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edited by Lukas Vischer Eerdmans, 2003 432 pp.; $45 |
Third in a series sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, this volume (the fruit of an international conference) draws together an impressive roster of liturgical scholars in order to understand both the origins and future of Reformed/Presbyterian worship. Rare among edited collections, this volume reads smoothly as a unified book. Editor Lukas Vischer, long recognized as a senior scholar on ecumenism and worship (he was director of the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission), and series editor John D. Witvliet must be congratulated for having organized and supervised the transitions between such a varied team of specialists. This work is distinguished also in that it brings together the past ("Reformed") and present ("always reforming") impulses inherent in the tradition without privileging one over the other. In this way, it provides a model for transcending polarizing tendencies that often generate more heat than light.
Leading off the historical survey, distinguished Calvin scholar Elsie Anne McKee rises to the daunting challenge of providing a summary that includes the background and development of a general Reformed consensus, turning to more specific traditions (Zwinglian and Calvinist) and exploring their commonalities as well as, in some cases, rather remarkable contrasts. While the Calvinist expression finally came to dominate the confessional and liturgical forms, Zwinglian elements have never been wholly absent as a more radical critique of medieval worship. Professor McKee notes, for example, Calvin's greater appreciation for the sacraments alongside the preached Word, and therefore the frequent (weekly, in Calvin's best-case scenario) celebration of the Supper.
Swiss pastor and liturgical scholar Bruno Bürki takes the survey into the 17th century, concentrating on developments on the European continent. Especially useful in providing a brief account of crucial trends, individuals, and texts that are largely unavailable in English, this chapter spans the period of orthodoxy, pietism and the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the liturgical movement, Barth, and post-World War II liturgical efforts. Included are numerous references to specific worship books that have emerged within various European Reformed churches. Like many of the contributors, Bürki assesses the current state of Reformed practice as one of considerable confusion and advocates a recovery of Calvin's liturgical impulses.
Those unfamiliar with Yale liturgical scholar Bryan Spinks' remarkable contributions to this field have a treat in store for them. Spinks' chapter on the particular circumstances coloring Puritan-Presbyterian (and Congregationalist) suspicions of established liturgical forms is an admirable summary. He rightly notes the political context in which conformist Puritans increasingly gave way to nonconformity (both in England and Scotland, especially after the Restoration) in refusing episcopacy and the Prayer Book by government fiat. Yet this antipathy fueled suspicions even of Knox's Book of Common Order and the even less formal Westminster Directory. Spinks also notes the mid-19th century's retrieval of liturgical forms in the Church of Scotland "that drew on the classical and Reformed traditions of worship."
British Congregationalist Alan P. F. Sell provides a useful background summary of Congregationalism in Britain and the United States, noting its more radical understanding of the priesthood of all believers and a 19th-century ambivalence about the nature and significance of the sacraments. This eventually gave way to the "Genevan party," which introduced Continental liturgical reforms and with them a heightened appreciation for the sacraments.
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