Liturgy and the social sciences

"Christian ritual, Roman Guardini believed, is not the contemplative act of an individual but the public deed of an assembly -- a community gathered in faith and prayer in obedience to Jesus' command. Can people and presiders today relearn this communal way of 'doing'? Can they learn to 'read' ritual acts simply by doing them, by performing them -- without being self-conscious, theatrical and fussy? Over the past forty years, Christian liturgists have sought to reinterpret ritual's multiple meanings by transplanting insights from the social sciences (sociology, anthropology). Have the transplants worked? This book tries to answer that question." [Back cover].