This is a study of one of the most extraordinary religious phenomena of the last thirty years. The disappearance of the Tridentine Mass and the unrelenting assault on the Book of Common Prayer have created widespread hostility and a substantial loss of church membership. An informed and well-researched survey of this diverse and burgeoning movement is timely and will be of considerable interest to church people throughout the world. The topic also has linguistic and sociological implications, and relevance to liturgiology, theology, Church history and literary criticism. Barry Spurr's book...

This is a fascinating literary-critical study of the ways the Virgin Mary has been presented in English poetry, from the later Middle Ages to today. Ranging across a vast variety of approaches to this timeless topic, Spurr shows how poets have spoken of their own beliefs and preoccupations (and of their cultures and their historical periods) in giving poetic expression to the most famous woman in history. Spurr's ground-breaking account is a 'must read' for anyone interested in the history of poetry, of religious verse and of representations of the eternal feminine in literature.