History of the Liturgy: The Major Stages

By Marcel Metzger

Book Overview

Revised and updated edition of bestselling History of the Liturgy provides an accessible, panoramic survey of the origins and development of the liturgical life in the Catholic church.

How great the differences between the Last Supper celebrated by Jesus and a papal Mass at St. Peter's in Rome, between the early baptism by immersion described in the Acts of the Apostles and the baptisms of newborns in our parishes. Why such changes in the celebration of the Christian mystery? Why the post-conciliar reforms, often misunderstood? In this revised edition of the bestselling History of the Liturgy, Marcel Metzger answers such questions and offers an understanding of this evolution through a carefully documented historical survey.

The essential forms of the liturgy were fixed very early according to the tradition received from the apostles. But the place given to biblical readings, preaching, singing, and ritual has varied over the centuries. Churches adapted the form of the celebration to pastoral needs, the conditions of different communities, and different cultural contexts. Metzger describes the most important phases of these changes. In the first millennium, he focuses on liturgy's essentials common to the Eastern and Western churches. For the second millennium, he explains the ritual and theological deviations of the Western churches, the response of the Council of Trent to the Reformation, the liturgical movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the reform and renewal of Vatican II.

This comprehensive survey of the history of liturgy is designed to offer readers a solid yet introductory look into the realities that have made and still make up the church's liturgical life including assemblies, Eucharist, baptism, reconciliation, daily praise, the church's calendar, and its architecture. This revised edition includes new material on the earliest available accounts of Christian liturgical practices, the development of ritual books, and the cultural forces that shaped liturgical practice and theology over the centuries; new English translations of important ancient texts; and a new chapter on the liturgical movement and the reforms of Vatican II that it prompted.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DDFWHKBS
• ISBN13: 9798400801723
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Liturgical Press
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Simple but Well Done Primer

This little volume is written by a Roman Catholic from a Roman point of view but will be of interest to anyone interested in the development of Christian liturgy. It does no go over much into a description of the conduct of the rites themselves but instead describes their context, what prompted various practices and how those practices changed over time. After a brief introduction, the author breaks his narrative into several distinct phases. These include Apostolic times, the period before Christianity was tolerated, the period when Christianity became "Official", and the later medieval period. Some information is given on the Vatican II reforms but this is not a major part of the book. Likewise, some attention is given to Eastern Orthodox practice early on but this subsides with the historical schism of the church and Easter rites are mentioned only in passing later on. Very little will be found in here on Protestant practices but that does not stop the book from being useful to Protestants with an interest in liturgy. In the first place, it is well written and in the second, most of what is examined comes from a common heritage before the Reformation. There will even be found a few snippets that would seem to favor some modern Protestant practice over current Roman practice though they are not presented in this manner. (Unction comes immediately to mind.) This volume does not presuppose a high level of training. Any person who has a basic familiarity with the practices of Christian worship should be able to follow along.