Ruth C. Duck, Worship for the Whole People of God: Vital Worship for the 21st Century (Book Review)

Ruth C. Duck. Worship for the Whole People of God: Vital Worship for the 21st Century. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2013. 358 pages. ISBN-13 ‏: ‎ 978-0664234270 “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb . . . .” 1 By the optimal use of this inclusive text in the Introduction, Ruth C. Duck demonstrates the primary focus and purpose for her worship textbook (also its title): worship for the whole people of God. Duck acknowledges four liturgical principles growing out of the Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture2 as the key foundation for her inclusive liturgical propaganda: transcultural, contextual (both nature and culture), counter-cultural, and crosscultural. Thus, Duck aims to provide a liturgy textbook that can eventually facilitate each liturgical assembly’s active participation in worship in its own contextualized cultural situation, yet remain widely open to diverse other-cultural expressions of the same transcultural God. She is keenly aware that today’s multi-cultural and inter-denominational worship classroom, not to mention the ecclesial context, demands critical resource