Making the most of the Lectionary by Thomas O'Loughlin

Making the Most of the Lectionary: A user's guide

This book has a very simple aim, to move Anglicans and Catholics from the near universal indifference to their current Lectionary to a place where it is encountered and its presentation of scripture enriches their worshipping lives.

Lectionary provision is oddly one point where Catholics and Anglicans have shared much common ground, with the BCP and pre-Vatican II Lectionaries being largely aligned (albeit a week adrift).  Therefore the adoption of Vatican II's Revised Lectionary as a basis for the Revised Common Lectionary in the US and for the Common Worship Lectionary in England is a continuation in a happy vane.

But why try and celebrate the Lectionary at all?  Firstly O'Loughlin deals with some general issues about the Bible and the relationship many Christians have with it - this might be old news for many readers but it is a key foundation to the book - it will equally be a radical challenge to the understanding "The Bible" of others and causing some never to get to the end of chapter 1.  There is also important distinctions made between the liturgical reading (and hearing) of scripture and "Bible Study" or a whole range of other modes of engagement.

This general discussion takes up about half the book - and having taken on board the message of this first half the examination of the Lectionary itself becomes pretty self explanatory - I made me feel a bit like the first half was a waste of time, however on reflection I see that I would not have got the second half if I encountered it alone.

O'Loughlin, in the second half, sets out the aim of those who put the Revised Lectionary together, it is a revelation that there were such strong aims given the output has become so widely accepted inter-denominationally (to often it is the bland that becomes universal - and with the Lectionary I think the assumption of many is because it is universal it must be bland). Even with new insights on the structure and the message of the Lectionary, what remains a challenge is the sheer scale of the encounter given its three year cycle, how many of us, even the most regular of church goers, can really hold three years worth of  liturgical experience in tension before us? However I think I will look with fresh eye at the reading before me Sunday to Sunday - and also when I now argue against the setting aside of Lectionary readings for this or that 'special' service I can arm myself with reason rather than just my reactionary spirit.

Salvage by Gee Williams

Salvage

For the most part this is a highly engaging story, each part is told by a different character, the one in part musing about the next, this is really effective and leads you into the depths of the story.
The other really interesting thing about these different viewpoints is that you build up a picture of events in the round, each one shares their understand of what has happened - and you end up with the realisation that the "truth" has perhaps escaped them all (or perhaps truth just does not exist in abstract at all...). 

That it is set in Chester was also an interest for me, as my parents over the past 8 or so years have lived there.  I think this mean I know Chester well enough to validate the descriptions of it as authentic but not so well that I would spot the slight geographical anomalies that are bound to be present. That Parkgate features is also a little delight (the seaside town which is no longer by the sea - as the estuary has silted up and a grassy marsh has replaced the beach) it is a surreal place and so a great setting for some of the more surreal moments of the story.

I began by praising the work only for "the most part" - it is perhaps only the last dozen pages or so for which I have qualified my statement. I think the story could have been left unresolved but Gee does a bit of unnecessary tidying up - added a devise where one of the characters is a writer and you are lead to believe that some if not all of what came before is this writer's fictionalisation of events which may or may not have happened.  This adds a pointless layer of complexity to the story and I felt devalues the journey which I had been on with the characters - my advice is enjoy this but stop at around page 200... 

The Eucharistic Liturgies by Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson

The Eucharistic Liturgies: Their Evolution and Interpretation

One of the great delights of membership of the Alcuin Club is the arrival of its annual "Collection" - of which this is the 87th volume - they range widely over Liturgical Studies and so challenge you to read and think about areas which might not always be you first preference.

The arrival of this volume was a little intimidating, at 350+ pages it looked little something of a "tome", while the stated ambition in the introduction to have written the standard text book for the study of the Eucharist added to the sense of gravitas.  I doubt I would have picked this book up myself preferring something a bit more "sexy" therefore it was pleasing to find this a highly readable and engaging work.

The 'myth' of the linear development from Jewish Passovers to the Last Supper and on into the Christian Eucharist is deeply embedded in our psyche as a worshipping community, but Bradshaw and Johnson gently and skilfully in pick this myth and show the much more complex and therefore much more fansinating story.

This is written as a text book and so most of the content is drawn from the work of others, but while the work may not be original the ability to bring the full scope of 2000 years of mainstream Christian Eucharistic practice (both Western and Eastern) into a single view is a great and valuable achievement. 

Other Useful Numbers by Sarah Broughton

Other Useful Numbers

One of the joys of putting books on my wish list for later purchase is that when I get round to reading them I have forgotten all about them and so can encounter them completely fresh without the mind being directed to a certain reaction on the basis of a review etc.

Other Useful Numbers is one of those books, and it is a clear strength of the writing that front a standing start I was hooked on it before turning the first page.  Within a sentence or two you are inhabiting the mind of the central character, Tracy, and that is at times an uncomfortable place to live.  She probably depressed, is struggling to come to terms with the break down of a long term relationship, is estranged from family, is seemingly unable to maintain a friendship for more than a few weeks without causing it to implode.  In lots of ways she is a very easy person to dislike, however for all the failings my reaction was one of great compassion.  Maybe it is because I feel like as much of a fish out of water in most social settings as she does, have spent hours at parties standing on my own in the corner getting (not that) slowly pissed because I can't do small talk.

I really loved this novel and would highly recommend it.

A Century of Olympic Posters by Margaret Timmers

A Century of Olympic Posters

The story of Olympic Posters is used by Timmers to tell the story of the ideas and ideals that shaped the Games as much as it shaped the art work used to promote those Games. It is a century when advertising came of age and so the Posters chart the rise and rise of the visual as the key element of communication.  This also links into the way the Games have become since the Second World War a truly Global event and therefore the Posters have to work beyond the reach of mainstream European Languages and cultural settings.

Even those on a mission to by pass the Olympics this summer would still find this a worthwhile couple of hours read. 

The One from the Other by Phillip Kerr

The One From The Other

Reading this back to back with Resistance was probably a bit unfair to Kerr as the whole style and objective of his writing is different, I would try to resist a comparison of better or worse.

It is fast paced and everything you want in a crime thriller, my only worry was the times when it starts moralising which is something beyond the capacity of such a framework. It is again the risk, as there was in Resistance, of taking on history and especially a period that is just are the edge of memory.  Here the back drop is the search for Nazi war criminals and this remains a touchy subject for many, why some were punished and other rehabilitated, and even today old men are being unmasked and put on trial.  You can't talk of the Holocaust without speaking of the horror, but where Kerr is strong is showing that while there might be some bad "bad guys" there are no real "good guys", war and a system such as the Nazi state leave no one entirely innocent.

The story manages to escape being dragged down by its historical setting - but only just...

 

Resistance by Owen Sheers

Resistance

To take on history and turn the tide of the Second World War on its head is a brave step for any writer, and could easily spell disaster for the narrative, yet Sheers creates his alternative history with such skill and populates it with such natural characters that you are drawn in and inhabit with them this new and dark reality.

Part of the skill is to have placed the drama well away from the centre stage, the whole novel revolves around the fact that the valley is forgotten, beyond the back of beyond.  Therefore history is hinted at without the need for grand set pieces, Hitler visits London in a rumour rather than a fully form account.

There is a deep sorrow under this story and as it came to a conclusion you wished for other choices to be made yet you accepted that there were no "other choices" open. What it says about love is hard to understand, what it says about the power of women is in the end uncomfortable.  It is writing at its best and this will linger on.

From the weak reviews of the film adaptation it would appear that failed to live up to the quality to the novel.