Canon Law in Action by Brendan Daly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Month: October 2015
Review: The Worshipping Body: The Art of Leading Worship
The Worshiping Body: The Art of Leading Worship by Kimberly Bracken Long
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While many theologians and liturgists are readily able to acknowledge the Church as the Body of Christ, the implications for this for embodied worship – and embodied presiding in this particular case – are not so readily understood or commented upon.
This book, by Kimberly Bracken Long, looks at the many and varied ways in which the one who presides at worship (or liturgy or whatever other names one gives to the gathering of Christian on Sundays) must use various parts of their body, and the way in which those bodies are used, in order to given expression to the Body of Christ.
Although written from a Reformed Christian perspective and, therefore, needing to be interpreted according to one’s own particular Christian tradition, this book provides much to be thought about by the practitioner of presiding, both in the theology that underpins it and the art of the practice itself.
This book is well worth reading for anyone who from time to time, or regularly, presides over the Christian Assembly as a means of ensuring that what they do and what it signifies is what they intended in the first place.
Review: After Emmaus: Biblical Models for the New Evangelisation
After Emmaus: Biblical Models for the New Evangelization by Marcel Dumais
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was both disturbed and encouraged by this book, a book which focuses on five biblical models of evangelisation. I was disturbed because this book, and the models therein, challenged the normal way of thinking about the nature and methodology of how the Church, and its members, goes about the task of evangelisation. I was encouraged because the models that Dumais puts forward make eminent sense.
At the heart of the models of evangelisation lies the very person of Jesus. The task of those called to evangelise is not to impart doctrine and practice but to introduce people to the very person of Jesus himself. The teaching of doctrine etc belongs not to evangelisation but to catechesis, which presupposes the relationship of faith that is the object of evangelisation.
For those with even a passing interest in the ‘new evangelisation’ – and that really should be every Christian! – this book is must read. It offers a chance to revisit the fundamentals: the task of evangelisation and some models, drawn from the Scriptures themselves, as to how we might go about that task.
Very highly recommended.
Review: Ancient Christian Worship: Early Church Practices in Social, Historical, and Theological Perspective
Review: Holy Conversation: Spirituality for Worship
Holy Conversation: Spirituality for Worship by Jonathan Linman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Although I have been a long time practitioner of the Benedictine practice of lectio divina I have never thought of adapting practice to the liturgical experience. Yet this is exactly what Jonathan Linman has done in this book.
I have to confess that I found this book enticing. The way in which Linman has approached the liturgical experience through the lens of lectio divina is particularly encouraging, particularly in light of an existing interest on the part of the reader in mystagogy. Allowing for an understanding of liturgical structure that comes from his own experience and tradition – which would require some adjustment to the interpretations that Linman for those who come from differing traditions – Linman offers a reading of the movement of the Spirit during the celebration of the liturgy.
I enjoyed reading this and the practice that Linman lays out for the person who engages in the liturgical experience – whatever Christian tradition they come from.
