“Do This . . . is a valuable contribution to the conversation about worship that is ongoing between practitioners and scholars. Professors who teach advanced courses in liturgical studies will find their reading lists enriched by McCall’s foray into the drama that is liturgical enactment.” —Anglican Theological Review
“McCall has done all those who toil in that field a great service by showing that a non text-based methodology can be brought to bear on liturgy as an event. He deliberately tries to avoid any reliance on text to understand liturgy as performed, although he appeals to it here and there. Many have tried to develop a methodology, for the liturgical event, but McCall has largely succeeded.” —Theoforum
“Far from being an apologia pro ostentatione liturgica, this is a serious attempt to explore performance as “a many-faceted model for approaching all of that reality which can only be, for human beings, symbolic and enacted in our institutions, relationships, art, and rituals” (3). It is the most important book I have read in liturgical studies in the last five years.” —Worship
“ . . . this is a valuable contribution to the corpus of liturgical studies.” —Church Times
“McCall highlights the dramatic character of liturgy in this book, giving it theoretical substance. 'Liturgy as performance' is not intended here in the informal sense panned by ecclesiastical authorities as a widespread popular misinterpretation of liturgical 'active participation.' Rather, McCall is concerned with theory, much of it philosophical-from Aristotle to Bakhtin.” —Choice
“In this excellent book, Richard McCall addresses the question of what it means to speak of the liturgy as drama. This claim is often made, but generally without adequate attention to what this claim actually means. In Do This, McCall undertakes this task and offers to his readers a thorough analysis of the multi-faceted issues that the question raises. McCall brings to this task not only his knowledge of liturgical history and theology, but also his extensive professional experience in theatre. The central act of the Christian Eucharist is placed within the context of the wide range of human performative acts, with a careful analysis of both similarities and differences. McCall's book offers enormous insight into this aspect of the Eucharistic rite.” —Louis Weil, Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics, Church Divinity School of the Pacific
"In this splendid contribution to liturgical theology, Richard McCall provides an excellent analysis of liturgical memorial through the lens of performance theory. In the course of the book McCall constructs a profound account of the liturgy as Trinitarian theology." —John F. Baldovin, S.J., Weston Jesuit School of Theology
“Richard McCall’s Do This is an insightful work of scholarship that brings the tools of performance studies to bear on the doing of liturgical action. McCall moves freely between nascent church dramas, Aristotle’s Poetics, liturgical theology, and historical reconstructions of medieval liturgy. Paralleling recent work in performance and cultural studies, McCall understands that liturgy is first and foremost a performed event in a particular context—not a text or theology.” —Troy Messenger, Union Theological Seminary
"Richard McCall takes what is perhaps the most obvious yet most neglected element in the liturgy, its dramatic character, and gives it superb theoretical substance. Liturgical studies can have many starting points but the most neglected of all is Jesus' command: Do this in memory of me. While the ’this’ can be codified into rubrics, the essence of the command, i.e., the ‘do’ in ‘Do this’ is that it must be performed. Dr. McCall deftly and brilliantly explores the nature of such performance and its implications for liturgical studies. In this, he has advanced the field significantly." —Alejandro Garcia-Rivera, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
