The Cambridge Companion to Christian Liturgy brings together twenty-two lay and ordained liturgical scholars who offer a rich and enlightening collection of essays. These internationally respected contributors represent Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist, Evangelical, Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions, and they come from the UK, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Australia, Kerela (India), South Africa, Canada, Zimbabwe and the USA. The editor is Joris Geldhof, former professor of Liturgy at Leuven, now at the University of Notre Dame, USA.

The Companion is divided into five parts, the first of which – ‘Liturgy Throughout the Ages’ – contains six essays: Harald Buchinger (Early Christianity), Joris Geldhof (Middle Ages), Jan Schnell (Reformation), Melanie C. Ross (Liturgies Beyond the Reformation), Stephanos Alexopoulos (Eastern Christianity) and Katherine E. Harmon (The Liturgical Movement). What makes Part I of interest is not primarily its survey of history – of which the last century has witnessed countless scholarly works in various languages – but the theological, critical and pastoral perspectives through which these studies are presented. Contemporary historical methodologies and cultural contexts are brought into play. The brief comparative approaches, not least in Schnell’s study of the Reformation liturgies (Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed churches) and Ross’ worship practices ‘beyond the Reformation’ (Quakers, Anabaptists, Methodists, Pentecostalism and the Evangelical Megachurches), allow the reader to succinctly overview the rich perspectives of the various traditions. They include the theologies and ritual expressions which helped shape these liturgies. In his presentation of the vast complex field of eastern Christianity, Alexopoulos cautions the reader that the starting point must always be, not simply ceremonial and text, but ‘the ritual celebration of salvation in Christ …’ (83). Harmon surveys the twentieth-century Liturgical Movement, reading it against the ‘powerful socio-cultural shifts’ brought on by many factors, not least Enlightenment rationalism. Far from offering a mere history of worship, these essays refuse to entertain pious and partisan myths but rather point to regional diversities, cultural appropriation (often dressed as assimilation), ritual homogenization and the development of various worship traditions.

Part II (‘The Celebration of the Liturgy’) contains four chapters. Patrick Prétot writes on the Eucharist. Moving away from medieval and scholastic abstractions, he proposes a theology which emerges from the ritual, ecclesial and celebratory context in which Eucharist is experienced. Like Prétot, rather than embedding a discussion in medieval categories, Clare V. Johnson (Sacraments) prioritises the newly recovered patristic emphasis on ‘Mysterion’, which allows an understanding of sacraments in their celebratory context. Despite the variety of forms, usages and ritual structures of daily prayer, Liborius Olaf Lumma (Chapter 9: Liturgy of the Hours) highlights how all churches, East and West, share a surprising commonality. In the final contribution to this section, Maryann Madhavathu addresses the Liturgical Year (especially from Western, Byzantine, Syriac, Coptic and Maronite traditions), insisting that these calendars offer nothing less than ‘a theological entity that transmits the saving mystery of Christ into the life of the Church’ [173].

Part III (‘Liturgy and the Arts’) begins with a contribution from Dorothea Haspelmath-Finatti – a musician and liturgical theologian – who roots reflection in anthropology and neurobiology. She proposes that liturgy, as a transcendent experience, might be understood as ‘justification through music and singing’. Chapter 12, Liturgy and Architecture, is written by Gilles Drouin, a consultant in the recent restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris). Among other matters, he observes that many new and renovated worship buildings do not create spaces for baptism or for celebrating daily prayer, privileging almost exclusively the Eucharist. Natalie Carnes provides the third and final essay in this section, on Liturgy, Icons and Images. She argues, persuasively, that art in worship has demonstrated for many traditions ‘the eventual transfiguration of … materiality’ which invites an interaction with the divine [232].

Six chapters form Part IV (‘Liturgy and the Life of the Churches’). The initial essay (Bridget Nichols: Liturgy, the Body and the Senses) begins, ‘There is no liturgy without bodies’ [251], and this leads to a consideration of the materiality and humanity of the gathered assembly as it worships. She names this gathering the ‘Body of God in Liturgy’. Job Getcha examines the importance of piety and spirituality as interiorisations of corporeal participation, relating ministry to the activity of the community in Acts 2 in its service of kerygma, diakonia and koinonia. Chapter 17 (Proclamation of the Word) offers Cas Wepener an opportunity to advocate the postcolonial approach of a Brazilian liturgist to preaching, whereby lex orandi – lex credendi – lex vivendi can be reversed on occasions (especially when proclaiming the Word) so that the vivendi leads to the orandi.

Thomas Pott writes a grounded yet quietly provocative piece on ‘Liturgy and Ecumenism’. He opens with an observation in relation to 1 Corinthians 11 that ‘The Lord’s Supper is not a symbol of unity and communion but rather of division’ [317]. Mutual respect for the tradition of each Church is invaluable and should serve to resist any temptation to ‘level out differences’ and create a form of ‘Super Church’. In Chapter 19, Marianne Moyaert introduces a rarely considered topic (‘Liturgy and the Religious of the World’). She singles out worship in relation to people of the Jewish faith, while omitting any serious consideration of the issues that might be found in worship alongside people of Islamic or other beliefs. The ‘messy particularity’ of diverse forms of worship and belief cautions against the creation of any form of pluralism that might present all religions on par one with another. The nature of interreligious worship is that various belief systems tend to be self-referential in prayer and ritual form.

The Final Part V is entitled ‘The Study of Liturgy’. It begins with Juliette Day’s examination of the idea of liturgical text. She discusses related issues such as interpretation, authorship of liturgical text, improvisation, orality and print, and performance of text. The genre indicator (collect or preface, etc.) can be more significant than its thematic content, and every reuse of the text brings about a new event. Kimberly Hope Belcher directs her attention to liturgy as a ritual event, and this study helps ward off overgeneralisation and romanticisation regarding the collective prayer activity of worshippers. Ritual has a potentially important role in ‘mediating between communities of nonverbal or nonbookish persons’ [387] and academics. The closing chapter (22) – Liturgical Theology – allows Nathan G. Jennings to address a topic of immense importance. Implying that liturgy can no longer be adequately considered ‘practical theology’, Jennings works from a post-critical perspective, thus allowing various cultural and religious models to shape how a liturgical theology might be articulated. After examining the work of some of the major American liturgical theologians, he ends by discussing a retrieval of mystagogy.

This is a superb collection of essays covering all aspects of liturgy and worship. Many contributors indicate the social implications of the worship event, but none notes the theologically and pastorally intrinsic nature of acting justly as an overflow of worshipping rightly. In his introduction, Geldhof refers to the expectation that each author would consider their topic explicitly through a theological lens. Thanks to this Companion, members of all churches, including Anglican, will find fresh perspectives on their own liturgical traditions. (This will be true also of how the Anglican Nathan G. Jennings articulates a liturgical theology.) Readers will also come to a deeper sense that, despite what are often, in reality, theological differences of a secondary and ceremonial kind, liturgy is intrinsically ecumenical. This is not to downplay divergences in some core theological understandings which continue to plague all churches. The Companion allows the reader to see how the forms of worship – structures as well as texts and theology – which frame their ecclesial identity relate to others on a larger scale. However, what this collection catches is how difference might identify a way in which the richness of ecumenical expression can shine and reveal both the sumptuousness of our expression of shared faith and the wealth of how we articulate it in the glorification of the crucified and risen Lord.

This Companion is a must-have for anyone who has anything more than a passing interest in worship and all that it entails.