Worship Weblog
Interdisciplinary Application
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
‘Seeing the Savior’ exhibit at John Knox Presbyterian in Seattle
John Knox Presbyterian Church is hosting a new exhibit through Christians in the Visual Arts, Seeing the Savior, through the end of July. From the Annunciation to his Second Coming, 34 insightful and colorful interpretations of the birth, ministry, Passion, ascension, and return of the Lord are masterfully portrayed by 13 artists from a variety of artistic and ethnic backgrounds.
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B&C on ‘Sundays in America’
Review of ‘Sundays in America’ at Books&Culture’s website:
I’m trying to think of something that’s as strange as church. As frankly odd. As consistently peculiar. My own church, for instance. I love it. But I wonder how it might appear to a Martian. Or, to John the Baptist, say. Or, for that matter, to Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith. Shea, a writer who made it her business to visit fifty-two churches in a year, and to write a chapter about each one. It’s a lot of churches. It’s a lot of chapters.
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Monday, June 30, 2008
60 Minutes on the persecution of Christians in Iraq
An abandoned Christian church in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora.
60 Minutes re-aired this story last night on Christian congregations in Iraq. It was a reminder of the harsh persecution that has fallen on Christians in Iraq, most of whom have either fled or been killed by Islamic radicals. And it was a cause for gratitude and awe to see what God is doing in the face of death through Canon Andrew White, a courageous priest ministering in Baghdad (learn more about his foundation, his books, and his work). He and his wounded flock need the fervent prayers of Christians around the world.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
Christmas in July? (Advent in August?)
Today is the longest day of the year, and so, naturally, my thoughts turn to ... Advent. Maybe because this means we’re halfway to the next longest night of the year, which for one church makes for a powerfully resonant Advent service. But on this day of bright sunshine, let me ask worship planners: Christmas in July? Advent in August?
Why not? Although many preachers get to November and wonder how in the world they’re going to tell the same story all over again the following month, I (and I’m just a biblical studies student, not a preacher or
worship planner, so I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to planning) find that one month isn’t enough for me to explore all the rich themes and layers of that great mystery, the Incarnation. So if you’re curious, or just looking for something to fill those summer months, I’d be intrigued by a summer series on the Incarnation.
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A picture of connections in the biblical narrative
From the Everyday Liturgy blog:
Seems some people keen on visualizing the narrative intersections of the Bible have linked all the different cross-refrences, metaphors, images, and stories together in a biblical mosaic of color.The alternating grey and white at the bottom are the different books of the Bible, and the colored arcs connecting them are all the different narrative strands.
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Oldest Christian Church found in Jordan?
We often say that worship wasn’t invented yesterday; we inherit centuries of Christian practice. No matter what this cave actually is, this news release is a reminder that our liturgical heritage has deep roots.
Excavators in Rihab, northern Jordan, say they have uncovered a cave underneath a third-century church that they believe was used by the very first Christians between the years 33, about when Jesus was crucified, and 70 A.D., when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. The cave contains a circular structure that may have been an apse, and the floor of the later church above contains a mosaic that refers to the “70 beloved by God and the divine”—a reference, the excavators say, to the first followers of Jesus, who went to that area of Jordan to flee persecution.
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Christian History on Spirituals
From Christian History (as featured in a recent newsletter)
Militant abolitionist Thomas W. Higginson was the commander of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first Union regiment made up of freed slaves. In his camps, his soldiers would break out into song, which Higginson wrote down and published in the Atlantic Monthly.
“These quaint religious songs were to the men more than a source of relaxation, they were a stimulus to courage and a tie to heaven,” he wrote.
“By these they could sing themselves, as had their fathers before them, out of the contemplation of their own low estate, into the sublime scenery of the Apocalypse. I remember that this minor-keyed pathos used to seem to me almost too sad to dwell upon, while slavery seemed destined to last for generations; but now that their patience has had its perfect work, history cannot afford to lose this portion of its record.”
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Friday, May 23, 2008
Blog posts from Philosophy and Liturgy
Blog posts from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Related Post
Initial report from John Wilson of Books&Culture
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Thursday, May 22, 2008
Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 11
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
A panel just concluded the conference with reflections and suggestions for future progress in the area of philosophy and liturgy.
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Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 10
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Terence Cuneo just spoke on icons in the Orthodox tradition as “vehicles of divine speech.”
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Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 8
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
John Witvliet began the day with philosophical and theological reflections on a 4th-century eucharistic text, before Ludger Viefhues-Bailey spoke on “Displacing Bodies: Ritualization and Resistance.”
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 7
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
In the most explicitly liturgical paper so far, Reinhard Hutter is discussing how the liturgy of the adoration of the sacrament articulates the belief of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.
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Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 6
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Jamie Smith began by critiquing 20th-century philosophy of religion as clinging to rationalism and studying only the beliefs of religion rather than the lived experience and ritual practice, and reducing believers to merely holders of ideas rather than living beings. In this sense, he said, philosophers are working with the wrong tools—“thinking about thinking” rather than thinking about practice, ritual, and lived experience. Creeds, for example, did not originate as abstract statements of belief, but originated as prayers within a worshiping community. And so philosophers of religion, Smith said, will need to gain an interest and ability to consider the affective as well as the cognitive in religion.
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Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 5
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Sarah Coakley’s paper, “Beyond ‘Belief’,” followed this outline:
Introduction: How Can Liturgy be ‘True’?
I. Perceiving God: ‘Doxastic Practices’ and Liturgy
II. Feminist Epistemology and Knowledge by Relationship
III. The Spiritual Senses and Liturgical Cognition of Christ
In part II, Coakley drew on the fascinating insight that human knowledge is in part relational and affective; we may get knowledge about concrete objects by visual perception, but we know deeper truths not just by perception but through relationships. This, she said, is surely true of our relationship with God in worship. In part III, Coakley drew on patristic treatment of the “spiritual senses” and how they help us perceive, know, and become better image-bearers of, God. And so, she said, we can rightly consider what we experience in worship via our senses not as a complement to what we believe, but integrally formative of our beliefs.
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Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 4
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Angelo Cardita of the Advanced Liturgical Institute in Barcelona called for a more sophisticated model for thinking of ritual and belief--or “ritual action and critical thought.” After surveying existing material on the relationship between worship and belief--including Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium--Cardita gave this conclusion, as stated on his outline: “Philosophy is called to create a hermeneutical ‘context’--for Liturgy’s Practice and Wisdom--in such a way that the religious intentional ‘pretext’ can be re-proposed to the socio-anthropological ‘text.’”
The first respondent said this paper was a classic example of how this conference represents an opportunity for new understanding about science, religion, sociology, worship, and how they relate and interact--and for new opportunity for fresh dialogue among Christians, Jews, and Muslims about the deeper significance of their liturgical practice.
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