'In liturgical study, and especially in English liturgical study, the subject of the daily office has always been something of the poor relation', writes the author in his preface. This volume aims to do something to fill that gap. It begins with a detailed examination of the Jewish background and of the practice of daily prayer in the first three centuries of the Church, and goes on to trace the evolution of the divine office in both its monastic and secular forms in East and West down to the time of St. Benedict. Intended as a replacement for The Influence of the Synagogue upon the Divine Office by C. W. Dugmore (Alcuin Club Collection No. 45), it not only incorporates the results of recent research by continental scholars and others but also challenges traditional assumptions at a number of important points, offering a fresh interpretation of the evidence. The Rev. Dr. Paul F. Bradshaw is Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame. He has written or edited over twenty books and composed more than ninety essays and articles in the field of liturgical studies, among them THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, which has gone through two editions since it was first published in 1992 and has been translated into four languages.