Living Beauty: The Art of Liturgy

In the interplay between theory (Garcia-Rivera) and pastoral context (Scirghi), this study contributes a perspective that may resonate with many different voices and allow some groups to move beyond the ”worship wars” into fruitful conversation. For those not immersed in such issues, the book is a welcome addition to the interdisciplinary nature of aesthetic theology, this time applying the insights of aesthetics to the specificity of liturgy and further concretizing the theory in the lived experience of liturgical celebration. — Lizette Larson-Miller, Church Divinity School of the Pacific

Readers will find this book helpful and challenging, whatever their particular involvement in the liturgy may be. While it will be edifying to the individual, the book”s theses are, like its very structure, essentially dialogic, dramatic and community-oriented; I suspect it would be particularly fruitful in group discussions. Although it is written from a Roman Catholic perspective, Living Beauty will speak to any tradition, with direct applications to Anglican and many Protestant liturgies. While some parts of the book may be somewhat dense for the non-specialist, overall the book is accessible to the educated general reader.