My copy of Ancient-Future Time was given to me by Lyndon Sulzberger, Rector of Christ Church, North Adelaide. I think Lyndon was politely trying to suggest my education in matters such as the ecclesiastical calendar is somewhat lacking!
Robert E. Webber (who died in 2007) was Emeritus Professor of Theology at Wheaton College and seems to have been motivated in his writing by the conviction that contemporary Evangelicalism is impoverished due to its insufficient rooting in early Christian traditions. Indeed, it was this conviction that led him to take part in issuing “The Chicago Call” in 1977 stating that evangelicals had lost touch with church’s liturgical roots. Here he seeks to take Christian spirituality back to its origins in Jewish spirituality which he feels will enrich the life of the modern Christian; “For the Jew to commemorate the past is not merely to recall it as a past event but to commemorate it in such a way that it gives the present new meaning.” The book is therefore a call to what Webber calls “Christian-year” spirituality, where God’s saving action is presented to us time and time again through the practices of the Christian year celebrated by the church in its first centuries; in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. The discussion of each of these historical events concludes with a prayer from one of the Church Fathers or the Book of Common Prayer.