Pierre HEGY, Worship as Community Drama: Introduction to Liturgical Evaluation. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. 2019. Pp. ix + 217. $28.00 Reviewed by Joseph MARTOS, Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, MO, published in Theological Studies, 2019, Vol. 80(4).

For a long time, liturgy has been the province of liturgists. No longer. Here come the sociologists. Pierre Hégy has been writing about Catholic worship and liturgical renewal since 2012. Conversant in French, Spanish and English, Hégy has drawn comparative data on liturgical practice and participation from France and Latin America as well as from the United States.

In this volume, Hégy uses a sociological model for analyzing and comparing worship events developed by Randall Collins, an internationally recognized theorist. Using this model, Hégy first describes interactive processes such as basic background information, the ritual process itself, observed emotions and attitudes, and apparent closeness of participants to others and to God. This is followed by an analysis of outcomes in the areas of community leadership and growth, relationship patterns, moral consensus, and spiritual and emotional energy.

Hégy applies this interpretive model to American TV masses, pontifical masses at Notre Dame de Paris, papal masses at the Vatican and during World Youth Day celebrations, two ordinary Catholic parishes, an extraordinary lay-run parish, an Evangelical/Pentecostal church, a unique African American church in Chicago, and the Zairean Rite in Africa.

Using this type of sociological analysis, Hégy is able to show that TV masses, although the least particpative, exhibit the fundamental ritualism and sacramentalism of formal Catholic worship. The liturgies in the Cathedral of Notre Dame display the social drama of French elite culture. Papal masses, which are meticulously choreographed by Vatican functionaries, are highly segmented, illustrating the segmentation of the church’s organizational structure. Weekend liturgies in the selected Hispanic and Anglo communities illustrate the social drama of low expectations. In contrast, the single Sunday mass of a non-geographical parish, which is largely run by community members under the guidance of a lay administer, shows how self-governance and social outreach contribute to a sense of community and raise the level of emotional energy.

Hégy’s treatment of an Evangelical/Pentecostal church shifts the focus from Sunday worship to other non-liturgical dynamics such as intense emotions and involvement, but also a high degree of social conformity based on the pastor’s literal interpretation of certain scripture passages. An analysis of the history and liturgy of a popular African American Catholic congregation shows how a genuinely intercultural worship experience can be built on the basic structure provided by the Roman Missal. Moving further in the direction of inculturation, the Zairean Rite, used in some but not all parts of the Congo basin, demonstrates how cultural imagination can create a worship experience that is genuinely African while firmly rooted in Catholicism.

The book does not directly suggest specific liturgical reforms, but it offers a way to break open liturgical rituals in order to penetrate their internal dynamics and their connectedness to the influences of leadership and community involvement. In general, the more limited the community’s involvement, the more formality there is in the liturgical performance. In contrast, the greater the community involvement in designing and implementing a worship experience, the more likely the ritual will be experienced as an expression of faith commitments and communal spirituality.

Hégy’s sociological efforts have broken new ground in the area of liturgical analysis and reform. It remains to be seen whether pastoral leaders, both diocesan and parochial, will plant new seeds for enhancing and transforming Catholic worship.