History of the Liturgy: The Major Stages

Rating:
Summary: A good but limited resource
Review: Metzger's book on the history of the western liturgy offers an accessible and well-structured treatment of the topic. As the professor of Sacred Liturgy at St. John's Seminary in Brighton, MA, I have used this text in my graduate level course on Catholic liturgy and it was well received by the students. As with most of these books, one could quibble over the somewhat artificial manner in which the historical epochs are divided into the various chapters, but Metzger, at least, offers clear reasons for his choices. The one major drawback, and the main reason why I offer only three versus four stars as a rating, is Metzger's limited treatment of the liturgy in the west from the twelth century onward; quote from chapter 6, "Owing to the centralization, fixity, and uniformization of rituals, the period extending from the twelth century to Vatican II is of limited interest for the history of the fundamental liturgical institutions" (p. 123). Yet, there were in fact many significant developments in the ritual life of the Roman Church such as the rites of marriage and Christian burial, the sacrament of the sick, and many minor rites attached to religious life. Metzger, in fact, makes mention of these and other developments later on in chapter six but gives them only a cursory treatment. As a result, in order to get a complete treatment of the history of the liturgy in the western church, one would have to go elsewhere, such as to James White's book on the history of the liturgy from Trent to today. All this is too bad since most of what Metzger has to say is quite good. One wishes he could have been more generous in his treatment of the post-twelth century history for that reason alone.

Rating:
Summary: A good but limited resource
Review: Metzger's book on the history of the western liturgy offers an accessible and well-structured treatment of the topic. As the professor of Sacred Liturgy at St. John's Seminary in Brighton, MA, I have used this text in my graduate level course on Catholic liturgy and it was well received by the students. As with most of these books, one could quibble over the somewhat artificial manner in which the historical epochs are divided into the various chapters, but Metzger, at least, offers clear reasons for his choices. The one major drawback, and the main reason why I offer only three versus four stars as a rating, is Metzger's limited treatment of the liturgy in the west from the twelth century onward; quote from chapter 6, "Owing to the centralization, fixity, and uniformization of rituals, the period extending from the twelth century to Vatican II is of limited interest for the history of the fundamental liturgical institutions" (p. 123). Yet, there were in fact many significant developments in the ritual life of the Roman Church such as the rites of marriage and Christian burial, the sacrament of the sick, and many minor rites attached to religious life. Metzger, in fact, makes mention of these and other developments later on in chapter six but gives them only a cursory treatment. As a result, in order to get a complete treatment of the history of the liturgy in the western church, one would have to go elsewhere, such as to James White's book on the history of the liturgy from Trent to today. All this is too bad since most of what Metzger has to say is quite good. One wishes he could have been more generous in his treatment of the post-twelth century history for that reason alone.