Customer Reviews

Preparing for Liturgy: A Theology and Spirituality

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This first edition of this book comes to us with recommendations from highly reputable sources, e.g. a professor of liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame and a teacher at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. This edition is only an improvement. Highly readable, steeped in practical applicability, it certainly is not "more Episcopalian than Catholic." The previous reviewer seems a little paranoid. Though not an exhaustive work, it is a valuable contribution to the theology of liturgical work, often dismissed as the work of people who "decorate the church" for Sunday. It's a good introduction to Liturgy.

Now, admittedly I haven't read this version of the book, but I did read the first published version and found it interesting and helpful, even if I didn't agree with everything in it. But then I'm not a Notre Dame-trained liturgist with years -- make that decades -- of liturgical experience under my belt, and Austin Fleming is.

I hooted when I read the comment from the anonymous reader who said it was more Episcopalian than Catholic. I could hear Austin Fleming (OK, so he's an old friend) chortling too, after he wiped the astonishment off his face. Trust me. Austin Fleming is firmly, unshakeably, undeniably Roman Catholic, unless he has changed so much as to be unrecognizeable in the past 10 years. Not to mention you may be giving the Episcopal Church more credit than it's due in regard to preparing for liturgy. Things are not all as they seem, alas.

Hey, Austin! If you read this, drop me an email!

Riddled with error, poorly written, an ecclesiology more Episcopalian than Catholic, this book is painfully simplistic such that it might induce a First Amendment activist to organize a book burning.