Philosophy, Implicature and Liturgy

Abstract

The Lesser Doxology provides an important touchstone for Christian worship. Its scriptural basis lies in a conflation of the ascription of worth to (worship of) God and the Lamb in the Book of Revelation 5 (and analogous ascriptions of praise at the close of several of St Paul’s Epistles) with the Trinitarian formula of Our Lord’s final charge to his disciples recorded in St Matthew’s Gospel. Its regular use goes right back to the early Church. As far as the contemporary Church is concerned, the essay on ‘Theology of Worship’ in one of the best known recent ecumenical works in English on liturgy, The Study of Liturgy, points out that ‘almost all collects begin with an ascription of praise to the Father, make petition through the Son and conclude with a mention of the Holy Spirit’, maintaining that these phrases, together with the Doxology which concludes the Eucharistic prayer, serve to ‘remind us that the aim of the whole liturgy is entrance into communion with God, a communion in the divine life and love that constitute the Trinity’.¹

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.

Alternatively,

Glory to the Father and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginnign, is now: and shall be for ever.