1. This book encourages Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike to trust in the words of liturgies which have stood the test of time, and to invest themselves in language which has been purified in the fire of faithful praying. The linguistic richness and semantic density of religious language is an icon of faith itself; and Barry Spurr has produced a passionate apologia for the living stones of language which, by staying still instead of rolling, have gathered layers of truth and power which newer, plainer words cannot rival.Dr Carolyn Hammond, Dean, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge2. As only a devoted reader of poetry can, Barry Spurr illuminates the many splendors of Cranmer's prayer book and the "old rite" from which it draws; and, with the mordant thoroughness of a prosecuting lawyer, uncovers the blunders, confusions, evasions, infantilizations, and serial diminishments of over a century of liturgical "reform" in the Catholic and Anglican worlds. If you value liturgy, you will prize this book.Kevin Hart, Jo Rae Wright University Distinguished Professor at Duke Divinity School3. Spurr has demonstrated past all gainsaying that the use of a "high language" in liturgy-which comprises not only speech but also music, vesture, regulated actions-is no mere aesthetic fancy but a constitutive element of identity, piety, catechesis, and fervor. Spurr's razor-sharp critique and his animated apologia place us doubly in his debt.Dr Peter Kwasniewski, author of The Once and Future Roman Rite4. Spurr's well-researched, comprehensive account. a compelling perspective on what liturgical language should aspire to. any church or denomination that takes liturgy seriously would profit from a careful perusal of this book.Dr Louis Groarke, Philosophy Department, St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada5. Spurr's book is directed both to members of a Roman Catholic Church that is threatened by a polarised clash between traditionalists and so-called progressives and to an Anglican Church which may well be on the way to extinction. But any church or denomination that takes liturgy seriously would profit from a careful perusal of this book.Dr Louis Groarke in Quadrant, No. 613, Volume LXIX, number 1-2, Janeuary-February, 2025, pp. 97-1006. ...this book... should not be ignored.... Spurr provides a detailed and thought-provoking examination of the language of contemporary Church of England and Roman Catholic services, along with considerations of music and ritual.... there is no doubt that this book should be read by anyone concerned for our liturgy, and in particular those charged with creating it in worship.... Many other issues are raised in this welcome book. Not least among them is the challenge to awaken a renewed sense of reverence in our servicesReview of Language in the Liturgy, New Directions, March 2025 (pp.26-7), by Revd Dr Barry Orford, Emeritus Fellow, Pusey House, Oxford7. This remarkable book is full of pleasant surprises. Its title undersells it, for it achieves much more than it claims: it is in fact an elegant, scholarly and at times very witty study not only of the language of public worship, but of the current state of faith and practice in both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches (.)I wouldn't be at all surprised if some readers with no interest in religion take pleasure from literary analysis of a very high order.David Daintree in Literary Sympathy, News Weekly, 8 May, 2025.
