"Worship by Faith Alone" by Zac Hicks. A Review

 

Since the early days of my Christian trek, one of my devotional partners has been The Book of Common Prayer, specifically the 1662, 1928, 1979, and 2019 iterations. So my interest was piqued by the title of a new 230-page softback, “Worship by Faith Alone: Thomas Cranmer, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Reformation of Liturgy”. This manuscript was penned by Zac Hicks, pastor of Church of the Cross in Birmingham, Alabama. And it is one of the latest installments in IVP Academic series “Dynamics of Christian Worship”. The author’s thesis is how the Reformation emphasis on how justification is by faith alone shaped Cranmer’s liturgical revisions and reforms. The author’s aim is bigger than just a narrow set of interests. His goal is to attempt “to build a cumulative case for how the vision of formational power of the naked gospel can be unleashed in the worship services of the people of God” (xv). This easy-to-read dossier is geared to liturgists, worship leaders, pastors, theologians from the broader spectrum of the Protestant camp, but most anyone could gain from this work.

 

As already pointed out, Hicks is convinced that Thomas Cranmer was fixated on the gospel and how his “evangelical convictions drove his liturgical decisions” (4). And by “evangelical convictions” Hicks builds the case for a very “Lutheran” Cranmer, one who emphasized the distinction between law and gospel, works and faith. For the author, Cranmer’s liturgical via media was not a middle way between Catholicism and the Reformation, but between “the Lutheran reformation (soteriology) and the Reformed reformation (sacramentology)” (65, footnote 1). The whole volume hammers this line of thought, showing reasons, giving evidence, drawing in from Cranmer scholars and Cranmer’s own writings. Though I wasn’t fully convinced, yet it was a delightful read that added a ton of light on phrases, rubrics, revisions, and additions in the prayer book, and gave me a greater appreciation for how classically Protestant it is.

 

As Hicks notes, “Liturgy does not explain theology. It does theology” (29), and he brings forth a truckload of detail to prove his point. The writer walks through what he calls the grammar of Sola Fide in The Book of Common Prayer (primarily the 1549 and 1552 editions), specifically the texture that comes from Galatians 2:20, “not I, but Christ.” He takes readers along to delve into Morning Prayer, the rubrics, the Communion Service, Collects, the Book of Homilies, and more. At times he takes original texts from the Sarum Missal and Gelasian Sacramentary and lays Cranmer’s revised versions beside them to show the reformational rationale behind the Archbishop’s changes. Once he has hammered out his case, Hicks then ends with a chapter then applies what is learned to contemporary worship in churches outside of prayer book tradition, and what they can learn about intentionally keeping the centrality of the gospel in worship. The author wants us to purposely gospel-grammared. I liked the way he describes it, “the Archbishop was attempting to create a liturgy whose chief objective was to create hearing aids for the gospel” (193).

 

Many readers who have used some version of The Book of Common Prayer will quickly recognize that the author is not happy with most of the modifications in 1928, 1979 or 2019, and he gives his justifications. Further, others, like myself, may not walk away convinced of a dogmatically Lutheranized Cranmer with the huge gap between law and gospel. Nevertheless, I do see more clearly how the Archbishop was self-consciously Protestant, and applied the gospel thickly to his revisions, even to the formalities. As Hicks notes, “Ceremony preaches, and Cranmer knew it” (139). Oddly enough, as I discovered when almost done with reading the volume, Hicks is a Presbyterian minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. He writes appreciatively of Cranmer, but from outside the normal channels of The Book of Common Prayer. Like me, he has found the prayer book a helpful devotional partner.

 

“Worship by Faith Alone” was a pleasure to read. This should be in the hands of liturgists, worship leaders, pastors, and anyone else concerned with the worship of God and the gospel of Christ. I happily recommend the work.

 

My thanks to IVP Academic. I asked for a review copy and they speedily sent me the one used for this review. They made no demands, other than that I would give my own evaluation of the book. This I have done freely.