Ratzinger's review of Organic Development of the Liturgy

Dom Alcuin Reid, OSB of St. Michael's Abbey, England has kindly provided us with Cardinal Ratzinger's review of his recently published The Organic Development of the Liturgy.

How has the Liturgy of the Roman rite developed and changed in history before and after the Council of Trent? What principles have determined the boundaries of legitimate liturgical reform over the centuries? What was the Liturgical Movement? Did Guéranger, Beauduin, Guardini, Parsch, Casel, Bugnini, Jungmann, Bouyer and the Movement’s other leaders know and respect these principles? And what is to be said of the not insignificant liturgical reforms carried out by Saint Pius X, Popes Pius XI and Pius XII and Blessed John XXIII in the course of the twentieth century? What principles of reform did the Liturgical Movement espouse on the eve of the Second Vatican Council?

In The Organic Development of the Liturgy Dom Alcuin Reid examines these questions systematically, incisively and in depth, identifying both the content and context of the principle of “organic development”—a fundamental principle of liturgical reform of Vatican II—making a significant contribution to the understanding of the nature of the Liturgical Movement and to the ongoing re-assessment of the reforms enacted following the Council.

Buy it in the United States from Amazon.com; from the U.K. by The Abbey Shop.