The T & T Clark Blog

Liturgy in the 21st Century presented to Cardinal Sarah at Sacra Liturgia

Last week I had the great pleasure to attend the Sacra Liturgia conference in London. The highlight of the conference itself was the opening address by His Eminence Robert Cardinal Sarah -- Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The Cardinal's address was a bold call for the re-orientation of Catholic liturgy back towards God and, specifically, for a call to return to ad orientem worship. This is where the priest faces liturgical east in common direction with the people. The Cardinal looked at the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium and pointed out that many of the implementations of the reforms went too far, and were fuelled by an agenda that was at odds with what the council really intended. This led to an erosion of understanding about what the sacrifice of the Mass is, and what the Eucharist really means for Roman Catholics. It was a deft, and brilliant, analysis. The Cardinal suggested priests begin/return to ad orientem worship ASAP as a crucial step in reclaiming Catholic understanding of the Mass. He suggested the first Sunday of Advent this year, as we turn to 'face the Lord who comes', as being a good time to start. I, for one, hope that this starts to happen as I agree with the Cardinal's take on this.

Hopefully we will be publishing the proceedings of this year's Sacra Liturgia conference *watch this space*. In the meantime, I'm delighted to introduce Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives, which will be published on 14th July. This is the volume from last year's event in New York, and we presented a copy to Cardinal Sarah in London. The volume considers many aspects of liturgy in the 21st Century, and features contributions from Cardinal Burke, Archbishop Cordileone, Lauren Pristas and many more. On the back, from his address to the conference, Cardinal Sarah says;

'I ask you to be wise, like the householder... who knows when to bring out of his treasure things both new and old, so that the Sacred Liturgy as it is celebrated an lived today may lose nothing of the estimable riches of the Church's liturgical tradition, whilst always being open to legitimate development'

There is also an excellent chapter on the 'youth' and the liturgy, which looks at the phenomenon of the high number of young people who are interested in the traditional liturgy, and questions why this preference is so often dismissed or condescended towards by older generations. Indeed, there is still a prevalent (Blowing in the) wind of people who believe they are experts in liturgy 'to which the youth relates'... despite the fact that their own youth was quite some time ago.

To get your discounted copy please order through our website, and enter the code LITURGY20 to receive a 20% discount.

Pope Francis offers Mass ad orientem in the Sistine Chapel.

Excellent review of Rowan Williams' 'On Augustine' by A.N. Wilson in The New Statesman

Readers of this blog might be interested in a new publication from Bloomsbury's trade division. It's a masterful volume on Augustine by Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Don't just take our word for it, A.N. Wilson thinks it's great too:

“This is a book that I have been waiting all my adult life to read - though I did not realise it ... Again and again, I put this book down and wished that it were compulsory reading for all those who, in our public forum, think that they are engaging in intelligible conversations when they are merely mouthing sounds.” –  A N Wilson, New Statesman

“This is a book that I have been waiting all my adult life to read - though I did not realise it ... Again and again, I put this book down and wished that it were compulsory reading for all those who, in our public forum, think that they are engaging in intelligible conversations when they are merely mouthing sounds.” –  A N Wilson, New Statesman - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/on-augustine-9781472925299/#sthash.9Qz1ACfH.dpuf

http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2016/04/love-god-how-rowan-williams-illuminates-philosophy-st-augustine

Readers might also be interested in the paperback of 'Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition: Essays in Honour of Benedicta Ward SLG' edited by Rowan Williams, Santha Bhattacharji and Dominic Mattos, also recently published.

Author Interview - Dom Alcuin Reid on his recently edited 'T&T Clark Companion to Liturgy'

Note to readers: the T&T Clark Companion to Liturgy was published in December 2015, and has already received some extremely positive reviews. If you want to read more, click HERE! The Companion is currently on sale at a reduced price as our Book of the Month. See HERE for details on how to order your copy using the special discount. And lastly, you may be interested to know that the the Sacra Liturga conference 2016 will be taking place in London 5-8th July. The volume Liturgy in the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives will be published in time for the conference, and can be ordered at registration for a discounted price.

Dom Alcuin, your T&T Clark Companion to Liturgy (our Feb 2016 Book of the Month) has just been published. Can you tell us something about its origins please?

The Companion was the idea of Tom Kraft, a T&T Clark editor some years ago, who wanted a volume in the series which would present something of the status quaestionis of liturgical studies in the Western Catholic Church at the beginning of the twenty first century. Undoubtedly Tom’s approach came in the light of the impetus given to these questions by the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. As Cardinal Ratzinger he had taught for many years that “the true celebration of the Sacred Liturgy is the centre of any renewal of the Church whatever.” Western Catholics have endured a number of decades of liturgical turmoil since the middle of the twentieth century, and what is “the true celebration of the Sacred Liturgy” was then—and still is—very much a live issue.

Tom asked—well really, he insisted—that I compile and edit the volume. That commenced (too many) years of work with many generous contributors and others who gave of their talents eventually to produce what we hope will provide students and those generally interested in Western Catholic liturgy with a resource that contains some of the best theological, historical and pastoral liturgical scholarship available today, which does not ignore the liturgical issues of recent decades, and which will serve as a guide towards further study in these areas.

So what is “liturgy”?

The best answer to that question is found in the first chapter, “Liturgical Theology,” by Professor David Fagerberg of Notre Dame University, USA. Shorter answers are found in the A-Z section of the book. Liturgy is, of course, the public ritual worship of the Church in and through which, in Catholic theology, we hold that Christ acts in a singularly privileged way in our world today. Our optimal participation in the liturgy, our connectivity with this divine action, facilitates our own sanctification and empowers us for Christian life and mission. That’s why Cardinal Ratzinger emphasised that it is the “centre of any renewal of the Church whatever.” If we get the liturgy wrong our connectivity to Christ is impeded. And without optimal connectivity to Christ we, and those so in need of the mission of the Church today in the various and complex situations that the 21st century presents, will lack something essential, we will suffer.

Academically, where does the Companion stand in the field of liturgical studies?

Firstly I must emphasise that this is a companion to liturgical studies in “the Western Catholic tradition.” Some commentators have already noted that this subtitle is unfortunately missing from much of the Companion’s promotional material. The book neither sets out to ignore the Churches of the East nor to minimise their venerable and rich liturgical traditions. Really, another Companion should be commissioned for the great Eastern liturgical tradition.

In the light of what some have termed the “liturgy-wars” of recent decades, contemporary studies in Western liturgy have tended to be fairly ‘safe,’ avoiding critical analysis of the “troubles” following the Second Vatican Council. If you can regurgitate your professor’s take on the liturgical reform following the Council you will pass your seminary course. If you do higher studies in liturgy and do a purely historical analysis of rites or aspects of them, or “engage” with “liturgical sources” (demonstrate a knowledge of ancient liturgical texts), you will receive your degree without difficulty. But should you use history, theology or pastoral practice critically to question the status quo of liturgical thought or practice in your diocese or academic institution, you will often encounter an intolerance that verges on totalitarianism: “Don’t mention the war!” The situation is improving, certainly, but this problem persists amongst a certain generation and school of liturgists.

The Companion moves beyond this academic impasse. Many if not most of its contributors are indeed prepared to “mention the war,” and even to admit that it has occasioned severe casualties. The motivation for this is positive—academically and pastorally. The academic questions to which the situation of Western liturgy since the Council has given rise must be studied. The conclusions of such studies must be taken into account in decisions in respect of future liturgical life and reform. So too the associated pastoral issues must be addressed. Yes, a sound knowledge of liturgical history is very important. The ability thoroughly to engage in liturgical sources is certainly a skill and informs the historical study of liturgy. More important today, however, is the ability critically to engage with the liturgical and theological principles operative in history in making a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of our current ritual and pastoral practice. If the Companion helps to form a generation of liturgical scholars who are open to such an approach it will have made a significant contribution.

What do you think is the Companion's unique contribution?

I think that is, really, the shift from “safe” liturgical study to “critical” liturgical study that I was just talking about. Part III of the Companion, “The Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council,” contains two chapters by Dom Anscar Chupungco OSB (†2013). They take a very different stance to my own chapter and to that of Fr Thomas Kocik in the same section. Students should read them all, attentively and critically. Identifying our different approaches, sources and assumptions will be instructive, indeed I hope it will be formative in acquiring not only a broad appreciation of differing scholars’ stances, but more importantly in developing a critical ability to engage with the sources, underlying principles and realities. This will indeed help to form better scholarship and pastoral practice.

Is there anything else you would like to highlight about the Companion?

The Companion is a large reference book. As such it has many uses—from studying particular chapters according to given interests and needs, to quickly referring to terms and concepts in the A-Z section, as well as making use of its extensive bibliographies for further research. But it also provides something of a course for studies in liturgical theology, history and contemporary issues. Certainly, it does not and could not contain all that one could study— and that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to accompany, to be a companion for, the student of Sacred Liturgy so that he or she will be well equipped to pursue further studies in the field. I hope and pray that we have, at least in part, achieved that aim.

Thank you very much, Dom Alcuin Reid.

The Companion is currently on sale at a reduced price as our Book of the Month. See HERE for details on how to order your copy using the special discount.

T&T Cornerstone: Messianism Among Jews and Christians

It is wonderful to have this volume from the great William Horbury in Cornerstones, especially as Horbury’s new introduction provides a sweeping overview of the material and draws the reader’s attention to his close observation of sources and texts. Here’s the blurb:

William Horbury considers the issue of messianism as it arises in Jewish and Christian tradition. Whilst Horbury's primary focus is the Herodian period and the New Testament, he presents a broader historical trajectory, looking back to the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, and onward to Judaism and Christianity in the Roman empire. Within this framework Horbury treats such central themes as messianism in the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, the Son of man and Pauline hopes for a new Jerusalem, and Jewish and Christian messianism in the second century.

Neglected topics are also given due consideration, including suffering and messianism in synagogue poetry, and the relation of Christian and Jewish messianism with conceptions of the church and of antichrist and with the cult of Christ and of the saints. Throughout, Horbury sets messianism in a broader religious and political context and explores its setting in religion and in the conflict of political theories.

 

Reviews:

“These studies form a substantial and impressive body [...] Examining a wide range of material some of it relatively obscure or little known, Horbury deftly demonstrates underlying messianic themes and undertones that would normally be hidden from a casual or less focussed reading.” –  Susan Pierce, Journal of Beiefs and Values, Vol. 25

“There is very much that is valuable in the essays. Horbury is a keen reader of texts, and he has read from an assortment of literatures that for most of us are separated by the boundaries of academic disciplines or linguistic competence.” –  W. A. Meeks, Jewish Quarterly Review

William Horbury considers the issue of messianism as it arises in Jewish and Christian tradition. Whilst Horbury's primary focus is the Herodian period and the New Testament, he presents a broader historical trajectory, looking back to the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, and onward to Judaism and Christianity in the Roman empire. Within this framework Horbury treats such central themes as messianism in the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, the Son of man and Pauline hopes for a new Jerusalem, and Jewish and Christian messianism in the second century.

Neglected topics are also given due consideration, including suffering and messianism in synagogue poetry, and the relation of Christian and Jewish messianism with conceptions of the church and of antichrist and with the cult of Christ and of the saints. Throughout, Horbury sets messianism in a broader religious and political context and explores its setting in religion and in the conflict of political theories. This new edition features a new extended introduction which updates and resituates the volume within the context of current scholarship. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/messianism-among-jews-and-christians-9780567662750/#sthash.p6d68ml5.dpuf

T&T Cornerstone: Neither Jew Nor Greek by Judith Lieu

A ground-breaking study in the formation of early Christian identity, by one of the world's leading scholars. In Neither Jew Nor Greek, Judith Lieu explores the formation and shaping of early Christian identity within Judaism and within the wider Graeco-Roman world in the period before 200 C.E.

Lieu particularly examines the way that literary texts presented early Christianity. She combines this with interdisciplinary historical investigation and interaction with scholarship on Judaism in late Antiquity and on the Graeco-Roman world.The result is a highly significant contribution to four of the key questions in current New Testament scholarship: how did early Christian identity come to be formed? How should we best describe and understand the processes by which the Christian movement became separate from its Jewish origins? Was there anything special or different about the way women entered Judaism and early Christianity? How did martyrdom contribute to the construction of early Christian identity?

The chapters in this volume have become classics in the study of the New Testament and for this Cornerstones edition Lieu provides a new introduction placing them within the academic debate as it is now. –

 

Reviews:

“[A] wonderfully learned volume, Judith Lieu's capacity to hold together biblical, Jewish and patrisitc material commands respect, and she is an authority on the borderland between early Christianity and Judaism” –  Stuart G. Hall, Former Professor of Ecclesiastical History at King's College, London, UK

“Anyone interested in early Christian origins would be well advised to read this text. Lieu is a very careful biblical historian, marshaling a range of evidence while also able to acknowledge the limitations and ambiguity of some of this evidence.” –  Mary Coloe, Australian Catholic University, Australia

 

 

T&T Cornerstone: Ancient Israel by Niels Peter Lemche

 

When Ancient Israel was first published, Lemche presented a new model of how we should understand Israelite society, its history and its religion. Lemche argues first that 'Israel' was the result of a social development among the Canaanite population of Palestine in the second half of the second millennium BCE. Lemche's radical reassessment of Israelite history is based on the conviction that the Old Testament contains hardly any historical sources older than the seventh century BCE. The early history of Israel must therefore be reconstructed from archaeological results and non-biblical evidence, not from the Old Testament. In this new Cornerstones edition Lemche provides an extensive new introduction and bibliography, considering how the field has developed since the work first appeared.

 

Reviews:

“When it first appeared, Lemche's Ancient Israel was the first of a new generation of Iron age histories, with its insistence on a sociological rather than theological approach, its rejection of the 'rationalistic biblical paraphrases', (as Lemche felicitously termed what had gone before). If some features of this new approach were already being anticipated, Lemche provided the first synthesis, laying the foundation for the current agenda. In this new edition, some of his own modifications and developments of that agenda are also reviewed. It remains an excellent foundation for historical research into the Hebrew Bible.” –  Philip Davies, University of Sheffield, UK

“When it was first published, this best-selling introductory textbook on the history of ancient Israel stood at the cusp of the departure from a history based on a rational paraphrase of the Bible and the construction of the critical, archaeologically based history of Palestine which is dominant today. Rooted in a social science-based perspective of Palestine's ancient past, Lemche based himself in the rapidly changing perspectives of Israel and Judah's histories of the decade preceding his textbook and set a firm foundation for the critical histories of the present.” –  Thomas L. Thompson, Professor emeritus, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

T&T Cornerstone: Solidarity and Difference by David G. Horrell

It’s great to have David Horrell’s Solidarity and Difference in Cornerstones. It’s seminal work that was really ahead of its time in terms of study of NT ethics and identity and it’s wonderful to be able to present it again with Horrell’s reflective introduction and a substantial foreword by N.T. Wright. Indeed, Wright has described the book as; “One of the most creative and innovative books about Paul I have ever read.” –  N. T. Wright, Paul and His Recent Interpreters, 2015

In the book Horrell presents a study of Pauline ethics, examining how Paul's moral discourse envisages and constructs communities in which there is a strong sense of solidarity but also legitimate difference in various aspects of ethical practice. Horrell reads New Testament texts with an explicit awareness of contemporary ethical theory, and assesses Paul's contribution as a moral thinker in the context of modern debate.

Using a framework indebted to the social sciences, as well as to contemporary ethical theory, Horrell examines the construction of community in Paul's letters, the notions of purity, boundaries and identity, Paul's attempts to deal with diversity in his churches, the role of imitating Christ in Paul's ethics, and the ethic Paul develops for interaction with 'outsiders'. This Cornerstones edition includes an extended reflective introduction and a substantial foreword from N.T. Wright.

Here are two more wonderful endorsements:

“In a global, pluralist, fractured world, may Christians hope to find a healing and hopeful word in - of all places - the letters of Paul, themselves centers of controversy and division from the beginning? Horrell answers with a resounding "Yes", After a penetrating analysis and critique of the polarized conversation among ethicists in recent decades, he proposes a new, "third way" to find a model in Paul for communities that embrace the other without losing their identity.” –  Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University, USA

“This is a bold and highly stimulating intellectual experiment...Through close study of key texts and carefully reasoned debates across multiple disciplines, Horrell reconfigures the Pauline ethic and opens it up to dialogue with public morality as never before. Both New Testament scholars and ethicists will welcome this ground-breaking work.” –  John Barclay, Durham University, UK

T&T Cornerstone: Fragmented Women by J. Cheryl Exum

It would be an understatement to say how thrilled we are to have Cheryl Exum's 'Fragmented Women' in our Cornerstones series. It is written with a true deftness of touch and the new preface that Exum has added to the volume continues in that vein and introduces the book to new readers by highlighting exactly the subtleties required in reading biblical texts.

Here are some reviews of the book:

“Cheryl Exum is remarkable for the subtlety of her interpretations. A fine literary sensibility combines with psychoanalytic finesse and an intense feminist commitment. She is very good at playing biblical characters off against each other: Bathsheba and the Levite's concubine, Jephthah's daughter and Michal. She is concerned with the androcentric agenda of the narrators, and how it may be subverted both by the text and the resistant reader. Does the depiction of rape repeat the crime or question it? For Exum, it does both; the male reader is both complicit and absolved. These brilliant, interconnected readings are as timely now as when they were first published.” –  Francis Landy, University of Alberta, Canada

“This book is a model of mature, balanced, well considered feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Exum deliberately steps out of both the ideology of the text and the confines of religious exegesis, reading the biblical text as a cultural artifact, with the tools of cultural as well as traditional bible criticism. She analyses afresh fragments of biblical stories about women that are embedded in stories about men. In so doing, she affords her readers new insights and angles for understanding the texts and their influence. And by bringing the stories together, Exum manages to defragment the women, at least a little. And this is no mean achievement.” –  Athalya Brenner-Idan, Professor emerita, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands

“Cheryl Exum is remarkable for the subtlety of her interpretations. A fine literary sensibility combines with psychoanalytic finesse and an intense feminist commitment. She is very good at playing biblical characters off against each other: Bathsheba and the Levite's concubine, Jephthah's daughter and Michal. She is concerned with the androcentric agenda of the narrators, and how it may be subverted both by the text and the resistant reader. Does the depiction of rape repeat the crime or question it? For Exum, it does both; the male reader is both complicit and absolved. These brilliant, interconnected readings are as timely now as when they were first published.” –  Francis Landy, University of Alberta, Canada

“This book is a model of mature, balanced, well considered feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Exum deliberately steps out of both the ideology of the text and the confines of religious exegesis, reading the biblical text as a cultural artifact, with the tools of cultural as well as traditional bible criticism. She analyses afresh fragments of biblical stories about women that are embedded in stories about men. In so doing, she affords her readers new insights and angles for understanding the texts and their influence. And by bringing the stories together, Exum manages to defragment the women, at least a little. And this is no mean achievement.” –  Athalya Brenner-Idan, Professor emerita, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands

- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fragmented-women-9780567662958/#sthash.qGPIxxc4.dpuf

Announcing T&T Clark Cornerstones!

You may already have heard about our Cornerstones Series. We're sorry for the slight pun in the title, we couldn't help it. The series features some of the major works of our extraordinary backlist, presented in new and affordable paperback and ebook formats. Each of the volumes features at the very least a new introductory essay by the author, which summarises how the field has changed (or hasn't since the volume was first published). Some of the volumes are rather more heftily revised.

It's exciting to be able to bring such important volumes back to the reading public. We published the first volume last year, and a whole batch will be available at booth 600 at AARSBL in Atlanta in November this year. Might I add that they're the perfect gift?

Between now and AARSBL we'll be profiling the titles in the series. They really are gems.

Spotlight on: Woman's Body and the Social Body in Hosea by Alice Keefe

Every now and then it's good to give some attention to the gems on our extensive backlist. Here is a post concerning a book that has just been made available again both in paperback and PDF -- namely, Alice A. Keefe’s original and provocative study of Hosea’s (in)famous marriage metaphor, Woman’s Body and the Social Body in Hosea.

This work takes on an entrenched tradition of interpretation, exposing its androcentric and confessional determinants, and draws on a socio-literary approach to reread Hosea’s female sexual imagery and to rethink the brunt of his prophetic critique. An excellent choice for graduate level courses in biblical studies, Keefe’s showcases the fruitful impact of interdisciplinary approaches in biblical interpretation as well as demonstrating the difference which a feminist approach can make in the study of one very important text.

As is well known, Hosea’s figure of Israel as an adulterous wife who chases after her “lovers” has routinely been read as a polemic against popular participation in a syncretistic “fertility cult” in eighth century Israel. The dominant reading of this metaphor posits that the prophet is upset because the people are worshipping deities immanent in nature in order to secure the fertility of the soil, rather than putting their trust in the transcendent “Lord of history,” Yahweh. Further, many 20th century scholars argue that this “fertility cult” may have included rituals of sacred prostitution designed to evoke or magnify the divine powers which ensure the fertility of the soil, and that Hosea’s lascivious wife may have been a participant in such rituals. But recent advances in our understanding of Hosea’s social and religious contexts have rendered this dominant interpretation untenable. It is no longer credible to imagine a simple polarity Canaanite fertility religion and Yahwistic “faith,” and any clear evidence for rituals of sacred prostitution has been found to be lacking. But further, Keefe unpacks how this dominant reading has been shaped by the reflexive association of women and female sexual imagery with sin, sex, temptation, and the lure of the “natural,” associations which developed centuries later and were not familiar in Hosea’s time.

As an alternative frame for interpretation, Keefe reads Hosea’s metaphor of the nation/land as an adulterous woman in the context of the symbolic association between sexual transgression and social violence found elsewhere in biblical literature and argues then that Hosea’s “wife of promiscuity” points to the structural/social violence which accompanied the expansion of royal estates and the boom in “agribusiness” in Hosea’s time. Highly readable and well-argued, Woman’s Body and the Social Body in Hosea offers an engaging entree to the methodological sea-change that has transformed biblical studies in recent decades. Its deconstructive and constructive moves draw upon the fruits of social scientific approaches to ancient Israel in tandem with methods of close reading and attention to intertextual clues. It takes the reader into the contested arena of feminist biblical criticism and challenges the argument that woman is always a symbol of the “other” in biblical literature. But most importantly, this work provides a powerful lesson in the indeterminacy of readings. Rather than claiming to have finally found the “right” reading of Hosea’s marriage metaphor, Keefe’s purpose is to show how readings are conditioned by readers. She shows how a feminist interpretive lens has the power to disturb entrenched “male stream” readings and open up new perspectives on the meaning of female sexual imagery in biblical literature.

"With interpretive and methodological sensitivity, Keefe provides an instructive case study in the changing dynamics of biblical interpretation in recent decades and the ways they open new possibilities for reading a particular text with a troubled interpretive past. The book is a gift to students and professors looking for a way to explore emerging sociological readings of prophetic texts such as Hosea 1—3 or to illustrate the wide-ranging impact that sociological, intertextual, and feminist approaches can have on biblical interpretation and the underlying—often under-examined—assumptions at work within it." –Brad E. Kelle, Point Loma Nazarene University (author of Hosea 2: Metaphor and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective [SBL Academia Biblica 20; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005])

"This sociohistorical analysis of Hosea provides a compelling challenge to traditional interpretations of the marriage metaphor and sexual imagery in Hosea 1 and 2. Keefe shows that, rather than signaling cultic apostasy, Hosea's troubled marital relationship represents ancient Israel's serious political, social, and economic problems. With astute awareness of the poetics of Hosea's language and of the material realities of his day, she provides a fresh and powerful new understanding of this eight century BCE prophetic book." --Carol Meyers, Duke University (author of Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).