D. G. Hart and John R. Meuther, With Reverence and Awe (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2002). $11.04.

Reviewed by Shane Lems

Up front, allow me to say that this is one of the best and most accessible books on Reformed worship that I have ever read. Hart and Muether do an excellent job of taking a huge and controversial subject and making it manageable and clear. With Reverence and Awe should be on your shelf if you have asked or wanted to answer worship questions before, questions such as “Why do Reformed churches do that?” or, “Where can I find a good, biblical, confessional defense of Reformed worship?” In a word, this book is a book on biblical Reformed orthodoxy as it directly applies to many aspects of Christian corporate worship.

Hart and Meuther set up the book by clearly stating that Reformed theology must shape and show up in Reformed worship. They go on to discuss how the church and the world are separate, how “the world does not set the agenda for the church” (p. 41). The purpose of the church, they say in the first few chapters, is to be the church, not the world and to worship the triune God with reverence and awe. The authors then define the church in a Reformed manner. By doing so, they teach us that we cannot discuss worship without discussing what the church is. In other words, liturgy and worship are all wrapped up in ecclesiology – and the whole of Reformed theology.

Chapter 4 is about the Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s Day. Hart and Muether emphasize the importance of the Lord’s Day: “a crisis in Reformed worship is taking place in an age of declining Sabbath observance” (p. 73). The next chapter describes what acceptable worship looks like – worship that is acceptable to God follows his explicit commands of worship. This is the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW), that we only worship in the way that God has commanded us. Hart and Muether also talk about liturgy, or the order of worship. Liturgy, they say, is couched in covenantal dialogue: in the covenant of grace, God addresses his people as Lord and Deliverer: worship is where God works on us, where we are passive and God is active. It is a dialogue: the Savior speaks, and his people respond in confession of sin and thanksgiving for salvation.

With Reverence and Awe also addresses music in worship as well as leading worship. The authors note that only an ordained man should lead worship, and the music should be reverent, theologically sound, not like the world’s “pop” music, and so forth. The means of grace (preaching and the administration of the two sacraments) are primary and essential to all Christian worship, Hart and Muether argue well. Furthermore, the essentials (elements) of worship are discussed along with the circumstances and forms: the former must never change, the latter two require wisdom and prayer by the elders and pastors who craft liturgy. The book closes with an excellent chapter that reinforces the principle that our theology must shape our liturgy.

This book is the perfect complement to Michael Horton’s A Better Way. I do indeed think this book, With Reverence and Awe, should be read by all Reformed elders and pastors as they evaluate worship and liturgy. Personally, this is one of those books that I will read yearly to remind myself the importance and necessity of truly Reformed worship. I hope this book helps spark a “reformation” of Reformed liturgy and worship. It is time we quit allowing the world teach us about worship and liturgy, for that is a purpose of Scripture!

Stages of Experience: The Year in the Church, trans. J. E. Anderson (1962; Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1965). $7.95.

Review by Rev. Daniel R. Hyde

As we move closer to the time of year in which we celebrate the work of Christ in his death, resurrection, ascension, and pouring out of his Spirit, Stages of Experience is a brief (104 pages) and long out-of-print introduction to what the Reformer's called "The Five Evangelical Feast Days" (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost). Written as an ecumenical symposium, made up of Brother from the Taize ecumenical community in France, an Anglican, a Danish Lutheran, a Dominican, a Swiss Calvinst, and an Russian Orthodox theologian.

Strenghts
The first strength is the opening chapter, "The Year of Grace," by the Taize brother, Francois Stoop. He gives an inspiring exposition of Ephesians 1:9-10 and 3:10ff., in which Paul pronounces God's eternal mystery, executed by Christ, and made known to and through the Church. The mystery of Christ in his redeeming and restoring work is the Church's gift to the world. Stoop also draws heavily on St. Irenaeus' doctrine of recapitulation, found in Against Heresies.

Second, the subsequent chapters take up each of the Evangelical Feasts in order and give a theological explanation of the work of Christ. If special note is the Danish Luthern K. E. Skydsgaard's chapter on "Good Friday."Two points stand out in this chapter. First, he opens with a section reminiscent of J. Gresham Machen on the historicity and objectivity of our faith in the death of Christ. Second, he dispels the notion that Good Friday, or any other day for that matter, is in any way a "holy day." This was surprising as the typical charicature of Lutherans in opposition to the Reformed is that Lutherans celebrate special days as holy while we do not. In this chapter he also quotes question and answer 1 of the _Heidelberg Catechism!_The other chapter that stood out was the Reformed Jean-Jacques von Allmen's chapter on "The Ascension." Here he gives a four-fold explanation of the theology of the ascension in a succint way.

Weaknesses
In terms of perceived weak-points, there are three. First, this book is way too short for such a vital and often misunderstood topic.

Second, there is no historical survey of the development of these days in the ancient church, let alone in our Reformed tradition.

Third, unfortunately I did not benefit much from the Catholic and Orthodox chapters on Easter and Pentecost, respecitively.

Recommenddation
Overall, I would recommend this book as a decent resource for the major themes of these days upon which we celebrate Christ and his accomplished salvation.

Charles W. Baird, The Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2006). $27.00

Reviewed by Daniel R. Hyde

Charles W. Baird's book is one of the classics of Reformed liturgical literature from the 19th century. Although surpased by more recent works (e.g., Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church; Old, The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship), it remains a valuable introductory survey for those interested in our liturgical heritage and practice. In this work, Baird surveys the liturgies of Geneva (following the now-defunct idea that Calvin was the source of all Reformed liturgy, when, in fact, Strasbourg is the fount of Reformed liturgical thought), France, Scotland, the Engllish Puritans, the Netherlands, and Heidelberg.

Weaknesses
The only weakness of the book, in my opinion, is that Baird did not give the entire liturgy of the churches he was surveying. Instead, he gave only select prayers that he thought were exemplars of our heritage.

Strengths
One of the benefits of this volume, besides its narrative style of writing, is that it helps to cure the main problem of liturgy in Reformed churches—we have been led to think we are anti-liturgical, and that only Rome, Constantinople, Canterbury, and Wittenburg are liturgical. Baird travels back ad fontes and shows that we have always been a liturgical people, and that high Calvinist liturgy is not an oxymoron. It is only under the influence of Pietism, Puritanism, and Revivalism, that we have left our roots and become Baptist in our liturgics.

Of special note to those in the Dutch Reformed tradition (e.g., Reformed Church in America, Christian Reformed Church, United Reformed Churches, Canadian Reformed Churches, Free Reformed Churches, Heritage Netherlands Reformed Churches), is how Baird traces the daily "Morning and Evening Prayers" to be used in family worship from Geneva, through the Netherlands, into Scotland, and into America. These treasures need to be recovered in our personal and family piety. They can be found, for example, in the Psalter Hymnal (Grand Rapids: Christian Reformed Church, 1959), 188-9.

Baird also reflects upon the Dutch Reformed in his day (mid-19th century) and says, "...of all the Calvinistic Churches represented in these United States, the Dutch Reformed denomination [RCA] alone has faithfully retained her ancient forms of worship" (207). One wonders if he would say the same today.

Recommendation
All seminarians, pastors, and laypeople in our churches ought to read Baird. For in so doing, our worship will be strengthened and our witness emboldened.