“Fritz West, himself a methodological master of ... - Liturgical Press

The use of organic thought in regard to the liturgy is ongoing. Building
on Baumstark’s methodology, Robert F. Taft (1932–) makes explicit
use of an organic framework for explaining comparative structural
analysis, the method characteristic of the Mateos School of Comparative
Liturgiology. 9 This orientation is apparent, for example, in the title
of Taft’s article “How Liturgies Grow: The Evolution of the Byzantine
‘Divine Liturgy” 10 and elucidated in others. 11 In contrast to the descriptive
use of organic thought found in the Mateos School, some critics of
the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council apply it prescriptively
to lift up what they count as a necessary ingredient for genuine
liturgical development. Alcuin Reid’s (1963–) The Organic Development
of the Liturgy and László Dobszay’s (1935–) The Restoration and Organic
Development of the Roman Rite may serve as examples. 12 This position
the Roman Mass,” although it was translated into English as The Mass: Its
Origin and Development (Missa Solemnia).
9 Gabriele Winkler, “The Achievements of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in
the Study of Oriental Liturgiology,“ Il 750 Anniversario del Pontificio Istituto Orientale,
atti delle celebrazioni giubilari 15–17 ottobre 1992, eds. Robert F. Taft and
James Lee Dugan, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 244 (Roma [Rome]: Pontificio
Istituto Orientale, 1994), 120–36.
10 Robert F. Taft, SJ, “How Liturgies Grow: The Evolution of the Byzantine
‘Divine Liturgy,’” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 43 (1977): 355–78, reprinted in
Taft, Beyond East and West: Problems in Liturgical Understanding, 2nd ed. (Roma
[Rome]: Edizioni Orientalia Christiana, 1997), chap. 11.
11 In chronological order, Taft, “How Liturgies Grow,” 355–78, reprinted
in Beyond East and West, chap. 11; Taft, “The Structural Analysis of Liturgical
Units: An Essay in Methodology,” Worship 52 (1978): 314–29, reprinted in
Taft, Beyond East and West, chap. 10; Taft, The Diptychs, vol. 4 of A History of
the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, OCA 238 (Roma [Rome]: Pontificio Istituto
Orientale, 1991), xxix–xxxi; Taft, “Reconstructing the History of the Byzantine
Communion Ritual: Principles, Methods, and Results,” Ecclesia Orans 11
(1994): 355–57; Taft, “Über die Liturgiewissenschaft heute,” Theologische Quartalschrift
177 (1997): 243–55; Taft, “Comparative Liturgy Fifty Years after Anton
Baumstark,” 521–40; Taft, “Anton Baumstark’s Comparative Liturgy Revisited,”
191–232; and Taft, “Cathedral vs. Monastic Liturgy in the Christian East:
Vindicating a Distinction,” Bolletino della Badia Greca di Grottaferrata, series 3, 2
(2005): 173–219. For a critical treatment of the methodology of this school and
Robert F. Taft, SJ, in particular, see West, Anton Baumstark’s Comparative Liturgy,
393–98, and West, The Comparative Liturgy of Anton Baumstark, 40–42.
12 Alcuin Reid, The Organic Development of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius
Press, 2005), and László Dobszay, The Restoration and Organic Development of
4