Eucharistic Epicleses, Ancient and Modern

Alcuin Club Collections 89

The past several decades have witnessed a shift in the approach to the Spirit. Since the mid 1960s, scholarly attention has been focused on the role of the Holy Spirit in the modern – and now increasingly postmodern and ‘post-Christian’ – world:

• first, there has been a resurgence of interest in the pneumatology of past eras
• second, studies of the Spirit from a Pentecostal and Charismatic perspective have entered the mainstream of contemporary theological discussion and scholarship
• third, interest in the Spirit has intersected with feminist, liberationist, ecological, global and interfaith concerns, among others, to produce a multitude of new constructive theological proposals in which the Spirit plays a prominent part

Now it is time to give attention to the liturgical role of the Spirit and the study of worship as a site of the Spirit’s presence and work – an approach that is thoroughly and expertly discussed in Eucharistic Epicleses.

Anne McGowan received her PhD in theology with a focus on liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2011. After spending a year as a post-doctoral associate at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, she returned to Notre Dame as a post-doctoral teaching scholar and is currently an adjunct professor of theology at Saint John’s School of Theology Seminary.