Worship as a Revelation: The Past Present and Future of Catholic Liturgy

by Laurence Paul Hemming

The publication by Benedict XVI of the motu proprio has put the question of the historyand meaning of the liturgy back into centre stage, not just for catholics but for many other christians as well. Dr. Hemming seeks to provide an intelligent background to the Pope's decision, addressing himself to a number of questions about the nature and character of catholic worship that opens a much wider historical discussion which will inform and persuade a wide audience.

The chapter on liturgy and revelation is the turning point in the book and shows how an understanding of time that is presumed in all modern philosophical thought, is challenged by the understanding of divine self-revelation. This then forces us to ask what our relation to liturgical events are and how we experience them. Hemming advocates a `high` theology of the liturgy with the profoundest understanding of the spiritual and the enigma of faith. How will Christian worship change now, asks the author in his concluding chapter? He offers a sketch of what may happen in the coming decades, long after the Papacy of Benedict XVI.

Genres: Theology

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2008

Reviews

[Lucas Sipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work deserves a review but I cannot bring myself to write one. It has brought profound respect and love for the traditional Roman liturgy but also brought about many questions I have been avoiding in fear of the answers. Anyone interested in the Roman Catholic Liturgical wars or movements ought to read this text. Many will discard it because of the Heideggerian/ modern influences but it is by far the single best account of liturgy I have read. Nothing about the text will make you hopeful, per se, about the situation but it offers a way to understand the liturgy in a rich, powerful way as opposed to the sterile path so common in more mainstream circles.

After some reflection, one striking aspect of this work is the importance it stresses for liturgy as such. Not merely as a way to have the Eucharist or some other sacrament but the liturgy is like a sacrament. It, as itself, signifies so much for us. Treating it as a mere discipline, something to be altered for current needs, is debasing something so necessary for our lives as Catholics.