riper Years
The Catechism, with Confirmation
The Solemnization of Matrimony
The Visitation and Communion of the Sick
The Burial of the Dead
The Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth
A Commination
The Psalter
Forms of Prayer to Be Used at Sea
The Ordinal
Articles of Religion
The Editors to the Reader
Appendices
A Sermon on the Salvation of Mankind
Additional Prayers and Thanksgivings
Additional Rubrics
An Alternative Table of Lessons
The Glossary

More

You May Also Like

Samuel L. Bray

Samuel L. Bray is a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, as well as a McDonald Distinguished Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He is coauthor (with John F. Hobbins) of Genesis 1–11: A New OldTranslation for Readers, Scholars, and Translators.

Drew Nathaniel Keane

Drew Nathaniel Keane teaches in the Department of English at Georgia Southern University. He formerly served on the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music for the Episcopal Church. He is coauthor (with Samuel D. Fornecker) of a forthcoming commentary on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.