The Collect in the Churches of the Reformation

The Collect is a form of prayer which is a core part of the liturgical worship of most Christian traditions, certainly in the Christian West, yet, relatively little work has been done to reflect on the use of this common form of prayer in different traditions, and the Protestant tradition in particular. In this representative collection of essays Bridget Nichols draws together a range of leading scholars who reflect on the history and the development of this form of prayer common to all churches of the western tradition. As well as offering a historical introduction the book offers reflections on the collect in the Methodist tradition, in Baptist worship, in Scandinavian Lutheran traditions, in American Lutheranism and on collect writing today.
Contributors include: Jeremy Haselock, Karen Westerfield-Tucker, Michael Perham, John Lampard and David Kennedy.

Bridget Nichols is Lay Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely and writes on liturgy u particularly topics relating to liturgical language. She is the author of Liturgical Hermeneutics: interpreting Liturgical Rites in Performance and a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology.