Abstract
Paula Gooder and Michael Perham,
Echoing the Word: The Bible in the Eucharist
, SPCK: London, 2013; 144 pp.: 9780281069132, £10.99 (pbk)
This is one of those books that is so packed with useful information, all neatly arranged in one place, that readers know immediately that they are going to refer to it again and again. At first sight, this is not obvious: it looks as if the aim is to supply a set of biblical footnotes to the texts of the Eucharist as found in Common Worship, giving details of where images have come from or how biblical themes have been intertwined in those texts. As you read the book, however, you notice that you are being given a thorough grounding in the roots of Christian worship in the prayer of Israel and in the practices of the early churches that have acted as the inspiration for the liturgical renewal that underpins Common Worship.
This book appears to have been written with three questions in mind. The simplest level is that of providing biblical background to the texts – especially of the eight Great Thanksgiving Prayers (A to H) – that can be found in Common Worship. As such it is the ‘biblical apparatus’ to these texts. Since any text is more profoundly appreciated when its sources and echoes are ‘heard’, by providing a guide to these echoes, this book deepens understanding, enabling presiders to use those prayers with greater skill.
The second theme is that of offering a guide to how the texts came into existence and their relationship to earlier Anglican texts for the renewal of the liturgy, such as the ASB. Showing how and why texts have come about might seem to be just another level of footnotes – this time an ‘apparatus of sources’ – but the authors have used this to explain the inner logic of Common Worship. So the book is an explanation of why there was need for change and why the renewal in this particular shape. Over the past half-century most Western churches have engaged in liturgical updating of liturgies that were perceived as venerable, and the new forms have been invariably understood in terms of a string of small differences (‘we do not do X now’ and ‘Y has been altered to Z’) – and inevitably people ask why bother: is Z really all that better than Y, with which we were familiar? However, it is the overall vision of what a Christian liturgy should be in terms of our unique relationship with the Christ that has inspired these changes. This book introduces the big picture, and shows how the renewed liturgy is focused in this unique vision whose origins are recorded in the biblical texts. This is by far the most valuable contribution of the book, and why I hope that Echoing the Word finds its way into the hands of those who lead the liturgy.
The third theme is somewhat underplayed in the book, but is definitely there. This is an apologetic for those who would distinguish ‘the Bible’ (or a ‘bible-based service’), on the one hand, and ‘the Eucharist’, on the other. In reply to those who would marginalize the Eucharist and concentrate on the Bible as the basis for worship, the authors point out just how much of the Bible is to be found in the Eucharist. In making this case that the Eucharist is Bible based, it might have been better if the authors had been more explicit and pointed out that many of the texts that are now in the canon – for example, the Gospels – emerged as performances at the Eucharistic meal gatherings. So both large portions of the Bible and the ritual form of the Eucharist have a common origin in eating together while thanking the Father for the Christ in the style that Jesus had practised. But such an explanation might be too much for those who pose such a question.
This is a thoroughly useful book: it will repay study.