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Reformed Worship
This book offers a discussion of the Reformed worship tradition, its history, theology, and rationale. The authors discuss the characteristics of Reformed worship and focus on theology and the practice of the sacraments and ordinances of the church. They provide concrete suggestions as to how this tradition can be the basis of meaningful worship in American congregations today.
248 pages, Paperback
First published April 16, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 19, 2017
Readers should be aware that the author is from the liberal PCUSA denomination. He seeks to tell his version of the history of Christian worship from the apostles down to today. "...this book sets out to explain the history of the Reformed liturgical tradition and apply it to the actual setting of worship in congregational life." (xi)
Unfortunately, this is a work of unsubstantiated claims and is NOT a scholarly or reputable work and as such, lacks proof/evidence/footnotes/quotes to back up the author's claims. When telling his story of Christian worship from the apostles to the Reformation (Chapter 2), he ONLY lists 4 footnotes from 3 sources and only 1 source is a primary source from Irenaeus. Within the chapter itself, he claims certain early church fathers wrote certain things but he rarely backs these claims up with adequate quotes or even the name of the work. Basically, the entire chapter is opinion with little evidence that anything the author claims is true. Statements about females being pushed out of positions of authority (pg 16); early use of hymns (pg 15) are all unsubstantiated claims.
Additionally, his entire summary from the early church fathers to the Reformation is summarized on pgs 16-20. That's 1500 years of church history described on 4 pages. Clement, Pliny, Ignatius, Didache, Justin, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Constantine, Ambrose, Augustine, Cyril of Jerusalem are all basically only mentioned in passing. What about Eusebius, Basil the Great, Chrysostom and a ton of other well-known theologians? Rice simply skips them all. He skips all the early liturgies and emphasis on psalms and writings against use of musical instruments. Augustine and Cyril from the 4th century are the last names he mentioned. Rice does not mention any theologian from the 5th to the 15th centuries. That's basically 1000 years of skipped history. Shockingly, he even skipped Aquinas. Instead, he states the West clung to Latin, the East used the language of the people and the Mass developed, with the Supper being withheld from the people in the West.
In Ch 3 pg 31, Rice claims Zwingli set the Reformed agenda as "reformed, always being reformed," without any quote or source. This is an very untrue and incorrect claim. Zwingli had nothing to do with this phrase. Michael Horton and R. Scott Clark have adequately demonstrated the origin of this phrase: First use of semper reformanda was in 1674 by Jodocus van Lodenstein as part of the Dutch Further Reformation to speak about how the doctrine of the church was Reformed but now the people's lives needed to be reformed. The correct translation of the phrase is "The church is reformed and always [in need of] BEING reformed according to the [Spirit of God through the] Word of God." http://www.ligonier.org/learn/article... and http://www.ligonier.org/learn/article...
Pg 31-32, Rice also claims Zwingli "separated physical and spiritual" and had a "distrust in the material world" that led to his rejecting relics, musical instruments and images. This is also inaccurate and untrue. Zwingli held to the Word of God and the 2nd commandment commanded a rejection of false worship practices. Zwingli, Calvin and the Reformed practiced what is today coined "The Regulative Principle of Worship" or RPW. Worship may only consist of what God commands. Man is not to add his own will-worship to the worship of God. Rice is clearly not well-studied on Reformed worship. All the major Reformed Confessions teach this RPW. How could Rice not know the very basics of Presbyterian and Reformed history?
Ch 1: Central elements of Reformed tradition
Ch 2: History of worship up to the Reformation
Ch 3: History of worship from 16th cent to today
Ch 4, 5, 6: Baptism, Lord's Supper, Lord's Day Service - historical and practical
Ch 7-10: Elements of music, prayer, setting, church year.
Ch 11-13 Weddings, Funerals, special occasions.
Ch 14: Style of worship and balancing traditional and contemporary styles.
Unfortunately, this is a work of unsubstantiated claims and is NOT a scholarly or reputable work and as such, lacks proof/evidence/footnotes/quotes to back up the author's claims. When telling his story of Christian worship from the apostles to the Reformation (Chapter 2), he ONLY lists 4 footnotes from 3 sources and only 1 source is a primary source from Irenaeus. Within the chapter itself, he claims certain early church fathers wrote certain things but he rarely backs these claims up with adequate quotes or even the name of the work. Basically, the entire chapter is opinion with little evidence that anything the author claims is true. Statements about females being pushed out of positions of authority (pg 16); early use of hymns (pg 15) are all unsubstantiated claims.
Additionally, his entire summary from the early church fathers to the Reformation is summarized on pgs 16-20. That's 1500 years of church history described on 4 pages. Clement, Pliny, Ignatius, Didache, Justin, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Constantine, Ambrose, Augustine, Cyril of Jerusalem are all basically only mentioned in passing. What about Eusebius, Basil the Great, Chrysostom and a ton of other well-known theologians? Rice simply skips them all. He skips all the early liturgies and emphasis on psalms and writings against use of musical instruments. Augustine and Cyril from the 4th century are the last names he mentioned. Rice does not mention any theologian from the 5th to the 15th centuries. That's basically 1000 years of skipped history. Shockingly, he even skipped Aquinas. Instead, he states the West clung to Latin, the East used the language of the people and the Mass developed, with the Supper being withheld from the people in the West.
In Ch 3 pg 31, Rice claims Zwingli set the Reformed agenda as "reformed, always being reformed," without any quote or source. This is an very untrue and incorrect claim. Zwingli had nothing to do with this phrase. Michael Horton and R. Scott Clark have adequately demonstrated the origin of this phrase: First use of semper reformanda was in 1674 by Jodocus van Lodenstein as part of the Dutch Further Reformation to speak about how the doctrine of the church was Reformed but now the people's lives needed to be reformed. The correct translation of the phrase is "The church is reformed and always [in need of] BEING reformed according to the [Spirit of God through the] Word of God." http://www.ligonier.org/learn/article... and http://www.ligonier.org/learn/article...
Pg 31-32, Rice also claims Zwingli "separated physical and spiritual" and had a "distrust in the material world" that led to his rejecting relics, musical instruments and images. This is also inaccurate and untrue. Zwingli held to the Word of God and the 2nd commandment commanded a rejection of false worship practices. Zwingli, Calvin and the Reformed practiced what is today coined "The Regulative Principle of Worship" or RPW. Worship may only consist of what God commands. Man is not to add his own will-worship to the worship of God. Rice is clearly not well-studied on Reformed worship. All the major Reformed Confessions teach this RPW. How could Rice not know the very basics of Presbyterian and Reformed history?
Ch 1: Central elements of Reformed tradition
Ch 2: History of worship up to the Reformation
Ch 3: History of worship from 16th cent to today
Ch 4, 5, 6: Baptism, Lord's Supper, Lord's Day Service - historical and practical
Ch 7-10: Elements of music, prayer, setting, church year.
Ch 11-13 Weddings, Funerals, special occasions.
Ch 14: Style of worship and balancing traditional and contemporary styles.
December 26, 2009
Good history, but silly applications to worship today.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews