ECCLESIOLOGY

Ecclesiology 5 (2009) 237–245 brill.nl/ecso

Article Review

A Th eory of Liturgical Relativity

Stephen Platten Bishop’s Lodge,Woodthorpe Lane,Wakefi eld,WF2 6JL, UK bishop@bishopofwakefi eld.org.uk

Pink Dandelion, Th e Liturgies of Quakerism (Aldershot, Hants; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004), xii + 138 pp. £16.99. ISBN 0-7546-3129-X (pbk), £50.00. 0-7546-3128-1 (hbk).

R. Kevin Seasoltz, A Sense of the Sacred (London and New York: Continuum, 2005), 394 pp. £22.99. ISBN 0-8264-1701-9 (pbk), £115.00. 0-8264-1697-7 (hbk).

Martin D. Stringer, A Sociological History of Christian Worship . (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). viii + 268 pp. £17.99. ISBN 0-521- 52559-4 (pbk); £41.99. 0-521-81955-5 (hbk).

Th ere are unquestionably many candidates who might be considered for ‘the prize for the greatest infl uence of all over the twentieth century’, either for good or for evil. Whoever might win that competition, undoubtedly Dr. Albert Einstein would be in the last six, if not the all out winner. His ‘Special’ and ‘General’ Th eories of Relativity have helped shape our world in so many diff er- ent ways. Within the compass of his writings, the famous equation E = mc2 would take pride of place. In this tiny arrangement of formulae is encapsulated a remarkable revolution in our understanding of the universe. For within this tiny mathematical expression we fi nd energy, mass and light all brought into conjunction. So, no longer are the physical world around us, or the energy which enlivens and powers that world, or indeed time itself independent and unchang- ing qualities. All are relativised and eff ectively we cannot understand any one of these standing alone. None loses its signifi cance but instead the importance of

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI 10.1163/174553109X422359 238 S. Platten / Ecclesiology 5 (2009) 237–245 each is enhanced, but only if taken in conjunction with the other two. Einstein’s equation has helped redefi ne our understanding of reality with a signifi cant impact upon our capabilities both scientifi cally and in how we order our lives. Scientifi c relativity might seem an unlikely place from which to start a brief refl ection on our understanding of liturgy within human experience. Never- theless, a variety of diff erent infl uences have come together to cause something similar to the relativising revolution in science to occur within liturgical stud- ies. Only a generation ago liturgy was practised largely as a historically com- parative study. For Anglicans this often meant a detailed analysis of how the Book of Common Prayer came to arrive in its present form. Often a rather superfi cial understanding of the progress of the English Reformation led to a deterministic description of the process which helped form the 1559 Elizabethan prayer book. Th roughout the twentieth century, however, the application of a more objective scholarly critical historical apparatus began to have its impact. Dom Gregory Dix’s classical study of the eucharist is one outstanding example of this. 1 Th is study itself, however, needs to be placed within the wider context of the development of the liturgical movement and notably the work of Dom Lambert Beauduin at the monastery of Mont César in Louvain, and then also of the work of Abbot Ildefons Herwegen and Dom Odo Casel in the monastery of Maria Laach in the Rheinland. 2 Increasingly liturgical study proceeded within an ecumenical context and by the last quar- ter of the last century this became explicitly so in the publication of composite volumes cataloguing the large growing consensus in scholarship. 3 Th is process itself brought with it positive ecclesiological implications. Th ese implications were spelt out in practice through the liturgical revision which was a common part of the history of almost all the mainstream churches in the last decades of the twentieth century. Th e advent of the Second Vatican Council, inaugurated by Pope John XXIII in 1960 by a motu proprio , furthered the process of liturgical revision dramatically. Th e Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was promulgated at the end of the second session of the Council in December 1963. 4 Th e direct result of this was the publication of the Missa

1 ) Gregory Dix, Th e Shape of the Liturgy . London, A&C Black. (Dacre Press). 1945. 2 ) R. Kevin Seasoltz, See particularly pp. 229-245. 3 ) See, for example, Cheslyn Jones, Geoff rey Wainright and Edward Yarnold S.J., Th e Study of Liturgy . London. 1978. 4 ) General Editor: Austin Flannery O.P., Vatican Council II: Th e Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents. Costello Publishing, New York. 1975, 1987. ‘Th e Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy’. pp. 1-282.