Perhaps no liturgical scholar of our time is better able than John Baldovin to write with clarity and accuracy about the meaning of the church's liturgy and the history of its development in the last half century. In this summary volume on the reform of the liturgy since the Second Vatican Council, Baldovin pinpoints and assesses—both sympathetically and critically—the objections to changes in the liturgy since the council, focusing on philosophical, historical-critical, and theological questions. After addressing each criticism in turn, in a final chapter he assesses the critique of post–Vatican II liturgy as a whole, affirming what is accurate and necessary, rejecting what is backward looking, and proposing a set of principles to guide future development. No one who studies or participates in liturgical action in the twenty-first century can afford to overlook this book.

John F. Baldovin, SJ, is professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.