History of Liturgy

Helpful essay on historiography/liturgical history. From the essay's conclusion:

The point of this tour through liturgical historiography is to demonstrate that what many people typically mean when they speak of the liturgy of “the early church” is actually a historically-contingent sample from a span of about four or five hundred years, beginning with, rather than climaxing in, the fourth century. This sort of observation does not tell us whether a certain liturgical form is good or bad, nor even better or worse, but what it does do is place the entire discussion firmly in the realm of human law, tentative investigation, and, thus eventually, prudential application.

As the saying goes: In Essentials Unity - In Non-Essentials Liberty - In All Things Charity.