Documents of Christian Worship: Descriptive and Interpretive Sources

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful survey of worship within the Christian tradition
Review: The book is basically on about Christian Worship and the various elements of it. This book was used in a Master level class on the History of Christian Worship at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. James White is the Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame. He's the author of many books including Protestant Worship: Traditions in Transition.

The book is really wonderful. It first begins with the teaching of Christian Worship (mostly by surveying the various families and tradition of Christian worship, major figures and developments in Christian worship, and the need for liturgical pedagogy, that is, the teaching of what the various elements are within liturgy). White surveys some of the forms of how the message of Christianity of Christianity is transmitted, for instance, that the Christian Year and the various elements within it can teach the Christian message (e.g., Time as Communication). Then he gives various analyses on architectures and how these can communicate things about God and the Christian message -- "Space as Communication". There are some great pictures (or rather, photographs and architectural diagrams) which visually show this. For instance, Gothic cathedrals draw one's attention upward, giving a sense of God's transcendance. Or Puritan meeting houses are plain and white (symbolizing God's holiness), drawing people attention that the church is really the People of God. And so on. There are many beautiful pictures of churches and White draws out elements that we normally see but don't think much about, for instance, the high pulpit. Then White moves on to Daily Public Prayer and the services of prayers (including sample prayers), the service of the Word (within the tradition of the church and how it developed especially in Protestantism), sacraments in general, Christian Initiation, the Eucharist, and Occasional Services.

All in all, White mentions a number of crucial authors and critical teachers (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Eusebius, etc.) who made contributions and includes their writings as points of reference to indicate how the service of worship was changing/evolving. This was a really nice book to survey Christian worship and get a good understanding of not only the formal elements, but many of the artistic/visual/etc. elements that affect worship.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful survey of worship within the Christian tradition
Review: The book is basically on about Christian Worship and the various elements of it. This book was used in a Master level class on the History of Christian Worship at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. James White is the Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame. He's the author of many books including Protestant Worship: Traditions in Transition.

The book is really wonderful. It first begins with the teaching of Christian Worship (mostly by surveying the various families and tradition of Christian worship, major figures and developments in Christian worship, and the need for liturgical pedagogy, that is, the teaching of what the various elements are within liturgy). White surveys some of the forms of how the message of Christianity of Christianity is transmitted, for instance, that the Christian Year and the various elements within it can teach the Christian message (e.g., Time as Communication). Then he gives various analyses on architectures and how these can communicate things about God and the Christian message -- "Space as Communication". There are some great pictures (or rather, photographs and architectural diagrams) which visually show this. For instance, Gothic cathedrals draw one's attention upward, giving a sense of God's transcendance. Or Puritan meeting houses are plain and white (symbolizing God's holiness), drawing people attention that the church is really the People of God. And so on. There are many beautiful pictures of churches and White draws out elements that we normally see but don't think much about, for instance, the high pulpit. Then White moves on to Daily Public Prayer and the services of prayers (including sample prayers), the service of the Word (within the tradition of the church and how it developed especially in Protestantism), sacraments in general, Christian Initiation, the Eucharist, and Occasional Services.

All in all, White mentions a number of crucial authors and critical teachers (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Eusebius, etc.) who made contributions and includes their writings as points of reference to indicate how the service of worship was changing/evolving. This was a really nice book to survey Christian worship and get a good understanding of not only the formal elements, but many of the artistic/visual/etc. elements that affect worship.