John Dowden (1840–1910)

John Dowden lived from 1840 t0 1910, and was Anglican bishop of Edinburgh from 1886 until his death. His love for and and knowledge of his subject shines from every page. While many questions a modern reader, a post-liturgical renewal reader, might ask of the Book of Common Prayer remain unanswered, it would be churlish to journey through Dowden's book without renewing or developing for the first time a respect for this text that so shaped theological thought, not to mention sociological conventions, in the English-speaking world for so long. Dowden's own commitment to liturgical revision was not really realized until 1928, or perhaps the post-Vatican II liturgical revisions that swept the world fifty years after his death. It is impossible to tell if he would have liked the end result, but there is no doubt he was a wise and forceful pioneer along the way.

Ironically this is I believe a far more useful book than the more influemtial tome of Proctor and Frere. A glance at on-line booksellers indicates this gem has at last been re-printed: may it find a new audience and remind us all that not all modernization is improvement - and not all conservation is wisdom!… (mere)