Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives by Alcuin Reid

Abstract

Reviewed by: Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives by Alcuin Reid David Fagerberg Alcuin Reid, ed. Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016 xxvi + 368 pages. Paperback. $24.95. I am swimming upstream in my acquaintanceship with members of the Sacra Liturgia community. I said “up,” not “against”—it is a statement of chronology. I was honored to be invited to present a paper at their third conference in London 2016; this book contains the talks presented at their second conference in New York 2015; and upon completing it I promptly ordered the proceedings of the first conference in Rome 2013 (Sacred Liturgy: The Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church) so that I could explore the headwaters. Based on my two-thirds intelligence, I deduce that under the leadership of Alcuin Reid and Uwe Michael Lang they are opening a new chapter in the ongoing discussion about what happened in the liturgical movement of, say, the past 100 years. I do not need to point out to a general readership that Sacra Liturgia is a conservative body; I do not need to point out to Antiphon’s readership that this is not an automatically disqualifying remark. If something is called conservative—a movement or an outlook or a collection of essays—the appropriate questions to ask are “What does it want to conserve?” and “Why does it feel this thing is worth preserving?” and “What will it profit us to safeguard this thing?” For a while, and in some cases, liturgical conservatism had seemed to stammer instead of argue, because it was nagging about a narrative someone else was setting. It had seemed parasitic in the sense of doing little more than offer a negation: “not this; not that; no, not that way.” This collection of essays feels different. They propose, they do not merely oppose. They remind, they do not primarily reprimand. They seek to find the substance undergirding the liturgy, a substance that shows stability. I think that a review of a monograph can speak more generally because the review is revealing a single mind, but a review of a [End Page 84] collection of essays must speak more specifically in order to give the reader a survey of the contents. Let me try. Cardinal Burke speaks of beauty as a metaphysical and theological notion manifesting in sacred art and liturgy and holy lives; Thomas Kocik suggests we not ask if the liturgical reform was too hasty but rather whether it occurred in substantial continuity, bringing his formidable knowledge of detail to bear; Lauren Pristas reviews what has been a major project (and book) for her, namely, an examination of the treatment of the Roman collects received, complete with comparative columns; Margaret Hughes channels Josef Pieper to give a Thomistic base for beauty and leisure (freedom from effort, ease) that treats the reader to a brilliant description of contemplation, joy, objective good, and a liturgical aesthetic; Jennifer Donelson asks the provocative question whether good intention can overcome bad taste when the last four centuries have stood in such deep iconoclasm; Gregory Glenn gives a detailed explanation of why a choir school succeeded at the Cathedral in Salt Lake City; Archbishop Cordileone provides a bishop’s perspective on liturgy in a secular society where the sacramental principle must be recovered anew; Matthew Menendez describes the resistance he and other young Catholics faced in trying to celebrate the traditional mass; Allan White focuses upon the liturgy of the word by tracing the recovery of homily as mediation and proclamation; Kurt Belsole brings his experience with seminarians to talk about the formation of priests in the spirit and power of the liturgy; Richard Cipolla continues the theme of liturgy as a source of priestly identity, observing causes of our current crisis of identity; Alcuin Reid’s own contribution summarizes work he has been doing on the holy week reforms of Pius XII; Christopher Smith identifies trends in Catholic identity and asks if the reforms have produced vibrant faith and practice; peter Kwasniewski asks questions about the reformed lectionary, from what was omitted...