Book Review: The Organic Development of the Liturgy: The Principles of Liturgical Reform and Their Relation to the Twentieth-Century Liturgical Movement Prior to the Second Vatican Council Paperback by Alcuin Reid (Author)

The Organic Development of the Liturgy: The Principles of Liturgical Reform and Their Relation to the Twentieth-Century Liturgical Movement Prior to the Second Vatican Council Paperback

by Alcuin Reid  (Author)

From Amazon: 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 Gueranger, 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 IX and Pius XII and Blessed John XXIII in the course of the twentieth century?
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 the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium-- 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.

My Review: In his preface to this book, then, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger writes how there are many ways liturgists think about Liturgy. In talking about the "development of liturgy" it is important, he says, to distinguish "actions that are helpful and healing from those that are violent and destructive." 

Dom Alcuin Reid offers a "wealth of material" to highlight those principals and actions which guide or hinder the healthy organic growth of the liturgy through the centuries beginning with a brief sketch of liturgical reform throughout the centuries, then a more in depth analysis of the principles and actions of reforms beginning with Pope Saint Pius X up to Pope Pius XII's "Mediator Dei". The third part examines those years just prior and leading up to Vatican II.

For those interested in liturgical matters, there are probably more "accessible" books, simply because this is an extremely "scholarly" work(25 page bibliography, over 1000 footnotes!) 

If a "reform of the reform" is to occur in the Church, and if it is to remain faithful to Tradition, it must follow the principles of authentic growth detailed in this book by Dom Alcuin Reid. 
(As John Henry Cardinal Newman once said, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.")