The Rise and Fall of the Incomparable Liturgy: The Book of Common Prayer, 1559-1906 (Alcuin Club Collections, 92)

This is an excellent book which I am continuing to enjoy.

The author is a leading liturgical scholar and I have valued some of his earlier books, for example, The sanctus in the eucharistic prayer. This book, mainly based on his earlier essays and articles is clearly written, with a useful and extensive bibliography and a good index. The title may seem clever but the full title should be carefully noted - it tells the story of the Book of Common Prayer not from 1549 (or earlier) but from 1559 when the Elizabeth BCP was authorised, only to 1906 when serious thought began to be given at official levels to a revision of the (still authorised) 1662 book. He is obviously not enthusiastic about that book which at the very end he says "like the poor, it will be always with us". Earlier authors of Alcuin Club books (of which I have most) I think would be rather surprised at the publication of this book by the Alcuin Club although the latter has changed in character in recent years.There may be some new illustrations of points but otherwise, as a history of the BCP (and more generally of C.of E. worship - his use of "Anglican" is rather anachronistic), it adds nothing to the many historical works - and I think better studies - readily available, those for example by G.J.Cuming and R.C.D.Jasper. These provide what is really necessary if one is talking of a "Fall" of the BCP - studies of liturgical revision after 1906, and careful examination of factors related to that, and to its results, and to reactions to that revision, and books on particular subjects such as Stella Brook's "The Language of the Book of Common Prayer". These range from Dr Barry Spurr's polemical criticism to the clear-head sociological analysis by Dr David Martin and the continued, comprehensive defence of the BCP made by him and many others in recent decades - without dismissal of the need for revision and for alternatives, The complex, complicated volumes of "Common Worship" with which the author has been associated (my revealing here my own bias), I think have done little to further the Christian cause in England.A far better work I think is "The Book of Common Prayer : Past, Present and Future" edited by Prudence Dailey.Just a few of the notes made while reading this book :1, "The beauty of holiness", a phrase in the Psalms, is misunderstood as "the holiness of beauty", a mistake made as far back as the 17th century. The psalmist means worshipping in the beauty of God's holiness.2. With relation to reverence (e.g. page 52), I did not notice mention of the important Homily that is concerned with reverence in "The house of God and the Temple of the Lord".3. The reference to Latin versions of the BCP (page 61) is a little vague. The earliest (from my memory) I think was in 1552 - a translation of the 1549 book - not an accurate one but a quite "Catholic" one.4. Jasper's much more recent book on the Prayer Book, and Cuming's are missing from the Bibliography as are also (amazingly) Liturgy and Worship, edited by W.K.Lowther Clarke, with Charles Harris, and none of the relevant works by Percy Dearmer is included.