Abstract
For those who teach liturgical history to people preparing for ordained and lay leadership in the churches, it has been difficult in recent years to find a single textbook for course usage. Some of the older choices were dry, were not really oriented to liturgical leadership, and they are now out of date in many details. There are now some fine collections of primary sources, like Max Johnson's Sacraments and Worship (Westminster John Knox, 2012), and one or two good secondary texts of description and analysis, but it would be to our benefit to expand the options for the latter. Foundations of Worship aims to do just that. In fact, it is a book useful not only to those preparing for leadership but those already in that position, who would welcome shining the light of history on current discussions of liturgical review and revision, and even catechesis in some contexts. The text is part of a Worship Foundations textbook series published by Baker Academic, and Melanie Ross and Mark Lamport identify nicely the themes that unite the book's essays: (1) caution about imagining an earlier “golden age” of liturgy that is binding on us, but also (2) encouragement to learn from those who have gone before; (3) a welcome reminder that all liturgical worship occurs in a social and cultural context and is in dialogue with it; and (4) readiness to be surprised by the historical developments that may challenge the status quo (xi–xii).
The book includes a fresh presentation of Nicholas Wolterstorff's illuminating analysis of the nature of worship as scripted performance in line with some of his earlier work (see, e.g., Acting Liturgically, Oxford, 2018). John Witvliet's introduction to the volume is nothing short of eloquent in presenting the study of the pluriformity of historical Christian worship as pilgrimage, as an act of respect and communion: it is an opportunity to love and learn from our siblings in other times and traditions, and to let this history teach us the many ways in which we can “behold the goodness and glory of the Triune God” (xxiii).
The 18 chapters of the book cover the “Common Roots” of Christian worship in baptism, eucharist, and the ordering of time through the ages (part I); the development of worship in the early and late antique periods (part II); and then liturgical development in particular communions: the Orthodox (part III) and Roman Catholic (part IV), and the various churches descending in some way from the Protestant reformation (part V). The chapters are written by a fine collection of scholars with significant qualifications and, in some cases, long years of labor in the fields relevant to their chapters.
Of course no book can achieve all aims at once, and while 294 pages is a sturdy tome, it offers barely enough length for so many topics. The section on Protestant worship necessitates eight chapters of about fifteen pages each, give or take a few, to cover everything from Lutheran to Pentecostal developments. Others of similar length deal with an impossibly complex topic like the historical development of a particular rite over the better part of Christian history. I do not intend these comments so much as criticism of the book, which is rich in learnings, as of the genre itself: the longer a liturgical history gets the more complete it can be, but the less usable. But in fairness, this sort of text is best deployed in tandem with lectures and investigations into primary materials in which texture and detail can be explored more closely. And usability is certainly a primary aim here: every chapter includes helpful practical implications for liturgical theology, practice, revision, and critique.
All in all, I would recommend this book as a fine option for a secondary resource in liturgical history to be coupled with further lecture, teaching, and catechesis, in tandem with careful inquiry into primary texts.