The Cambridge Companion to Christian Liturgy
Edited by Joris Geldhof
Cambridge, 426 pages, $39
With ever-increasing specialization, edited handbooks and companions with contributions from various specialists are the order of the day. Joris Geldhof has gathered a group of specialists to deliver such a book on Christian liturgy. The multiple dimensions of the subject are usefully arranged in five sections: Liturgy Throughout the Ages; The Celebration of the Liturgy; Liturgy and the Arts; Liturgy and the Life of the Churches; and The Study of Liturgy. All this is very helpful.
However, although many individual essays of the contributors are excellent, as a collection, this book fails on many levels.
In the historical section, the early period is outlined by Harald Buchinger. Unlike other essays in the collection that have copious footnotes, this essay has only a few, indicating primary sources. Those who know the author will suspect that something went awry in editing. Buchinger normally gives a wealth of references to secondary literature, as well as to the primary sources.
The very reverse is true of Maryann Madhavathu’s essay on the liturgical year, which is a masterful digest of secondary works, but with no useful citations of primary sources, and although the essay includes descriptions of Eastern calendars, there is no mention of the fascinating Ethiopian liturgical year.
In the historical section, Geldof, whose strength is in liturgical theology rather than history, covers the medieval period. Here, too much space is taken up with cultural and political brush strokes and not enough given to the liturgical books and rites, and it is limited to the West. The silence here on the East is indicative of the Achilles’ heel of this collection: It is predominantly focused on the West, and on Roman Catholic rites.
This is epitomized by Patrick Prétot’s essay on the Eucharist, most of the essays on sacraments and the Liturgical Movement, and that on pastoral liturgy. There is a brilliant essay by Stefanos Alexopoulos on the Eastern rites, but it finds very little support in the other essays and thus stands alone as a “token” contribution.
The same is true of Reformation rites, with contributions by Jan Schnell and Melanie Ross. Schnell’s essay covers some major players such as Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Cranmer, but there is no concern with the wider Lutheran reforms, scant attention to Martin Bucer, and no mention of Johannes Oecolampadius, William Farel, Zacharias Ursinus, Jan Łaski, and Peter Datheen, all of whom are also important in this formative period.
Melanie Ross does a great job with covering some of the Protestant also rans, such as Anabaptism, Methodism, Pentecostalism, and Quakerism. Balanced and thoughtful essays on language by Bridget Nichols and on liturgical texts by Juliette Day are noteworthy for scholars and students alike; and the essay on the Hours, even though mainly Western and Roman, is also a very helpful and comprehensive overview.
It remains a puzzle why such younger scholars in Eastern rites such as Arsenius Mikhail (Coptic), Arman Shokhikyan (Armenian), Ephrem Ishac (Syrian Orthodox), Awa Royel (Church of the East), Mebratu Kiros Gebru (Ethiopian), and Kazimierz Bem (Reformed) were not invited to contribute. It is also a mystery why one of the many eminent younger historians of the Western medieval rite was not invited to contribute the historical essay in that section.
Those who teach liturgy will find some essays in this collection helpful for students, but they will need to be discerning in their selection, and I doubt that this book on its own will serve well those who come new to the subject. The collection would have been better titled The Cambridge Companion to (Mostly) Roman Catholic Liturgy, and because of the lacunae, it is a companion in dire need of a companion.
Bryan D. Spinks is Bishop F. Percy Goddard Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology at Yale Divinity School, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.
