My correspondent the generous liturgist Byron Stuhlman writes to share his own list of particularly influential fifteen authors. These lists are so interesting! Enjoy Byron’s selection:
1. The Bible, the basic witness to God.
2. The Book of Common Prayer, especially 1549 and 1979.
3. Louis Bouyer, Liturgical Piety, which introduced me to the paschal mystery as the basis of baptism, the eucharist, and the Christian Year when I was in college.
4. Gregory of Nyssa, who put me in touch with Eastern traditions in my college years (in Danielou’s selections) and later provided an alternative to Augustine’s version of the Christian story with his catechetical homily.
5. Alexander Schmemann, whose For the Life of the World and Introduction to Liturgical Theology made me familiar with Byzantine Liturgy.
6. Juan Mateos, whose articles and books first made sense of the daily office for me and introduced me to East Syrian worship.
7. Robert Taft, whose work on the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom made sense of the Byzantine eucharist for me.
8. Miguel Arranz, whose articles laid out the development of the Byzantine rites of initiation for me.
9. Abraham Heschel, for his masterpiece on the Sabbath.
10. Raymond Brown, for his work on John’s gospel and the trajectory of the New Testament.
11. John Macquarrie, for his masterful overview of Christian theology in his many books.
12. Jeremy Taylor, for his marvelous assimilation of Eastern theology and liturgy in the Anglican tradition (and for his courage to argue against Augustine.
13. Gregory Dix, whose Shape of the Liturgy first made sense of the eucharist for me.
14. Gordon Lathrop, for His Holy Things, a masterful liturgical theology.
15. Gregory Nazianzus, for his theological orations and his festal homilies.
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