A great deal has happened in Roman Catholic worship since Vatican II promulgated the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy on December 4, 1963. But the myth persists that very little happened in the four centuries between the end of the Council of Trent on December 4, 1563, and Vatican II.Roman Catholic Worship explores what occurred in those four hundred years before Vatican II and how the stage was set for all the changes that have come about since the council. It may be true that liturgical texts were frozen during those intervening centuries, but to assume that liturgical texts are the whole of liturgy is questionable. James White demonstrates that the worship life of Roman Catholicism was in constant transition during this entire period despite the intransigence of liturgical texts. Chapters are ?The Legacy of the Council of Trent,? ?The Baroque Age,? ?The Enlightenment,? ?The Romantic Era,? ?The Journey to the Second Vatican Council,? ?The Legacy of the Second Vatican Council,? ?The Journey Beyond the Second Vatican Council,? and ?The Future of Roman Catholic Worship.? Includes glossary, bibliography, index of persons and index of subjects.?James White?s Roman Catholic Worship is both balanced and brilliant. Balanced, as a thorough overview of four and a half centuries of positive and negative development in Catholic worship. Brilliant, as a readable, lively study that can be a joy to any interested Christian. The breadth of the volume is best demonstrated in its originality: it goes far beyond chronology of the somewhat narrow liturgical books (until Vatican II) and integrates profound growth during the same period in liturgical art and architecture, music and preaching, and, perhaps the most original study, in communal devotional practices. And an invaluable contribution is made in the final three chapters: all the diversity of the Vatican Council?s revolution well summarized, critiqued, and fully updated.? Rev. Msgr. Frederick R. McManus, J.C.D. Professor Emeritus School of Canon Law The Catholic University of America?Since 1995, the graduate student or generalist in Catholic liturgics has had a friend in James White?s Roman Catholic Worship. Now White has published a second edition of his stellar introduction, a survey of four and a half centuries of the Church?s liturgical life. It should remain one of the field?s most important volumes for years to come.? Catholic Books Review?This book makes such a degree of insight vividly available because it has grown out of decades of personal observation, of actually going there, being there, praying there. . . . Get this for your pastor, your church bible study group, any candidate for the ministry whom you know, and yourself.? Sacramental LifeThis remains an important work. Any liturgical bookshelf that is bare of the first edition should exhort its owner to secure a copy of the second. The book deserves consideration by church leaders engaged in the current liturgy debates, liturgical teachers and historians who are more often than not focused on the medieval period, and readers in general seeking insight into our immediate history and current mindset. Pacifica