Distinguished liturgical historian and theologian Frank Senn here ventures behind the liturgical screen, behind the texts, and behind the rubrics to reconstruct the everyday religious expression in Christian history. Senn's magisterial Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (1997) has been widely hailed not only for its comprehensive treatment of Christian liturgy in all ages and communions but also for its appreciation of the dynamic role of culture in shaping liturgical expression. In The People's Work , Senn delves further into the cultural home of liturgy, judiciously and insightfully looking at processions and pilgrimage, communion practices and spiritual reading, fasting and feasting--all the myriad liturgical practices that have been the concrete life and primary work of the body of Christ. "Thanks be to God! Senn has turned his encyclopedic mind and wit to the dynamic of God's people at worship, moving liturgical studies into the camp long inhabited by biblical studies, drawing on the social sciences and cultural anthropology. Weaving a prodigious witness from the cultural and socio-political forces impacting the worshiping community throughout Judeo- Christian history, Senn charts the lively, often elusive, but always creative interchange between the faith community and the world it is called to inhabit." --Robert D. Hawkins, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary "In using these fascinating studies to ask how, at certain periods and places, the enacted symbols of the Christian assembly have interacted with the surrounding social setting, Frank Senn surprises us with data and fresh points of view, makes informed guesses, entertains revisions of established theories, and gladly, asserts his own opinions. This is an important book. We have needed liturgical history to begin to do this work. Reading Senn will make us long for more." --Gordon W. Lathrop, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia "In using these fascinating studies to ask how, at certain periods and places, the enacted symbols of the Christian assembly have interacted with the surrounding social setting, Frank Senn surprises us with data and fresh points of view, makes informed guesses, entertains revisions of established theories, and gladly, asserts his own opinions. This is an important book. We have needed liturgical history to begin to do this work. Reading Senn will make us long for more." --Gordon W. Lathrop, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia Frank C. Senn is a retired Lutheran pastor and visiting professor. He is a past president the North American Academy of Liturgy. His previous books from Fortress Press include Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (1997), New Creation: A Liturgical Worldview (2000), The People's Work: A Social History of the Liturgy (2010), and Introduction to Christian Liturgy (2012).