Turning Toward the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical PrayerIntroduction by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) Turning towards the Lord presents an historical and theological argument for the traditional, common direction of liturgical prayer, known as "facing east", and is meant as a contribution to the contemporary debate about the Catholic liturgy. Lang, a member of the London Oratory, studies the direction of liturgical prayer from an historical, theological, and pastoral point of view. At a propitious moment, this book resumes a debate that, despite appearances to the contrary, has never really gone away, not even after the Second Vatican Council. Historical research has made the controversy less partisan, and among the faithful there is an increasing sense of the problems inherent in an arrangement that hardly shows the liturgy to be open to the things that are above and to the world to come. In this situation, Lang's delightfully objective and wholly unpolemical book is a valuable guide. Without claiming to offer major new insights, Lang carefully presents the results of recent research and provides the material necessary for making an informed judgment. It is from such historical evidence that the author elicits the theological answers that he proposes. |
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... ancient Arabic tradition. In the year 624 Muhammad prescribed that the ritual prayer of Muslims (salat) must be directed strictly towards the Kaaba of Mecca.30 Islamic controversialists would later condemn the Christian custom of facing ...
... ancient world from the Mediterranean to India.2 A variant of this principle can be found in Manicheism. Saint ... ancient Israel, see the study of J. G. Taylor, Yahweh and the Sun: Biblical and Archaeological Evidence for Sun Worship in ...
... Ancient Synagogue Architecture:An Overview', in Ancient Synagogues: The State of Research, ed. J. Gutmann, BJSt 22 ~Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1981!, 39–47; and M. Wallraff, 'La preghiera verso l'oriente: Alle origini di un uso ...
... ancient Arabic tradition. In the year 624 Muhammad prescribed that the ritual prayer of Muslims (salat) must be directed strictly towardsthe Kaabaof Mecca.30 Islamiccontroversialistswould later condemn the Christian custom of facing ...
... ancient temples looked towards the west, that people might be taught to turn to the east when facing the images [of the gods].38 This text is full of biblical resonances. The phrase τ φως... κ σκτυς λμψαν is from 2 Corinthians 4:6: 'For ...