The Sunday Lectionary: Ritual Word, Paschal Shape examines a key aspect of the liturgical use of the Bible--how the Lectionary puts biblical flesh on the bones of the liturgical calendar and gives paschal shape to the Christian year. After surveying the history of Lectionaries and chronicling its recent reform, the book establishes the foundations of a more liturgically-based understanding of the Scriptures by studying such essential, yet less conspicuous, aspects of the Lectionary as the principles that underlie its selection of biblical passages and the patterns of reading distribution that structure the Sundays, feast days, and seasons of the liturgical year. Pastors, homilists, worship leaders, lectors, cantors, and students of liturgy through this book may heighten their understanding of the Lectionary and their appreciation of the liturgy.

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The only problem I had with the book is that in this era of Ecumenism and dialogue with other faiths, especially the Jewish-Christian dialogue, I was very surprised the see the Hebrew scriptures referred to as "Old Testament". The term "Old Testament" gives the impression that they are not relevant any longer. The Hebrew scriptures are the foundation of the Christian scriptures and are therefore vital and relevant for all Christians. Let us call the Hebrew Scriptures by their rightful name.

A Great ResourceAug 16, 2011
By Paul A. Nelson
There's a lot of thought that has gone into the selection of Scripture verses that many congregations use as part of their Sunday morning worship, and if you're interested in some additional background on that process, then Normand Bonneau's book is a great place to start. This is a brief (under 200 pages) and accessible history of the practice of integrating Scripture into public worship. He begins (briefly) with the use of Scripture in Judaism before Christianity, spends a little more time on the use of Scripture from the early church to the Council of Trent in 1570, and then spends a majority of time fleshing out the contributions of Vatican II and the creation of a redesigned three-year lectionary cycle that has formed the basis for the three-year lectionary used in many congregations in the LCMS.

Bonneau is a Catholic academic and this book is limited to the Catholic contributions to the lectionary. However, this is foundational information that is useful and valuable in better understanding the various permutations that have evolved, all based primarily on the Catholic Ordo Lectionum Missae, including the Revised Common Lectionary that is the basis of Scripture selection for the LCMS.

If you're ever called upon to preach or direct studies based on the Sunday reading selections and your congregation utilizes the three-year lectionary cycle, this is a fantastic resource. If you've ever wanted to better understand some of the guiding principles for how those particular verses are selected, this is a great resource. If you're part of a worship team charged with integrating the musical and visual and Scriptural elements of the service into a cohesive whole, this is a great resource. And this could be a great resource for a youth or young adult study aimed at helping them understand that worship is not accidental or incidental, but a carefully thought out experience whereby we receive the blessings of our loving Father.