Protestant Worship: Traditions in Transition

Rating:
Summary: What a treasure!
Review: As I was going through my inquirer's class in the Episcopal Church, I ran across this book in the local Bible Book Store. It only encouraged me to continue. I absolutely recommend it to everyone interested in Protestant Christianity. For example, I was totally baffled as to why the church I was attending had the choir separated from the congregation and facing each other or a blank wall, in a completely illogical manner. Once I read Professor White's description of the church buildings encouraged after the rather over-ambitious Catholic Revival in the Anglican Communion, I understood. I've also been praying for a fire, but I understand! I would love to worship regularly in a building more influenced by Sir Christopher Wren's architecture, designed for the use of the Book of Common Prayer, not just to pander to someone's misguided nostalgia.
But that is only about one chapter in this comprehensive book. Professor White describes with dispassion and accuracy the worship of virtually all the orthodox, mainline Protestant denominations and their development since the Reformation. If you find this topic interesting, this is an indispensable book.

Rating:
Summary: What a treasure!
Review: As I was going through my inquirer's class in the Episcopal Church, I ran across this book in the local Bible Book Store. It only encouraged me to continue. I absolutely recommend it to everyone interested in Protestant Christianity. For example, I was totally baffled as to why the church I was attending had the choir separated from the congregation and facing each other or a blank wall, in a completely illogical manner. Once I read Professor White's description of the church buildings encouraged after the rather over-ambitious Catholic Revival in the Anglican Communion, I understood. I've also been praying for a fire, but I understand! I would love to worship regularly in a building more influenced by Sir Christopher Wren's architecture, designed for the use of the Book of Common Prayer, not just to pander to someone's misguided nostalgia.
But that is only about one chapter in this comprehensive book. Professor White describes with dispassion and accuracy the worship of virtually all the orthodox, mainline Protestant denominations and their development since the Reformation. If you find this topic interesting, this is an indispensable book.

Rating:
Summary: An exceptional synthesis
Review: As one who has studied liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and as one who has had a long interest in Protestant worship traditions, I found Professor White's work exceptional. Few other persons, if any, could pull together so much information from such an array of sources and present it richly in a way that is very understandable. As one who has a library of several hundred books on liturgy, this work would definitely be one of the five or ten that I would keep if I had to get rid of all others.

Rating:
Summary: An exceptional synthesis
Review: As one who has studied liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and as one who has had a long interest in Protestant worship traditions, I found Professor White's work exceptional. Few other persons, if any, could pull together so much information from such an array of sources and present it richly in a way that is very understandable. As one who has a library of several hundred books on liturgy, this work would definitely be one of the five or ten that I would keep if I had to get rid of all others.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Source Book tracing Protestant Traditions
Review: Ever wonder how different denominations came into existence? where did baptists come from? what is the history of methodism? in a consise chapter on each of the major denominational developments following the reformation, James F. White traces the origins of each denomination, and follows them through to their modern incarnations. excellent for the beginning church historian.