Bede And the Psalter

by Benedicta Ward

The Psalter has always held a central place in Christian worship, and most especially in the monastic tradition. Sister Benedicta shows how the Venerable Bede made an innovative contribution to the devotional use of the psalms with his ‘Abbreviated Psalter’ (included in her text). Bede knew the psalms not only as a monk, but also as scholar and historian, and he was concerned with the application of the psalms to the whole range of human experience. Through his use of the psalms, he helps us to express our own inarticulate experiences and to discover that hope which is beyond our understanding.

Genres: Theology

46 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Benedicta Ward, SLG was a British Anglican nun, theologian, and historian who specialized in early Christian spirituality and medieval theology. She was a lifelong member of the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God at Fairacres in Oxford.

Ward is best known for popularizing the Apophthegmata Patrum through her translation, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, alongside major contributions to the study of St. Anselm of Canterbury, the Venerable Bede, and medieval miracles, including The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm and Miracles and the Medieval Mind.

Reviews

[antony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unknown to many, Bede plays a pivotal role in the democratisation of prayer. According to the author Bede is the first to produce a volume of selections from the Psalter designed with the intention that it be read and prayed by other than Monks, Nuns and Priests.

This book is written like a fresh wave of perfumed incense wafting across Bede’s life, from before his birth and to the point her made what seems to be small actions for a man, that changed the way prayer was understood and undertaken in the community.

Not only that he wrote a history of England that gives insight into a time and people for who little other substantive record exists.

But wait there’s more. After you have been inculcated with the story of Bede and his Abbreviated Psalter you find the whole thing is reproduced in the book. Happy Days.