First sentence: The Book of Common Prayer came into being as an instrument of social and political control. There will be much else to say about its origins, but here we must begin: the prayer book was a key means by which the great lords who ruled on behalf of the young King Edward VI consolidated English rule of the English church. In making one book according to which the whole country would worship, Cranmer and his allies were quite consciously dismantling an immense and intricate edifice of devotional practice. They had both theological and political reasons for doing this, but the immediate effect was political and was widely seen as such.

This book is a biography not of a person but of a book--a religious book, The Book of Common Prayer. The chapters are as follows:

One Book for One Country
Revision, Banishment, Restoration
Becoming Venerable
The Book in the Social World
Objects, Bodies, and Controversies
The Pressures of the Modern
Many Books for Many Countries
The Prayer Book and Its Printers

Many chapters are chronological--focusing on the history of the book--religious/theological, political, social, and actual history. But the later chapters focus less on history and are more thematically arranged. I really found the first half engaging and fascinating. It was packed with so much I didn't know but wanted to know. The later chapters were more on changing times and the falling apart of the church. Well, that is an exaggeration I'm sure. It isn't so much falling apart of "the church" as it is the falling apart of the "British Empire" and the "Church of England." The book does not particularly "hold" like-minded individuals together as "one" worshipping body. There is no "one" book of Common Prayer, each country, each denominational break off can publish their own revision of the prayer book. If it sounds like I have a problem with that, I don't. [My personal favorite is the 1928 American revision of the Book of Common Prayer.]

I enjoyed this one for the most part. It probably can come across as a bit dry if you do not bring an interest in the subject. ( )

Keen revelations of linguistical-doctrinal influences. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed Alan Jacobs' The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography, which delivers on its title, serving up a concise history of this uniquely Anglican book, from its origins at the pen of Thomas Cranmer to the various efforts to modernize it. Three minor criticisms: first, the book is too short, and left me wanting more (this is of course a positive from a glass-half-full perspective). Second, and more gravely, the book lacks an overt bibliography, which would seem to be essential for a concise book of this nature from a university press (there are however several references scattered throughout the notes, but it is left to the reader to gather them).

Third--and not specific to this work but seemingly the case for the majority of academic and quasi-academic works published today--is the presence of endnotes. Endnotes are a vestigial byproduct of the days before modern word processing software. Back in the day, it was easier to type up notes at the end of chapters, because adjusting for pagination would have been quite a chore. This of course has been an automated process for decades, much as calculators automate complex math problems. If a sentence or thought warrants a note--if a note is important enough to be written--then in this day and age it is nothing but an annoyance to have to constantly flip through extra pages to find out what else the author has to say. Put it at the bottom of the page, in a footnote, not an endnote! It is far easier on the reader, and carries no downside. If there are those who nostalgically long for this ancient and inconvenient practice, these are the same types of people who enjoy a Model T hand crank on their daily driver, and are best avoided. (Off soapbox).

This Biography is part of the "Lives of Great Religious Books" from Princeton University Press. Current titles include the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Mormon, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead, while forthcoming titles include the Analects and the Bhagavad Gita, among many others. I shall be making a point to continue enjoying others in the series, with the hope that bibliographies will become part of the standard format. ( )

The subject book has a complex history and this book gives great texture to its subject’s frequent use. Though not my tradition, I would remain Anglican had it cradled my belief. This history is part of the soil that anchors the roots of faith and practice and reveals things worth contending for. ( )

I enjoyed the first book I read from Princeton University Press' "Lives of Great Religious Books" series (Paul Gutjahr on the Book of Mormon), so when Alan Jacobs' volume on the Book of Common Prayer came out, I was very excited to see it.

Like Gutjahr's, this volume on the BCP is short (just 200 pages), but it packs a hefty punch. Jacobs knows his stuff, and he's shared it in this expertly-crafted book. Jacobs tracks the changes in the BCP during its early life and since, noting the various ways it's been adapted (or not adapted) over the centuries since it was first published. Much of the focus is on the early period of the BCP's existence, but given that most of the excitement happened during that time, this is entirely understandable.

Recommended as an excellent introduction to the BCP, and as with Gutjahr's, Jacobs' book prompted me to go out and buy a few more things related to the BCP. If that's not a sign of a good book, I don't know what is. ( )