Worship Weblog
Friday, June 20, 2008
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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Alban Weekly on the problem of trying to ‘meet needs’
Food for thought from a recent Alban Weekly:
Defining the church’s ministry by responding to people’s needs is a common notion; but, because of the blurred line between want and need, no matter how much we speak of needs or perceived needs, it puts the church in the position of being defined not by its faith or history but by people’s wants. This trivializes the church, its mission, and its outreach. It eviscerates the heart of the church’s message and cuts the church off from its identity as the people of Christ. But the attitudes engendered in people who come to congregations expecting the church to make meeting their needs (or, more likely, their wants) a priority also harms the church. Simply put, when we say the church is to meet people’s needs, many people personalize that message. They hear, “If I go to church, those folk will take care of me.” In selling the church as a place where people’s needs are met, we draw people for whom there is, at least in their perception, an implied promise that if they come to the church it will provide them with what they think they need. The measurement of a congregation then becomes personal: “Is it meeting my needs?”
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 9
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Peter Ochs led us in vibrant small group reflections on philosophy and Jewish morning prayer—in particular, what happens to the “I,” or sense of self in the act of prayer and through the words of prayer.
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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Philosophy and Liturgy - Update 3
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Josh Reeves spoke about why philosophers have historically prioritized belief over practice, theory over action. He traced this back to Aristotle, who prioritized ‘epistome’ (theoretical knowledge) over ‘tekne’ (practical skill), especially as Aristotle’s thought was appropriated in medieval philosophy. The empiricist emphasis on “disembodied knowledge over embodied knowledge” led philosophers to fear error above all else, and thus to consider skepticism safer than belief. In religion, however, actions are essential to belief; consider, for instance, the gospels’ emphasis on authentic action as superior to words, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Later, though, the Reformers’ critique of over-emphasis on ritual led to an overcompensation in which cognitive belief was again privileged over practice, and the emphasis in liturgy was on mental activity.
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Philosophy and Liturgy Conference - Update 2
Update from the Philosophy and Liturgy conference:
Howard Wettstein began the day with a philosophical exposition of the Shema of Deut. 6, discussing the question of intimacy in the use of the divine name, and the messianic hope of divine unity. (Audio will be posted soon.)
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