Liturgy in a Postmodern World Keith F. Pecklers, SJ
This text grapples with the future of liturgy at a time of exceptional confusion and uncertainty in the Christian Churches. Christian renewal must always be liturgical renewal, as this book sets out to demonstrate. In response to this, a conference was assembled in Rome in the summer of 2002 with papers from bright and imaginative liturgical scholars from around the world. This book is the result. Cardinal Danneels set the tone of the conference and therefore of this book. After evaluating the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, he tackles the problem of incomprehensibility in a world whose symbolic system has been lost. He calls for the recovery of liturgy's contemplative dimension, which is at once sensual and inculturated and expressive of the full liturgical assembly. Such challenging issues are taken up by a string of international scholars and practitioners including Timothy Radcliffe OP, Robert F. Taft SJ, Peter C. Phan, Francisco F. Claver SJ and the editor of this volume Keith Pecklers SJ. Canon Donald Gray contributes an Anglican perspective. This text should be of interest to anyone concerned with the future of liturgy.