Free Republic

Iconoclasm and Liturgy by Martin Mosebach The case is at first glance a banal one. The church concerned does not rank among the flashpoints of Germany’s ecclesiastical history, nor does it stem from one of the great architectural epochs; the architects and artists who worked jointly on its completion are for the most part unknown. What happened in this Church of Saint Raphael in the Heidelberg suburb of Neuenheim is, however, exemplary for thousands of churches the world over, for masterpieces and anonymous creations, for cathedrals and chapels. Hardly a church remained unscathed in the aftermath of the Second Vatican...

Early this year a book dealing with Catholic tradition and liturgy was prominently and favorably reviewed in the leading German language newspapers. The American observer may be surprised to learn that the work reviewed is neither a summons to ongoing revolution nor a product of clerical academia singing the praises of the status quo. His astonishment would increase when he ascertains that Haeresie der Formlosigkeit makes the most succinct and cogent argument for the traditional Roman rite yet to appear in any language. And this work is the achievement of a novelist, a profound thinker ­ and a "Traditionalist" Catholic!