Reviewed by Father Ephraim Chifley OP
This book by Fr Aidan Nichols OP of Blackfriars' Cambridge is in the "must read" category of new books on the liturgy. In fact, if you only ever plan on reading one book on the subject of liturgical reform, this is it. Looking at the Liturgy is a book of pastoral relevance and deep scholarship. Running to only 126 pages, it is based on a series of talks given in Melbourne to the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy in August, 1995. It is clear, readable and devoid of fruitless polemic.
Fr Aidan divides his subject into three parts: a survey of the historical roots of the liturgical movement, both in its benign and more troublesome forms; a survey of the nature of ritual from the perspective of modern sociology and a philosophico-aethestic critique of current functionalist trends in modern liturgical "idiom". He concludes his work with a few ruminations on "What is to be done?"
Dubious antecedents
The first chapter "An Historical Inquest" is a comprehensive post mortem of the pre-conciliar liturgical movement. It is a much needed corrective to the popular view of the nineteenth century movement as a monolithic and unequivocal antecedent of the post-conciliar reforms. This popular view is illustrated very well in Liturgy News (March 1997) for example, in an article by Fr Brian Jackson CM on Mediator Dei. Despite some otherwise helpful insights, he presents the history of the liturgical movement as a sort of ongoing triumph of self-evidently helpful and progressive liturgical ideas culminating in the reforms of the Council. Fr Aidan, however, shows the degree to which this movement finds some dubious antecedents even further back in the ideas of the Catholic Enlightenment, both in its moderate and extreme forms. Some of the less helpful liturgical developments of recent times already had their clear proponents, and indeed opponents, in the late 18th century. These connections can be seen by observing the phenomenon of Josephism in Austria and the decrees of the pseudo-Synod of Pistoia-Prato (Fr John Parson's paper to the Campion Fellowship in 1985 on the Synod of Pistoia is very illuminating). The exclusive use of the vernacular, downplaying the cult of saints and the mediating role of the priest, an emphasis on 'noble simplicity' as the aesthetic principle par excellence, disdain for popular devotions and an exaggerated veneration of pre-Nicean ritual forms all had their proponents in this period, and to some extent acceptance by clerical leadership.
Reply to rationalism
While the Romantic Movement which followed the rationalist excesses of the Enlightenment also generated certain anti-liturgical principles in the form of the cult of 'feeling', community, spontaneity and nature spirituality, Fr Aidan sees it as providing a needed corrective to the rationalism and antiquarianism which proceeded it. Not least of all it called attention to the genius of the Middle Ages, abandoning the idea that the Church's theology and liturgical life substantially declined after the Patristic period. In the late nineteenth century the great liturgical scholars, such as Dom Gueranger and the other great Benedictine liturgists, promoted the reform of the liturgy in the direction eventually canonised by Pius XII in Mediator Dei and Sacrosanctum Concilium of Vatican II (at least in part). It is fairly clear that what arose subsequently to Vatican II had more in common with the rationalist ideas of radical Enlightenment than with the reverent liturgical scholarship of nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is quite certain that Dom Gueranger, for example, were he alive today, would deplore the spirit in which the liturgy is celebrated in most parishes.
New liturgy old errors
Fr Aidan has alerted us to the reality that the liturgical ideas which are now being put into practice are not new, and that they were disregarded in earlier times, not because no-one had thought of them, but because many people thought them to be wrong and deleterious to the spiritual life of the people. The extent to which these ideas enjoyed a seemingly universal triumph in modern times is a function of the political will and acumen of their proponents as propagandists. Archbishop Bugnini's memoirs are very instructive about the way in which cabals and committees can be used to achieve quite spectacular successes.
The second chapter entitled The Importance of Ritual deals with the critique of modern liturgical forms in recent decades by sociologists and cultural anthropologists. Our author points out that it is a little known but significant fact that from the point of view of their own discipline Catholic and Anglican sociologists and cultural anthropologists have been exceptionally critical of modern liturgical trends. The 1960s and 1970s represent a turning point in sociology's view of itself which led to a more sympathetic treatment of religious belief. The analytical tools of sociology were turned not to explaining away religion, but to understanding its structures and processes, even from the "inside" of a belief system.
Not mentioned directly by Fr Aidan, but worth noting in this context, is Peter Berger, the eminent American Lutheran sociologist. His 1969 book A Rumour of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural is perhaps the first volley fired from the academy in the direction of liberal ecclesiastical committees. Mary Douglas' classic Natural Symbols is, of course, treated.
Most importantly, however, Fr Aidan has opened up the researches of a number of younger scholars who have taken more precise aim at the unsupported presuppositions of progressive liturgical theory. Professor David Martin provides a sociological critique of spontaneity as a liturgical principle, while Kieran Flanagan targets simplicity, intelligibility and community. Catherine Pickstock speaks about eloquence in the liturgy, reminding us that liturgy, since it addresses the Divine, cannot speak in clear, linear terms but "stammers" in a repetitious and concentric manner. There is much to be gained from this section, and indeed from the use of sociology in the study of liturgy. But as Fr Aidan points out, it is theology guided by the Magisterium which is the ultimate measure of the liturgy. Unless we are to adopt, however, a duplex modus credendi, theologians must take into account the reasoning and results of all the human sciences. All things being equal, one thing cannot be true for sociology but false for theology.
Idiom of worship
The third section of the book is entitled The Idiom of Worship. It deals with idiom in its broadest sense: linguistic, musical and architectural. We are all familiar with the case against versum populum celebration of the Holy Eucharist, so I will not rehearse these arguments found already in Klaus Gamber's Reform of the Roman Rite and Cardinal Ratzinger's Feast of Faith. Many others will be familiar with the debate about Church music from Thomas Day's incisive and amusing books Why Catholics Can't Sing and Where have you gone, Michelangelo?
This is not an argument for a merely "high Church," but a serious, reasonable appeal based on the interior form of the act of worship and all that this entails. A 'folksy', communal idiom in building, speech, ceremonial, music or iconography, while superficially appealling, does not ultimately sustain the religious life of the Catholic people since it does not point beyond itself towards the transcendent God whom we are supposed to be worshipping, Rather it lowers the sights of worship towards the community itself, which stands in severe danger of ending up either in idolatrous self-worship or secular ideological obsessions.
Stealing a line from Lenin (a favourite ploy of Australian traditionalists!) Fr Aidan concludes by asking "What is to be done?" His main conclusion is that since the damage to the liturgy was done by words, then words can effect its recovery. It is, of course, self evident that such scholarship as Fr Aidan's must be made widely known, and that others be encouraged to research and write about these issues. The question I have about this procedure is the extent to which, on the one hand, the linear descendants of the cabals and committees that have been active since 1909 are still very much in place (and unlikely to leave quietly) and, on the other, the anti-intellectualism of a significant minority of parish clergy and their associates who show every sign of being entirely unmoved by arguments drawn from scholarship. Any change will be glacially slow. Perhaps this is the only worthwhile sort of change that we can expect.
Fr Aidan's future
Naturally enough, Fr Aidan has his own vision for the future: a restoration of the traditional rites for those who desire it; some minor modifications of the Old Missal (vernacular readings, greater selection of proper texts); a slight reform of the Pauline Missal in the direction of former custom, while tidying up abuses; the use of the Novus Ordo Missae as a ritus communis for Lutherans and Anglicans who convert to Catholicism, as well as for non-European churches who are adapting the Roman Rite to their own cultural milieux. Whatever one might think of these specific suggestions, they are made seriously and thoughtfully by a scholar of depth and insight and should be carefully considered by all those interested in restoring the Sacred Liturgy.
What is heartening about Looking at the Liturgy is that, from the point of view of liturgical scholarship, the mills of God are beginning to grind. In surveying the literature one is struck by the superficiality of much writing in favour of progressive liturgical change. The weight of scholarship now leans heavily towards the traditional side. It is almost a decade since the decree Ecclesia Dei, and in many places "a wide and generous" permission for the celebration of the 1962 Missal has been implemented. Unfortunately this is not universally the case. Perhaps scholarship such as Fr Aidan Nichol's will encourage curial and episcopal authorities to see the Traditional Movement as an ally in the cause of liturgical renewal rather than as a dangerous fringe group to be discouraged and hedged about with sanctions and restrictions wherever possible.
