Thalia

Not for the first time, reviewers have had very mixed feelings about Dr Barclay's writing, and his approach to the theology of the sacraments has been found wanting. On the other hand, considerable personal correspondence and requests to use the liturgy with which the book concludes show that once again, for the ordinary reader, the author has managed to bring new meaning to what he claims has become 'a ritual rather than a reality'. 'When we can neither grasp nor teach the truth,' Dr Barclay goes on, 'it is better to get hold of some part of the truth which we can understand and on which we can act. All I have tried to do is to examine the history of the sacrament, and then to set down a view of it which I know is incomplete and which I know ineans something vital to those to whom it has been through the years presented. Dr Norman Pittenger, from a very different tradition, echoes the thoughts of others in commenting: 'Whatever more we may wish to say about this central act of Christian worship, Dr Barclay has given us its lwart, which is Jesus Christ himself, known, worshipped, loved and obeyed. For this every reader of his book will thank him.'