Theology Today - Vol 42, No. 3 - October 1985 - BOOK REVIEW

374 - Worship & The Church

Worship
By Hughes Oliphant Old
Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1994, 202 pp. $9.95.

The Church
By Wallace M. Alston, Jr.
Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1984, 174 pp. $10.95.

According to John Leith and John Kuykendall, editors of the series, Guides to the Refomed Tradition, to which these volumes belong, the series is designed to build up "the worshipping, believing, obeying community which seeks to be Christian in the Reformed way." Each volume is to be disciplined by scholarly research into original sources of the tradition, but the implications are to be contemporary. The language is to be accessible to generally educated readers, and not exclusively to specialists and professionally trained leaders. The initial volumes in the series, reviewed together here, meet these expectations admirably, each in a distinctive way.

Hughes Old sketches the Reformed tradition with respect to worship under the following headings: Baptism, The Lord's Day, The Ministry of Praise, The Ministry of the Word, The Ministry of Prayer, The Lord's Supper, Daily Prayer, and Alms. The order and the wording of these headings offer provocative clues to the character of the tradition. In stout Reformed fashion, each topic is presented first from the standpoint of Scripture. The discussion then moves historically through pre-Reformation, Reformation, and post-Reformation materials. In thorough and often original ways, Old highlights the contribution of the shapers of the Reformed tradition, often in distinction from other Protestant traditions as well as from the pre-Reformation church. A final chapter, entitled "Tradition and Practice," brings forward a set of contemporary implications for communities "which seek to be Christian in the Reformed way." Not all that passes for "liturgical renewal" these days meets with Old's approval. There is a danger of "canaanitism" lurking about revival of old liturgical calendars, according to Old, and lectio continua may be more faithful to the best ancient tradition and a more edifying basis for preaching than a lectionary. Yet these and other suggestions are made in a generous spirit, and with appropriate recognition of deformities in worship that have plagued the Reformed tradition through the centuries.

Wallace Alston faces a different set of problems in assessing the Reformed understanding of the church, and his approach differs accordingly. The stated goal is "to explore the strangeness of the church from the perspective of the Reformed tradition." The tenor of each chapter is contemporary rather than historical. References to Reformed and other sources of ecclesiological thought are used illustratively, rather than in a

375 - Worship & The Church

consistent pattern of historical/ theological reconstruction. Fine distinctions are seldom made between Reformed viewpoints and those of other traditions stemming from the Reformation. Protestants who find their theological roots elsewhere than in sixteenth century Geneva, Basel, Strasbourg, Zürich, and Edinburgh will nevertheless be able to concur, out of their own traditions, with viewpoints Alston identifies as "Reformed." This is appropriate, since Alston is concerned to set forth what the Reformed doctine of the church is, rather than to claim exclusive confessional proprietorship over its details.

Alston is acutely sensitive to the pluralistic, voluntaristic setting of denominationalism in English-speaking North America. The ecumenical realities and possibilities of the late twentieth century are also taken into account. Both of these factors make it unrealistic and mistaken to dream of restoring the Reformed tradition of the church in anything like the old culture-dominating and culture-dominated forms that once existed in Switzerland, Scotland, and elsewhere. Alston is concerned that the best perspectives of the tradition not be lost, either for present day heirs of the Reformed tradition or for the ecumenical church.

Readers who stand in the Reformed tradition will find in Alston's book an uncommonly challenging and contemporary statement of Reformed perspectives on "the strangeness of the church." In Old's book, they will find a fresh and thorough guide to the biblical and historical roots of Reformed perspectives on worship. Taken together, these two books provide a fascinating introduction for people within and outside the tradition who are not quite sure what the Reformed tradition is. The tradition at its best is also honored in the detail that each of these incisive theologians serves as pastor to a particular congregation, Old at Faith Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana, and Alston at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.

Special gratitude is owed to editors Leith and Kuykendall for initiating this project. There is a gulf to be bridged between historical/ theological reflection on the roots of our respective traditions and the realities of life together in contemporary congregations. Theological work of the kind represented in these initial volumes of the series constitutes a serious and practical effort to build such a bridge. The principle semper reformanda surely drives the church to choose new directions appropriate to altering circumstances. But new directions are never well chosen out of ignorance, or by default. With materials like these volumes at hand, leaders in churches of the Reformed tradition can make informed decisions about what must be retained, what may be responsibly invented or added, and what is to be discarded, to the glory of God and for the sake of Christ's church. With materials like these volumes at hand, those outside the Reformed tradition can perceive the contribution this tradition is able to offer to the ecumenical church.

James A Wharton
Perkins School of Theology
Dallas, Texas