Publications
D. N. Keane is writing a commentary on the 1662 Prayer Book with Samuel Fornecker for IVP Academic.
He wrote How to Use the Book of Common Prayer, a guide for new users, and edited the 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition, with Samuel L. Bray.
His other publications include academic articles, essays, poetry, prayers, and devotional texts, some of which may be found here.
On Seraphim — Spirit Fire Review, November 2024
A poem in blank verse.
Theology of the Book of Common Prayer — St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, August 2024
This article describes the doctrines that informed and are expressed by the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, focusing on the 1662 recension, which has been a primary vehicle for theological reflection and debate within the Church of England and Anglicanism more broadly. The article describes what the Book of Common Prayer teaches concerning the scripture, God, cosmology, anthropology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology across its several liturgies and other texts. Special attention is given to how the book was widely understood during the time of its promulgation, but later interpretations are also considered where appropriate.
James Ussher — Christianity and the Making of Irish Law: Violence, Virtue, and Reason (in the Routledge Law and Religion series), David McIlroy, ed.
In the seventeenth century, James Ussher was the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of the Church of Ireland. This chapter explores his justification of absolute monarchy, even as the tide was flowing toward a more assertive Parliament; his proposal for "reduced episcopacy," a form of conciliar ecclesiastical government; and his insistence that each national church have its own canon law. (Co-Authored with Samuel L. Bray)
Prayer Book or Instruction Book? — The Anglican Way, March 2024
While it is true that the Prayer Book contains more verbal instruction than the liturgy it replaced, the overall effect of this design does not sell the birthright of praying for the pottage of listening to instruction about prayer. It facilitated quite the opposite. It transformed the laity from viewers of liturgical action into active participants in the liturgy.
Liturgy is Serious Business — The Anglican Way, Jan. 2024
There’s nothing inherently valuable about archaic expressions. “Thou” is not better than “you”; “beginneth” isn’t superior to “begins.” But there are still good reasons for the tendency to be conservative about liturgical language. To start with, because God has revealed himself and taught us how to worship him, the church has tended to treasure biblical words rather than risk losing too much in translation. So, for example, Hebrew words like amen and alleluia were carried over into Greek liturgy, then into Latin, then into English.
Triggered by the Book — The Anglican Way, Jan. 2024
Both conformists and non-conformists wanted religion that hammered at hard hearts and comforted the heavy-laden, but non-conformists were convinced that reading the Prayer Book could do neither. By memorizing the liturgy and animating it with conviction and rhetorical sensitivity, Hacket showed his skeptical but zealous flock that the Prayer Book, used well, could do precisely that.
Worship in Scarred Spaces: Agonism in the Prayer Book and the Formation of the Anglican Identity — The Anglican Way, Dec. 2023
Like defaced images on surviving medieval rood screens, the Prayer Book contains traces of conflicts. This paper, argues that memory of conflict shapes identity.
A Biography as Dashing as its Subject: A Review of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022) — The Living Church, Oct. 2023
Readers will find Katherine Rundell’s Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne a stimulating and accessible account of his life that spurns any artificial separation between the poet and the divine, the swashbuckling Jack and the staid dean of St. Paul’s.
A Review of the 80th General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church — The Anglican Way vol. 2, no. 3, Sept. 2023
After being postponed for a year (in light of the risks posed by COVID-19), the 80th General Convention met with a substantially reduced number of deputies and other attendees from 8-11 July 2022 at the Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The compressed time-frame and limited numbers may have had an overall positive effect on the convention…
Seventy-three — The Chained Muse, Sept. 2023
A poem after C. P. Cavafy's "Η διορία του Νέρωνος (based upon an anecdote in Suetonius’s Life of Nero).
Cranmer’s Gospel Center: A Review of Worship by Faith Alone by Zac Hicks (IVP Academic, 2023) — The Living Church, May 2023
Worship by Faith Alone is a boon to liturgical scholars and practitioners alike, both within and beyond the Anglican fold. Many Anglican readers will find themselves reconsidering what they thought they knew about him. Hicks will introduce many non-Anglican evangelicals to a neglected reformer in whom they will find a kindred spirit and to liturgics literature they might have assumed had little relevance for them. All readers will find this volume deepens their engagement with the Book of Common Prayer.
Sunday Liturgy Without a Priest: Part II (Mattins & Antecommunion) — Covenant, March 2023
What is the best option for Sunday mornings for the increasing number of parishes without a priest? In the challenge lies an opportunity: to dig deeper into the resources of the prayer book, revitalize lay ministry, and increase our anticipation and preparation for the Eucharist.
Sunday Liturgy Without a Priest: Part I (Communion by Extension) — Covenant, March 2023
Many parishes in the Episcopal Church lack the full-time services of a presbyter, a situation likely to continue for the foreseeable future. What should these congregations do for Sunday services? The 1979 BCP provides three options, but are they all equally good? This series considers each in turn; part one considers communion by extension.
Reinvention or Reaffirmation? Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Restoration Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer — Ad Fontes, January 2023
A close look at the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Restoration revisions reveals not a story of continual reinvention but of continual return to a paradigm set in 1552.
What’s the Use? The Continuing Value of the Book of Common Prayer
The inaugural lecture of the newly formed University of St. Andrews Prayer Book Society, given at All Saints Church, St. Andrews, 2 December 2022.
The Prayer Book as a Constitutional Document — Covenant August 2022
Debate over General Convention 2022 Resolution A059 (Amend Article X of the Constitution of The Episcopal Church) has brought attention to a fundamental question for Episcopalians, namely, what is the Book of Common Prayer? It is often said that the prayer book is a “constitutional document,” but what precisely does that mean? The answer to that question is to be found in the prayer book itself as well as in the Constitution and Canons.
As Light Dissolves — North American Anglican, June 2022
A hymn inspired by I John 4: 7, ‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear’.
As light dissolves the shadow’s sway
So love drives out all fear.
The night retreats before the day,
As love turns hate to cheer. …
Imperial Index — Lighten Up Online, June 2022
A little light verse prompted by the Louvre’s discovery of a bronze finger (formerly misclassified as a toe) belonging to a statue of Constantine in Rome, to which the finger has now been restored.
‘Gathered’ in Cranmer’s Translation of a Prayer of Chrysostom — Notes & Queries, March 2022
Argues that Cranmer’s translation of συμφωνοῦσιν (sumphonousin, ‘agreed’) as ‘gathered’ in “A Prayer of Chrysostom” is not a mistake but reflects an astute reading of Matthew 18:19-20, on which the prayer is based. If the translation is not a mistake, then it cannot be used (as it has been) to determine which (if any) Latin translation Cranmer followed.
Advent Song — Earth&Altar, December 2021
A blank verse poem reflecting on the themes of Advent.
Coronavirus and Communion in One Kind — Covenant, November 2021
The current pandemic is far from the first time churches in the Anglican fold have faced outbreaks that disrupted regular church practice — indeed, the century after the promulgation of the Book of Common Prayer saw nearly annual plague outbreaks in London — but withholding the cup is a novel expedient. Considering this, the question naturally arises, how does this response line up with Anglican doctrine and discipline?
Prayer in Time of Plague — Covenant, August 2021
There is no prayer for pandemic in the current Prayer Book (1979), but earlier editions had one. How does that prayer conceptualize sickness and suffering, and what are we to make of that view now?
Top Ten Commentaries on the Book of Common Prayer — North American Anglican, August 2021
A brief review of ten significant commentaries on the Book of Common Prayer from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries.
The Very Picture of (Non-)Conformity(?) — The International John Bunyan Society, July 2021
This woodcut combines signals typically associated with conformity and non-conformity, and so resists easy classification. Its use in both Du Moulin’s work, which would have appealed more to non-conformists, and Eniautos, an explicitly conformist text, highlights the limited utility of tidy labels — both those that partisans hurled at each other in their struggles over the Established Church and those that later scholars apply in an effort to make sense of those conflicts and combatants. It serves as a reminder that conformity was always a moving target in relation to which individuals and communities had complex and variable relationships.
A Young Philosopher — North American Anglican, May 2021
A sonnet.
Someday, not too long from now — The Chained Muse, April 2021
When someday, not too long from now, the world
Is buried under webs of roads unfurled…
Third Sunday in Lent: “Go Forward, Christian Soldier” in Thriving on the Vine: Daily Reflections for Lent, pp. 46-7 — The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, March 2021
When the tempter challenged a starving Jesus to prove his divine sonship by turning stones to bread, his reply showed he was already feasting on God’s Word. He did not fast for fasting’s sake. Musicians don’t practice scales for the sake of scales, but to partake in the pleasure of beautiful music.
I thrust my hand beneath the faucet — Better Than Starbucks, February 2021
A bit of light verse based upon a true story.
“Dearly Beloved” — North American Anglican, February 2021
The liturgies for baptism contain the highest concentration of instances of the phrase “dearly beloved” in the Prayer Book, both with reference to Jesus and with reference to the congregation. This is almost certainly no accident.
Constitutional Confusion — Covenant, January 2021
The trial of Bishop Love reveals significant ambiguities in the Constitution of the US Episcopal Church that, if not addressed, will almost certainly result further future conflict.
Common Prayer: An Interview — Ad Fontes, Winter 2020
Ad Fontes is pleased to publish this interview with Samuel L. Bray and Drew N. Keane, conducted by editor-in-chief Onsi A. Kamel. Bray and Keane are the editors of a new edition of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer forthcoming from Intervarsity Press. The interview has been lightly edited for style and clarity.
The Relative Positions of the Presider, Table, and Assembly at Communion, Pt. III — The North American Anglican, December 2020
Given the fierce debate between ad orientem and versus populum, it seems worth asking if the now relatively obscure practice of presiding from the north side of the table presents a useful third alternative. I think it does. North side presidency combines some of the advantages of the other arrangements, while avoiding their potential difficulties.
When Jesus to the Temple Comes — Drew Morton Music, December 2020
A beautiful choral (SATB) setting of my hymn for the first Sunday of Advent by Andrew E. Morton.
The Relative Positions of the Presider, Table, and Assembly at Communion, Pt. II — The North American Anglican, November 2020
Praying ad orientem, facing the east, is a wide-spread, ancient, pre-Christian custom. The east, the direction of the rising sun, naturally inspires and expresses hope for the future. For ancient Christians, orientation (in the original sense, “towards the Orient”) also expressed expectation for the second advent of Christ, “the dayspring from on high.”
Dirt — The Chained Muse, October 2020
“Is it quite fair to say dirt's only brown?
Are there not other colors there? — Look down.”
The Relative Positions of the Presider, Table, and Assembly at Communion, Pt. I — The North American Anglican, October 2020
Three positions are known among Anglicans today: facing the people (versus populum), facing east (ad orientem), and standing at the north side of the table (ad septentrionale latus). Though these names focus on the placement of the priest, the overall effect of these three positions of the presider varies a great deal depending on where the table is placed and the people assemble within the worship space. I present each of the three positions on its own terms, briefly identifying its historical origins, and then identify the strengths and draw-backs of the position. Part I covers versus populum.
Confirmation in Classical Anglicanism — The North American Anglican, September 2020
The classical Anglican practice of confirmation and its place in the process of Christian initiation was sharply criticized by the twentieth century liturgical movement, calling it “a rite in search of a theology.” Many contemporary liturgical scholars would like to see it altogether eliminated, despite popular attachment to it. I argue that the rite not only has a theology, but a sound one presented in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Page from A book of Christian prayers, printed by John Day in London, 1578 (Dunfermline Carnegie Library, George Reid Collection, 25).
“Let me heare … if thou canst say”: The Utility of the Prayer Book Catechism (1549–1604) — Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, August 2020
Explores the catechism in the Book of Common Prayer, shedding light on the emergence of instructional writing from oral instruction. The 1549 text evinces qualities of preliterate oral communication; the 1604 addendum reveals a trend toward modern plain style, which is even more pronounced in the 1647 Westminster Shorter Catechism. The evidence indicates the oral features were useful to the text’s technical aims. What Ramist “plain style” gains in precision and objectivity comes at the cost of other useful features, such as reiteration, contextualization, and agonism, which (in Deborah Tannen's phrase) involve a greater relative focus on interpersonal involvement between speaker and auditor/reader.
Page from A book of Christian prayers, printed by John Day in London, 1578 (Dunfermline Carnegie Library, George Reid Collection, 25).
Draw Near — The North American Anglican, August 2020
An exploration of what the 1662 Prayer Book means by the words “draw near” in the Communion service.
The Bite — The North American Anglican, July 2020
A blank verse poem.
Anglican Orders of Ministry, Part II — The North American Anglican, July 2020
Explores the orders of deacon, presbyter, and bishop as defined by the Ordinal.
Anglican Orders of Ministry, Part I — The North American Anglican, June 2020
Explores the understanding of ordained Christian ministry articulated in the Anglican formularies.
The Strange Story of the Ornaments Rubric — The North American Anglican, May 2020
Perhaps the strangest element of the strange story of the ornaments rubric is that the interpretation of it continues to excite fierce debate today. Since the 1850s it has been a frequent site for battles over Anglican identity. I aim to clarify some points impeding current conversations on the early vestiarian controversy, which I hope will not only interest the curious but advance continuing dialogue on Anglican identity.
“Four Hundred Firefighters” and “The Bells” — Earth&Altar, May 2020
The first of these two poems was written in response to the burning of the Notre-Dame of Paris. The second was prompted by a comment on church-bells in Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude. While not written with the current pandemic and consequent social isolation in mind, both of them, to my mind, resonate with these unprecedented circumstances.
The Annual Cycles of Bible Reading in the Prayer Book, Pt. II — The North American Anglican, April 2020
The three annual cycles of bible reading in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer — the daily calendar, the Sunday lessons, and the Communion propers — provide three different means of “setting forth” the grand narrative of scripture. The cycles were designed to work together.
The Annual Cycles of Bible Reading in the Prayer Book, Pt. I — The North American Anglican, March 2020
We tend to think of the Book of Common Prayer as a collection of rituals, but its original preface presents it as a means for hearing the word of God.
"Today if ye will hear his voice”: The role of Psalm 95 in Mattins, Pt. II — Earth&Altar, March 2020
In his forty days in the wilderness, Christ was tempted by the world, the flesh, and the devil, but the Word of God prevailed. If today, in our temptations, we hear his voice and turn to him, we may rest in his victory.
"Today if ye will hear his voice”: The role of Psalm 95 in Mattins, Pt. I — Earth&Altar, March 2020
Why were the last four verses replaced in the first American Prayer Book and what is lost because of this?
Mascall on Justification — The North American Anglican, February 2020
Examines Mascall’s discussion of justification and “Protestantism” in chapter five of Christ, the Christian, and the Church in relation to Anglican formularies and the works of several early modern Protestant divines.
John Boys and the Tradition of Prayer Book Commentary — The North American Anglican, January 2020
It is generally thought that the earliest book-length Prayer Book commentaries are published in the Interregnum. This claim, however, seems to be mistaken. In 1609 John Boys (1571–1625; Dean of Canterbury from 1619) published the first of several book-length studies of the reformed English liturgy, placing the earliest publication of a book-length Prayer Book commentary back more than thirty years before the civil war.
Grey Stone — The Slumbering Host, edited by Clinton Collister and Daniel Rattelle (105 pages, Little Gidding Press, 2019)
A poem in heroic couplets reflecting on disenchantment.
Infant Baptism in the Anglican Formularies — The North American Anglican, December 2019
An exploration of how the Prayer Book, the Articles of Religion, and the 1604 addition to the Prayer Book Catechism handle the question of infant baptism.
Seabury and the Scottish Liturgy — The North American Anglican, Nov. 2019
On 14 November 1784, in the chapel in the upper room of a house in Long Acre, Aberdeen, Samuel Seabury of Connecticut received episcopal orders from three Scottish bishops. The next day they signed a Concordat establishing what we would now call a “full communion” relationship between the Scottish Episcopal Church and “the now rising Church in Connecticut.” To what (if anything) does that Concordat commit Anglicans in the United States today? What are the constitutive elements of the Scottish Communion Liturgy? And how does this bear on current conversations about common prayer?
What is an Evangelical? — The North American Anglican, Sept. and Oct. 2019
Some Anglicans see being Evangelical as a core component of their identity, while others as its very foil. These disparate responses raise the question, do they have the same thing in mind when they hear the word? In this two-part exploration of the meaning of the word, I identify seven different senses of the word.
Commandment Boards and Catechesis — The North American Anglican, August 2019
What was the rationale behind this design? Why did the commandments have such a prominent place in Anglican churches? Why were they placed above the holy table? This placement of “God’s Precepts” in church interiors directly reflects the place of the commandments in the Prayer Book.
Article XXVIII: Of the Lord’s Supper — Young People’s Theology, July 2019
Explores what the 39 Articles say about the Lord’s Supper in conversation with four classical Anglican divines. Rogers (1607) represents the Elizabethan era; Burnet (1699) and Beveridge (1716) are both post-Restoration but different parties — one Latitudinarian, Arminian, and Whig, the other high-church, Reformed, and a Tory; finally Browne (1860) represents the 19th Century after the Tractarian movement. A clear consensus emerges; though, none of these writers merely repeats a settled position. Each engages in original investigation of the scriptures and fathers (not as independent authorities, but as interpreters of scripture) in order to test the soundness and explore the meaning of the Article XXVIII.
Response to Jefferies: 1662 BCP a Norm for ACNA? — The North American Anglican, July 2019
On Beeson Divinity School’s Anglican podcast, Gerald McDermott recently interviewed Ben Jefferies, Secretary of the ACNA liturgical committee, regarding the ACNA’s 2019 Prayer Book. Listening to Jefferies discuss the ACNA 2019 prayer book leaves me only more confused regarding the relationship between this book and the 1662 Prayer Book.
“Take, Eat”: The Confusion of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament — Covenant, Feb. 2019
An exploration of why the historic Anglican formularies proscribe eucharistic adoration.
A Response to ACNA’s Proposed Prayer Book 2019 — Covenant, Sept. 2018
A brief survey of Morning Prayer, Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, and the lectionaries, noting (1) how this proposal follows the 1979 prayer book, (2) how this edition departs from 1979 by restoring elements from the old Prayer Book tradition, and (3) elements original to this proposed revision.
An Examination of the Book of Common Prayer as Technical Writing for an Oral-Aural Culture — Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 50: 1, pp. 3-34 (Online Sept. 2018; Print Jan. 2020)
Addressing limitations in the scholarship on the Edwardian editions of the Book of Common Prayer (1549 and 1552) and contributing to the growing body of research on early modern technical communication, this paper approaches the Prayer Book as technical writing for a primarily oral-aural culture.
What to Call the Priest? — Covenant, August 2018
The question of what to call the minister can be confusing. I explore options that are commonly heard today: Father/Mother, Reverend, and Pastor and commend the use of Pastor as the most reflective of the descriptions of the presbyter found in the New Testament and the Ordinal.
The 1979 Prayer Book's Worthy Heritage — Covenant, July 2018
A response to hearings at the 2018 General Convention of the Episcopal Church on the use of generded language for God.
A Reconsideration of the Continued Practice of Confirmation in the Episcopal Church — Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2018
Many Episcopal liturgists argue for the elimination of confirmation. This essay explores the reformed rite of confirmation, the doctrine of the Book of Common Prayer (1979), and considers objections to the rite involving its relationship to the sacraments of baptism and communion. I argue that it is a nuanced application of the New Testament’s teaching on baptism to a context in which infant baptism is normative. The supposed redundancy and theological untidiness of confirmation prove, in fact, to be its strength.
One Year with the 1928 Lectionary — Covenant, Dec. 2017
The traditional lectionary provides continuity with the Church in ages past, even in her music, that I did not expect to find. The more time I have spent with the old lectionary, the more I have come to love it. With all of these potential advantages in mind, I think the old lectionary is worthy of new consideration.