Sacraments and Worship

This is an attractive and inviting volume: a visiting priest-friend immediately picked it up and started browsing. Whether for occasional reference or detailed study, the book includes a comprehensive range of quotes from primary and secondary sources down the centuries, arranged into sections covering initiation, the eucharist, liturgies of the word, other sacraments and occasional services, and the calendar and liturgical time. The first two chapters preface this with significant quotations tracing the evolution of both sacramental and liturgical theology from the earliest Christian era and include many contemporary authors. With judicious editing and explanation, Maxwell Johnson demonstrates the variety revealed by the sources at different periods and within different traditions. The texts offer a useful and fascinating corrective to a linear model of liturgical development, and rich material for preaching and devotional use as well as for study. -- Jo Spreadbury * Modern Believing *