“I warmed to the practical, pastoral tone I read as early as the second page of text: ‘A fully sung liturgy is a praiseworthy ideal, but its implementation calls for prudence and pastoral sensitivity. The chants of the liturgy are sung when it is possible in a given pastoral situation, when the participants are blessed with the resources to do so well, and when it is judged that this will truly glorify God and sanctify the worshippers.’” – John Ainslie
Archive for category Recently Published Books
I think it will become the text on the subject.
I have read with pure delight Neil Xavier O’Donoghue’s groundbreaking and magnificently “holistic” The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland… He models for all students of liturgical studies the integration of textual and non-textual data called for in “holistic” liturgical studies.
The Sounds of our Offerings: Achieving Excellence in Church Music has just been published by the Alban Institute in cooperation with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. The work details a research project involving nine congregations: three Catholic, three Episcopal, and three Presbyterian, located in the Northwest, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast of the United States.
Pray Tell reader Jordan Zarembo reviews Kim Bowes’ work Private worship, public values, and religious change in late antiquity and finds similar tensions in the present-day church and the church of fourth-century Rome.
A prominent sociologist, Mark Chaves says “All things considered, Americans’ religious involvement is softening.” His new book American Religion: Contemporary Trends is reviewed by Pray Tell reader Jack Rakosky.
Ignatius Press has just published a third (!) edition of A Bitter Trial, correspondence between Evelyn Waugh and Cardinal Heenan in the years from 1962 till Waugh’s death in 1966.
How many heads did Saint John the Baptist have? And whatever happened to the eye of Saint Edward Oldcorne?
The Worship Mall
Oct 23
I was first drawn to Bryan Spinks’ book The Worship Mall because I’ve been wrestling with the reality that so many of my friends and family have either left the Catholic Church or stopped attending any religious service. I have been trying to understand their decision.
Christian churches have a vast penumbra of marginal members who remain unaware—or unconvinced—that Sunday worship is a fruitful use of their time. How can it be presented so that it appears in its proper aspect, as a genuine priority in life?