What We Have Done, What We Have Failed to Do by Kevin Irwin

Abstract

214 Antiphon 18.2 (2014) Chapters 11–13 are a lucid and helpful presentation of how Catholics read and interpret Scripture. Much of what is found here is, unsurprisingly, what is found in Dei Verbum, arguably the most important document of Second Vatican Council. But Hahn presents it in a way that makes it less a system of techniques or a methodology and much more the natural flowering of what he has established in his earlier chapters. How one reads (or, as he notes, hears – for the first millennium and half of its life, the Church encountered the Scriptures not as text to be pored over in a library or private study, but as a text encountered aurally in the context of liturgy and sacrament) the Scriptures is rooted in the living relationship with Christ risen and glorified and encountered in and through his Body, the Church as it engages in its most fundamental and defining act: the worship of God in Christ. For a lengthy account of the historical and philosophical reasons why this is no longer the predominant way that Scripture is read (what he terms its “secularization”), one can now consult Hahn’s latest volume, co-authored with B. Wiker, Politicizing the Bible: The Roots of Historical Criticism and the Secularization of Scripture 1300–1700 (2013). This is a wonderful book and an easy read. It would be most appropriate for use in RCIA, adult faith formation, and even high school catechesis. Hahn provides an orientation to the properly liturgical nature and context of God’s Word, a Word made flesh in Jesus, who continues to feed his people in both Scripture and sacrament. Michael Heintz University of Notre Dame South Bend, Indiana Kevin Irwin What We Have Done, What We Have Failed to Do New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2013 264 pages. Paperback $24.95. One time at a national liturgical conference I was approached by someone who asked whether I was a liberal or conservative. I had the presence of mind to do something I do more rarely than I care to admit: I asked him what he meant. He replied, “You know, liberal , like putting goldfish in the font for ecology Sunday.” Msgr. 215 Book review Irwin has chosen a title for his book that invites us to that same presence of mind. “What We Have Done.” Is it a liberal book? Is he going to celebrate turning the altar, the vernacular, lay liturgical ministers, and full, conscious and active participation? “What We Have Failed to Do.” Is it a conservative book? Is he going to urge greater reverence, familiarity with Latin, chant, more dignified translation? His own answer is to say that “the purpose of this modest book is to shed some light on, and to invite discussion about, the experience in which Catholics have been engaged since the Second Vatican Council in implementing and praying the liturgy as reformed after the Council… [T]he intended tone here is meant to be reverential yet not uncritical of what has been done to implement the reformed rites” (2). I began with my goldfish story because I imagine that even after a day of posturing by the left and the right, in the evening, over drinks, they would discover neither approve of goldfish in the baptismal font. There would be a common ground, even if it was for different reasons. The trick is to find it. Suppose you were in a quiet conversation about the state of liturgy today, and its challenges, would you be willing to broadcast the full range of your thoughts on the liturgical reform, both positive and negative ? This is the act of nerve that Irwin makes, intending this book less for academics and more for the informed Catholic participant and minister of the liturgy. It is neither a how-to book, he says, nor a speculative treatise; rather he envisions it being used at study days or renewal programs, convocations, in-service days, and courses in pastoral liturgy. The Introduction contains a working definition of liturgy a full page in length in order to do justice to the complexity of the mystery. It then proceeds to ask twenty startup questions. I...