Well, maybe it isn’t my favorite book, but it is a good one. The author uncritically accepts the historical-critical school in its liberal form, which makes his use of scripture tedious and predictable. His diagnosis of the problems with contemporary worship, however, are on-target. He just doesn’t have a category for the received liturgy (mass) as the cure for the disease. Here are a few more quotes:

“Compulsion of God is impossible, but manipulation of God’s people is not. Worship leaders must, therefore, constantly guard against the temptation to fabricate facsimiles of religious experiences for their followers. Like bodies weakened by starvation, hungry souls are vulnerable to enslavement.”

“Attempts to compel faith by the three “m’s” of manipulation (i.e., miracles, magic, and marketing) try to convince people that spiritual ills are cured not by escaping self-preoccupation, but by serving its appetite. People are easily persuaded to fall passionately in love (and in faith) with almost anything that promises quickly to tear their ennui out by the roots. This is demonstrated by things as serious as the twentieth century’s fascist dictatorships and as trivial as weight-loss fads. But a love that is only a frantic lust for sating a personal desire is not the spontaneously self-emptying love of which the Bible speaks. It is a passion driven by the servitude of self-absorption.”

“Workshops that are intended to help parishes design worship-production systems ignore the vital distinction between a congregation and an audience. The investments they advise churches to make in synthesizers, sound systems, the large-screen projectors, and multimedia presentations are investments in the machinery of manipulation. They too easily equate the gifts of the Spirit with mere emotional reactions, and they allow worshipers to expect that everything will be done for them- that they need endure no painful and sometimes disappointing struggles with God.”

“The church that claims to have mastered ways to assure delivery of the gift of grace will always attract throngs of consumers, for the offer of convenient terms for paying the cost of discipleship is an easy sell. This means that the roar of a large crowd jamming into a sanctuary should perhaps be as troubling to conscientious Christians as the echo from a retreating stampede.”