Mail Call – InterVarsity Press Edition

When I arrived home yesterday, I was happy to discover Worshiping with the Church Fathers by Christopher A. Hall in my mailbox.  This review copy is courtesy of Adrianna Wright, Academic Publicity Manager for InterVarsity Press.  Hall is chancellor of Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.  He previously served as dean of the Templeton Honors college at Eastern.  In addition, he is associate editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.  In this new volume, Hall explores the Church Fathers’ understanding of sacraments (CH 1:  Baptism:  Entering the Worshiping Community, CH 2:  Eucharist:  Feasting with the Worshiping Community), prayer (CH 3:  The Basics of Prayer, CH 4:  The Challenge of Unceasing Prayer, CH 5:  Further Coaching on Prayer, CH 6:  The Lord’s Prayer), and discipline (CH 7:  The Transforming Call to the Desert, Ch 8:  A Space to Draw Close to God). You can read the book’s introduction and first chapter here: LINK. If Worshiping with the Church Fathers is of interest to you, I also recommend you consider two previously published titles in this series:

• Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 1998)
• Learning Theology with the Church Fathers (Downers Grove, IL:  InterVarsity Press, 2002)

I was intrigued by the cover art for Worshiping with the Church Fathers, so I thought I’d do a little digging and see if I could identify the Church Fathers who are depicted.  The image on the cover is Doctors of the Church by Luca Signorelli at Duomo, Orvieto, Italy. It took some time, but I was able to find the explanation I was looking for on pages 54 and 55 of Sara Nair James’s Signorelli and Fra Angelico at Orvieto: Liturgy, Poetry, and a Vision of the End of Time.