In this study of the Christian Sanctus and the Jewish Qedussah, Sebastian Selvén presents us with a ‘reception’ study of the two liturgical texts, discussing how each was read and heard in history, music and literature. He reminds his readers that the Hebrew Bible itself is a liturgical text, and the Masoretic text is cantillated in its entirety. A biblical scholar cannot get away from the fact that the liturgical instructions of qere and ketiv, for example, are written in the manuscripts themselves. Selvén's assumption underlying the study is that reading (singing also?) is a process undergoing constant mutation, and that our academic ways of reading are themselves part of the reception of the text and not a meta-operation taking place above it. Selvén notes that he is not undertaking a comprehensive survey, but has selected certain traditions to highlight the reception – Jewish Synagogue use, the medieval Roman mass, the Church of England's Book of Common Payer and the Swedish Lutheran rite. This selection allows for a more sustained consideration of each of these traditions than was possible in my own 1991 study of the Sanctus with its fuller diachronic and synchronic foci.

Selvén's consideration of Jewish liturgical use is an excellent, up-to-date survey; he notes how the actual incorporation and understanding of the Qedussah differs between Qedussah de yotzer and Qedussah de amidah (less attention is given to the Qedussah de sidra) and these are juxtaposed with some prefaces from Christian eucharistic prayers. The study then develops into a prolonged investigation of the identity of the seraphim and the various classes of the angelic host, noting the ‘demythologising’ or lack of interest in them in the Anglican Prayer Book tradition. Further chapters explore how Isaiah vi.3 functions in the liturgy as hymning the eternal Father, and as God approached – coming into the divine presence. In hymning God, Selvén considers the ‘risky’ business of joining with or reciting the heavenly Qedussah, where there is awe and trembling, and the fiery nature of celestial beings. In the Christian traditions, the Trinitarian and Christological presuppositions are discussed. Selvén also argues that there is a shift away from God's presence on earth to the presence of the worshipper being lifted to heaven to join the celestial liturgy. In the concluding chapter, Selvén emphasises that his work is about ritual reception, and that liturgy changes our sense of what is liturgical, liturgy changes how texts interact and liturgy changes the biblical text itself. A second theme is how liturgical intertexts determine biblical reading (the identity of the seraphim is the paradigm in the study), and a reminder that the line between the ‘original’ understanding and our reception is blurred.

Selvén makes some excellent observations. The strengths of the study are its discussion of the Jewish understandings of the Qedussah and God, and the Swedish Lutheran tradition. One missed opportunity is that much is made of the Pseudo-Dionysius’ The celestial hierarchy, and its influence on Christian liturgy. The problem here is that in the pre-Reformation Christian tradition chosen – the Roman – it is nigh-on impossible to show any direct influence on the liturgical text. A much better and useful tradition here would have been the Syrian Orthodox tradition (and Pseudo-Dionysius was, we now know, a miaphysite) where several of the eighty-plus anaphoras show clear signs of the influence of The celestial hierarchy and Merkavah mysticism. The Roman rite is more restrained.

My main frustration with the book is that on the one hand the historical context and background is played down in the body of the book, but the endnotes themselves form a second book where there is copious historical discussion upon which the main body of the work rests. A vast number of the endnotes are not simply a bibliographical reference, but several paragraphs of discussion. This does not make the book easy reading, and the publisher should have insisted that these lengthy discussions be incorporated into the text.