Worship Without Words: The Signs and Symbols of Our Faith

Patricia Klein has put together an immensely useful handbook for all elements of Christian worship. Using drawings, definitions, and brief historical explanations, she maps out the large landscape of liturgy with clarity and brevity. Chapter 1, for example, moves from the most obvious starting point (the church building itself, including explanations of the terms cathedral, basilica, and oratory) through monastic architecture, the interior and exterior spaces (buttress, cloister, apse, chancel) and then into church furnishings (ambo--"a raised desk from which the Gospels or Epistles were read or chanted") and liturgical furnishings (processional cross, alms basin). Subsequent chapters explore the altar, the cross, the liturgical year, liturgical worship, music, sacraments, vestments, as well as church dogma (the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed). A delightful book for browsing and reference, it can get positively addictive for anyone with an interest in the outer forms of the inner faith. --Doug Thorpe