Third in a series sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, this volume (the fruit of an international conference) draws together an impressive roster of liturgical scholars in order to understand both the origins and future of Reformed/Presbyterian worship. Rare among edited collections, this volume reads smoothly as a unified book. Editor Lukas Vischer, long recognized as a senior scholar on ecumenism and worship (he was director of the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission), and series editor John D. Witvliet must be congratulated for having organized and supervised the transitions between such a varied team of specialists. This work is distinguished also in that it brings together the past ("Reformed") and present ("always reforming") impulses inherent in the tradition without privileging one over the other. In this way, it provides a model for transcending polarizing tendencies that often generate more heat than light.

Leading off the historical survey, distinguished Calvin scholar Elsie Anne McKee rises to the daunting challenge of providing a summary that includes the background and development of a general Reformed consensus, turning to more specific traditions (Zwinglian and Calvinist) and exploring their commonalities as well as, in some cases, rather remarkable contrasts. While the Calvinist expression finally came to dominate the confessional and liturgical forms, Zwinglian elements have never been wholly absent as a more radical critique of medieval worship. Professor McKee notes, for example, Calvin's greater appreciation for the sacraments alongside the preached Word, and therefore the frequent (weekly, in Calvin's best-case scenario) celebration of the Supper.

Swiss pastor and liturgical scholar Bruno Bürki takes the survey into the 17th century, concentrating on developments on the European continent. Especially useful in providing a brief account of crucial trends, individuals, and texts that are largely unavailable in English, this chapter spans the period of orthodoxy, pietism and the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the liturgical movement, Barth, and post-World War II liturgical efforts. Included are numerous references to specific worship books that have emerged within various European Reformed churches. Like many of the contributors, Bürki assesses the current state of Reformed practice as one of considerable confusion and advocates a recovery of Calvin's liturgical impulses.

Those unfamiliar with Yale liturgical scholar Bryan Spinks' remarkable contributions to this field have a treat in store for them. Spinks' chapter on the particular circumstances coloring Puritan-Presbyterian (and Congregationalist) suspicions of established liturgical forms is an admirable summary. He rightly notes the political context in which conformist Puritans increasingly gave way to nonconformity (both in England and Scotland, especially after the Restoration) in refusing episcopacy and the Prayer Book by government fiat. Yet this antipathy fueled suspicions even of Knox's Book of Common Order and the even less formal Westminster Directory. Spinks also notes the mid-19th century's retrieval of liturgical forms in the Church of Scotland "that drew on the classical and Reformed traditions of worship."

British Congregationalist Alan P. F. Sell provides a useful background summary of Congregationalism in Britain and the United States, noting its more radical understanding of the priesthood of all believers and a 19th-century ambivalence about the nature and significance of the sacraments. This eventually gave way to the "Genevan party," which introduced Continental liturgical reforms and with them a heightened appreciation for the sacraments.

The balance of this survey section takes up the development of Reformed worship practices in global perspective. Especially impressive is the recurring theme of unity amid diversity, characteristic of the Reformed tradition from the very beginning but all the more pertinent now that non-Western churches represent new centers of the Christian and Reformed faith and ministry. Marsha M. Wilfong summarizes the Reformed/Presbyterian tradition in the United States; Coenraad Burger, South Africa; Ester Pudjo Widiasih, Indonesia; Seong-Won Park, Korea; Issaiah Wahome Muita, East Africa; Livingstone Buama, Ghana/West Africa; Kasonga wa Kasonga, Congo; Gerson Correia de Lacerda, Brazil (my favorite chapter in the book); Baranite T. Kirata, the Pacific Islands, and Geraldine Wheeler, Australia.

Whatever the future shape of Reformed worship, it will emerge in greater conversation with our wider community around the world. We are reminded by the voices in this volume that the legacy of colonialism in its missionary forms has decisively shaped indigenous worship and has served to justify to many at least the re-evaluation (even rejection) of the Western liturgical heritage of the Reformed tradition in favor of renewed expressions of native culture.

Why is it, though, that the liturgies brought by the first missionaries are identified with colonial imperialism, while the influences of European and American pietism, revivalism, the charismatic movement, and televangelism are somehow identified more with indigenous spirituality? After all, I often hear the same criticisms of historic forms of worship from evangelicals in the United States today: they are too Western—indeed, Northern European (despite the fact that, for example, Calvin's attempt was to recover the practice of the ancient church, which was hardly Northern European). But the "indigenous" worship many of these brothers and sisters have in mind seems less indebted to any particular folk culture than to a generic popular culture that now seems, through the global impact of American entertainment, to have captured the masses around the world. How "indigenous" is that?

Can we conceive of a way in which, whether in North America or South Korea, traditional Reformed liturgical principles can be re-invoked while at the same time appreciating diverse expressions that are genuinely local and not simply an unreflective adoption of non-Reformed practices? The contributors render invaluable service in helping us think these questions through in our own North American situation.

Part 2, consisting of a single, wide-ranging essay by the editor of the volume, asks "What is it that makes Reformed worship Reformed?" The essence of Reformed worship, Vischer suggests, is a movement in which God condescends to meet us where we are, communicating his forgiveness and grace to us in Christ through word and sacrament, issuing in our grateful responses, intercessions, gifts, and witness on behalf of the world. Vischer highlights the social and political dimensions of such worship and cautions against developing our liturgical convictions merely in antithesis to other traditions.

Part 3 returns to contributions by authors on specific Reformed emphases: a richly suggestive chapter by Joseph D. Small ("A Church of the Word and Sacrament"), a typically well-informed discussion of music in the world-wide Reformed/Presbyterian communions by Emily R. Brink and John D. Witvliet; a controversial yet thoughtful re-thinking of the role of visual arts by Geraldine Wheeler; and a still more controversial and, in this reviewer's opinion, less compelling re-evaluation of traditional doctrinal and liturgical expressions in the light of feminist theology by Leonora Tubbs Tisdale. A chapter by Horace T. Allen, Jr. on "Calendar and Lectionary in Reformed Perspective and History" provides one of the most useful brief discussions of the history and theological-exegetical support for the church year and lectio continua-selecta balance that I have encountered. Vischer closes the volume with his reiteration of the theme of "Worship as Christian Witness to Society."

Most of the heavy lifting in this field has been done within mainline denominations, while many of us who belong to more conservative Reformed/Presbyterian denominations find ourselves increasingly trapped between unreflective traditionalism or an equally unreflective adoption of trends associated with broader evangelicalism. We need the sort of careful labor that this volume represents.

Weaknesses in this collection are few, but a recurring one is worth mentioning. It is clear that this is a conversation among mainline churches, with barely even passing reference to Presbyterian/Reformed churches that are not aligned with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. In fact, although membership in some of these denominations numbers in the hundreds of thousands in the United States and, in other parts of the world (Nigeria and South Korea, for example), in the millions, more space is given to revivalism, the rise of the Social Gospel, Pentecostalism, Vatican II, and evangelical parachurch organizations. Perhaps this is in part explicable in terms of the weight of influence stemming from non-Reformed communities, but it is a continuing weakness that mainline and more conservative/confessional wings of the Reformed tradition seem more willing to engage in conversation with their own non-Reformed counterparts than with each other. Obviously, it is a weakness on both sides.

It will also come as no surprise that when the social-political dimensions of worship are enumerated in this volume, as they frequently are, there is a consistent ideological bias. All too often, alas, "prophetic" means not necessarily opposing "the powers and principalities" that obstruct the kingdom's advance as much as opposing one secular captivity with another. While the authors wisely remind us of the Reformed insistence on all of life belonging to God and therefore warn against quietism, they might have also reminded us of the Reformed suspicion of all human attempts to identify God's kingdom with the kingdoms of this world, whether forged by the Left or the Right.

But this criticism does not reflect the burden of this book, and if those of us engaged in ecumenical conversations both at home and abroad from less "mainline" churches wish to be wiser in our own theological and practical reflection, this volume is a terrific place to start. In addition to being challenged, we will find that many of our own questions, observations, and intuitions are reflected in these pages.

For example, an encouraging consensus appears in the renewed appreciation of the older Reformed resources, especially in their concern for a word and sacrament ministry, at a time when the principal choice many of our churches today seem to face is between didactic verbosity and a liturgical free-for-all (either low church/pop-culture or high church/high culture varieties). This collection reflects a commitment to the struggle to define the practice of Christ's church according to his word as that is refracted through the lens of Reformed principles—and to do so, in the words of Brink and Witvliet, in a way that leads us to receive and respond to God's grace "'in, but not of' the culture of the people." Even those from non-Reformed traditions will find this an encouraging example of wise reflection on faithfulness both to the message and the mission of Christ's church in our time.

Michael S. Horton is associate professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in California and author of A Better Way: Recovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship (Baker).

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.