Liturgical Sense: The Logic of Rite

Louis Weil looks back on his work shaping the liturgical life of the Episcopal Church through his involvement with the development of The 1979 Book of Common Prayer— and looks forward to the future of the church and its liturgical life. Through stories and first-person anecdotes, Weil does “narrative theology” as only he can. Although most points of reference are to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the book is aiming at a more fundamental level—not just Episcopal or even Anglican liturgy, but liturgical rites as such: how do they “do what they do”?—or NOT do when they are done badly! “Liturgical Sense” is two dimensional: both the “common sense” of liturgical rites and also their “aesthetic sense.” It is Dr. Weil’s contention that in American culture we have an inherent inability to “think symbolically.” Dr. Weil seeks to encourage a return to “liturgical sense” across the church.

Louis Weil was the James F. Hodges Professor of Liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California. His ministry has included missionary and academic work in Latin America. In his work as a teacher of liturgy he has lectured on five continents. He was a member of the Standing Liturgical Commission from 1985-1991. He died in 2022.