Celebrating Divine Mystery: A Primer in Liturgical Theology by Catherine Vincie, RSHM (review)

152 Antiphon 14.1 (2010) work it has accomplished in recent decades. Two of its important documents, “The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church” (1993) and “The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible” (2001) receive only passing mention. While Hahn alludes to then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s stance from 1988 in which he is critical, perhaps rightly so, of some of the ways historico-critical research has been used, he does not mention the more positive assessment when Ratzinger signed off on both of the aforementioned PBC documents. What is missing, I think, is an acknowledgment of the range of freedom afforded to Catholic biblical scholars. I am sure Hahn would affirm this if pressed, but it does not come through clearly in the book. There are many ways to be a Catholic biblical scholar, and one should not feel bound to affirm most of the pre-critical conventions as though these were a test of orthodoxy. Kevin J. Haley University of Notre Dame South Bend, IN Catherine Vincie, RSHM Celebrating Divine Mystery: A Primer in Liturgical Theology Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009 x + 206 pages. Paperback. $24.95 This introductory-level survey seeks to help bridge the gap between the optimal and actual situation of students (and others) commencing a serious study of liturgy. Ideally, formation in liturgical theology is best achieved through immersion in the writings of major liturgical theologians past and present; however, constraints of time and limited prior knowledge of the field often preclude such an approach. With this book, Catherine Vincie supplies an informative and accessible overview of important terminology, topics, texts, and theologians frequently encountered in contemporary liturgical theology. Vincie begins with a review of movements for liturgical reform in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, attending to the interconnections between monastic renewal efforts, scholarly initiatives, pastoral concerns, and papal legislation. She then addresses the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, primarily through an analysis of the theology of the liturgy and principles of reform articulated in Sacrosanctum concilium. The second chapter turns to the identity and theology of the liturgical assembly as the corporate subject of liturgical action, in which clergy and laity are invited to participate through particular orders and roles. Chapter Three, “Liturgy as a Divine Human 153 Book Reviews Dialogue,” presents liturgy and sacrament as a dynamic interplay of God’s offer of himself in Christ and the Holy Spirit and human response to this gift. The fourth chapter considers the paschal mystery and liturgical anamnesis. Through ritually “remembering” the paschal mystery in the liturgy, Christians are taken up into God’s saving activity. Vincie contends that liturgical memorial also entails remembering all members of the Church with fairness and justice, for “we are bound to keep memorial of all those whose lives have mediated [God’s] saving presence ” (80). Chapter Five, “Naming Toward God,” discusses the perennial theological problem of how to address divine mystery given the limitations of our human perspective and inadequate language. Here Vincie examines how the Christian tradition has employed language in Scripture, prayer, theological reflection, and hymnody to “name toward” God through analogy, negation, metaphor, and abundance. The remaining chapters investigate various aspects of liturgy related to time, symbol, and culture. Chapter Six outlines the development of daily, weekly, and yearly cycles of prayer and celebrations in the Christian tradition, underscoring that “the liturgy celebrated in time is a repeatable opportunity for believers to enter into the once-andfor -all event of Christ’s saving victory over sin and death” (118). The seventh chapter introduces significant theories of symbol that have figured prominently in recent liturgical and/or sacramental theology, including Karl Rahner’s conception of a “real symbol,” Louis-Marie Chauvet’s foundational theology of sacramentality, Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of the symbol, and Victor Turner’s understanding of ritual symbols. Chapter Eight moves from theory to practice, exploring the actual use of symbols in liturgical celebrations. After discussing liturgy’s engagement of the body and its senses, Vincie describes the unique characteristics of several “symbolic vehicles” through which the liturgy communicates—the verbal, bodily gestures, symbolic space and objects, and music. The concluding chapter reviews the influence that studies of...