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Home > About Us > Collaborating Institutions > SCS > Luce Seminars > 2003Attempt to Summarize the Seminar
Prospects of Historic Liturgy in a Post Modern Culture
By Michael Kesar
Lively discussion was facilitated by our leader. It centered around the assigned reading of books and articles for that day. Dr. Spinks usually made some opening remarks (1 minute or less) or asked a lead in question before the group began with questions, comments, critiques of the readings at hand. All participants contributed at one time or another.
The book list included:
White, Introduction to Christian Worship A general text with some interesting tidbits
Bradshaw, The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy
Conclusion: we don't know that much about early church worship
Grenz, A Primer on Postmodernism A good intro authored by an evangelical.
Willis, Common Culture An British Sociological Study about culture
Warren, Seeing Through the Media An RC manifesto to be cautious about our media consumption
Beaudoin, Virtual Faith A book about Gen X spirituality. Some good points, but several flaws
Lyon, Jesus in Disneyland A sociological view of Post Mod. Emphasizes Mass media and consumerism
Ward, The Postmodern God A collection of essays by Postmodern philosophers. Heavy reading
Lakeland, Postmodernity An attempt to outline what Christianity has to say (and how to say it) to Postmodernism.
The group thought it was mostly a sellout and a surrender to prevailing philosophy
Stewart-Sykes, On the Apostolic Tradition Critical edition of the ancient document The Apostolic Tradition
Bradshaw,
Johnson, Phillips, The Apostolic Tradition Critical edition of same document with analysis of related documents.
Webber, Ancient, Future Faith Proposal to recover liturgical insight from the 1st 4 centuries of church history.
Pickstock, After Writing On the Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy Bizarre unfocused book from England
Very hard to understand for ALL in the class.
Torevell, Losing the Sacred. Ritual, Modernity and Liturgical Reform Analysis of Vatican II issues.
Osborne, Christian Sacraments in a Postmodern World RC analysis of how to describe sacraments to PM thinkers
Article List:
Lints, The Vinyl Narratives: The Metanarratives of Postmodernity and the Recovery of A Churchly Theology
Webster, Eschatology, Anthropology and Postmodernity
MaCullagh, The Truth of History - The Meaning of Texts
Hayes, Tradition in the Anglican Liturgical Movement 1943-1989
Bradshaw, Redating the Apostolic Tradition: Some Preliminary Steps
Brent, Hippolytus and the Roman Church of the Third Century
Bedingfield, The Dramatic Liturgy of Anglo-Saxon England Analysis of 10 th century liturgies
Stauffer, Worship and Culture in Dialogue 200 pages: Lutheran World Federation Studies on worship and culture.
Wainwright, Doxology
Chupungco, Liturgical Inculturation
Mannion, Liturgy and the Present Crisis of Culture
Spinks, Liturgical Inculturation and Modern Western Liturgical Revision
Seargent, Seeker Churches
Storrar, From Braveheart to Faint-heart: Worship and Culture in Postmodern Scotland
Common Order 1996 The new prayer book of the Church of Scotland
Common Worship 2000 The new prayer book of the Church of England
Guest Speakers: Dr. Robert Webber, Dr. Todd Johnson, Carol Wade
Survey of Topics and Discussion:
Postmodernism is certainly central to discussions. The term itself has some polarities of meaning. In philosophical circles, it refers to the period of development that is a reaction to the immediately preceding era of modernism.
Modernism was birthed in the Enlightenment, a period of new thinking and ideas that burst forth on Western Culture in the late 1700's and continued into the 1900's. As part of its focus on the sovereign individual, Modernism features a sustained belief that individuals can produce principals or metanarratives to explain the grand scheme of our universe. The most obvious example would be the way science (which has grown dramatically since the Enlightenment) has endeavored to categorize, explain and systematize a view of our world. While in some senses this idea has been in opposition to central ideas of the revelation and the supernatural as expressed in Christianity, modernism has also shaped Christianity by fostering: an attitude of individualism, systemization and rational apologetics. Indeed a systemized, categorized view of religion can be very modern in its way of thinking. In Philosophy, modern developments eventually led thinkers gradually to the conclusion that we cannot know (that is prove with certainty) anything beyond our own existence.
At the zenith of philosophical modernism, the certainty of a personal (or even conceptual) God had been abandoned, along with any basis for moral systems and universal meanings. This led to a nihilism of hopelessness and despair. In science, twentieth century theories and discoveries have lessened the scientific hope of ever figuring out the 'whole picture' of the universe. Instead, scientists (especially physicists) have become willing to accept a universe that is full of ambiguities and inconsistencies (or perhaps even chaos) rather than one with a 'grand design'.
Postmodernism asserts that: not only are the central unifying truths of the universe not apparent or knowable (modernism was the attempt to find them), they do not even exist, except perhaps as virtual, phantomlike concepts which we create with our temporary strands of meaning linked together in the chaos of the cosmos. This leaves truth as a shifting thing, which can evaporate as human constructs change. One metaphor for this is the hologram. It is created by light which passes through a tubular, transparent object. The hologram is visible and real in one sense, but it does not exist apart from the tube and the light which create it. If the balance of the tube or light are changed, the hologram is altered or even destroyed. So to, as the flow of human culture and interrelationships shifts and changes, our truths are altered or even eliminated. Another analogy would be a virtual reality such as a web site. Is it real? It has content and, in a sense, locality, but these are created by the flow of electrons in electrical current through a web of interrelated chips, and wires. Apart from the electronic devices, the website does not exist, yet our experience of it can seem very real. In Postmodernism, similar things have been said about language and the meaning of words. The assertion is made that, apart from the meaning they acquire from their interrelationships with other words, words themselves do not have meaning, that is, they do not correspond with any eternally true concepts. Their reality or truth is dependant on their place within the web of language. Postmodern thinkers who have accepted such thinking can then reinterpret the past and propose that truths were in fact created or manipulated to obtain power or manipulate social structures. Postmodernism, then, having abandoned the hope for universal or systematic truth, seeks to assemble random connections and chains of meaning in a sea of uncertainty and contradiction. We looked at the writings of Foccoult, Derrida, de Certeau, Girard, Rorty, Millbank and others who exemplify postmodernism.
Some sociologists view postmodernism from a significantly different angle. For them it consists of the present era which is dominated by 1) mass media and communications technology and 2) marketing, consumerism and a preoccupation with the unreal (i.e. Disneyland fantasy) and that which is unreally connected or sequenced (i.e. TV, MTV, Disneyworld parade of nations at Epcot Center). Some of these phenomenon correspond with what seems to be an effort to control time and space and create idealized representations of the past. The creation of surreal environments (from shopping malls to theme parks) and virtual tours (which bring distant objects and places to our desktop) are examples of this. The constant juxtaposition of conflicting, non-sequential information makes us willing to accept contradiction and ambiguity in other areas of life (including religion). Social trends also include a distrust of institutions, authority figures and history.
As Postmodernism turns away from organized, rational explanations for reality, it sometime turns toward and embraces mystery and enchantment. This may include an interest in Medieval and ancient themes (which are pre-modern) in the form of ancient church rites, superstition, Eastern religions and New Age thinking.
The discussion of liturgy in our time leads to some obvious issues and conceptual trends which have been pivotal in the shaping of recent liturgical reforms. These include: Vatican II, the Liturgical Movement, and continuing debate on documents and practices of early Christian Worship.
Vatican II brought seemingly monumental changes to the face of Roman Catholic worship. It was also an influence on and an expression of the worship trends within the wider Christian context. There is ongoing debate as to whether the reforms of Vatican II were an improvement, a disaster, or something in between for the worshipping communities of the Roman church. Some salient characteristics are: the use of vernacular over Latin, the participation of the laity in the mass, viewing the mass more as a corporate celebration of the assembly rather than an act performed by the priest on their behalf. Some assert that Vatican II also robbed Roman Catholic worship of its transcendent and holy character.
The Liturgical Movement was an overarching trend in the 19th and 20th centuries to revitalize liturgical practices. One element of this was an effort to find a liturgy that was closer to that of the early church. In some cases, it resulted in a reemphasis on ritual, formality in certain denominations Other elements included seeing the church as community, increasing lay participation, renewed emphasis on Eucharist, renewed emphasis on the Bible. One of the logs fueling this recovery effort was the discovery of an ancient document (rather a virtual document, whose existence was deduced from quotes of it in various later documents) called The Apostolic Tradition. This document is a list of instructions for execution of various church rituals, including ordination and Holy Communion. Earlier study suggested that this document was written by a Roman pastor named Hipolytus around 215 AD. This gave it almost unprecedented authority as being among the earliest examples of such documents and so perhaps the closest to describing the practices of churches who had been guided by the apostles less than 200 years earlier. Since The Apostolic Tradition describes a Eucharist at the ordination of a bishop, the ordination of a presbyter and the ordination of a deacon, the meanings of these rites and offices are often examined. Baptism practices are also described. The dating and authorship of this document have now been called into question. This means that further evaluation is in order of the significant changes that were made in some liturgies under the assumption of the apostolic authority of this document.
Another significant movement is underway among evangelicals (whose liturgy is based on 19th century models with 20th century nuances) to recover worship practices from the first 600 years of the church. This movement is significant in that it locates a body of liturgical heritage that is common to all denominations. The champion of this movement is Robert Webber. Webber also has a new book out tracing the development of a new generation of evangelical thinkers/leaders and studies how they accommodate postmodern thinking.
Another topic was the tension between Liturgical Classicism VS Liturgical Inculturalization. Reflection on how to proceed with liturgy in today's world is integrally related the broader issue of liturgical inculturation. The liturgy of the Christian church has been around longer than the New Testament. It began shortly after the resurrection in the Palestinian culture 2000 years ago. As the church moves through time and spreads through the world, the question of how to translate the worship service for new times and cultures must always be asked. First, one asks what the unchanging elements of the liturgy are. These elements must be translated. Then it is decided how much of the prevailing new culture is interpolated and how. For this topic we read several articles on liturgical incluturation from various worship journals. Lutheran World Federation studies from the 1990s were also read. The principles of inculturation are often derived from the study of situations of translating the liturgy for foreign, non-Western cultures.
The phenomenon of Post modern culture has invoked various coping strategies from the church for the church's liturgy. These include:
Maintaining a premodern liturgy (as in Eastern Orthodoxy and other groups to a lesser extent): Renewed interest in mystery and a willingness to depend on revelation instead of attempting a modernist struggle for comprehendible system has made this a viable option for worship forms.
Maintain modern liturgies with or without modifications.
Create a new liturgy that targets a certain market but is disconnected with historic forms. This thinking is reflected in Seeker services, contemporary services and others which incorporate entertainment models, pop music and an intentional disconnection from all previous worship forms (ancient, medieval, Reformation)
Create new liturgies from various or original sources. This type of effort is often an attempt to connect with postmodernism. It may emphasize the various postmodern ideas such as relativism, eclecticism, discontinuity, mystery (or enchantment?) and hi-tech media. One example of this is the Thomas Mass which is popular in some places in Finland and Germany (has a sort of Montessori activity period in the midst of the liturgy). Another example is the liturgy at St Gregory of Nyssa, an unusual Episcopalian church in California (dancing, inclusive attitude, interactive sermon, original sung liturgy with no accompaniment, many cultural borrowings). We saw videos of both of these.
One day was spent on the Willow Creek Seeker model. Philip Johnson views it as a ritual intentionally disconnected from the tradition of the church of all times and places. Its roots were in youth work that Hybels did before founding Willow Creek. Some of Willow Creek's approach has changed over the years to include more social work to modify their small groups. Their drama is criticized because it only 'sets up the problem' for the day's sermon so is not true artistic drama (which would include a fuller story).
Hi-tech worship practices mentioned included:
A church which has many rooms for worship (with varying music styles) and closed circuit TV to beam the same sermon to everyone.
A church which has its own contemporary worship service but shows tapes of Willow Creek sermons each week. There is no ordained staff.
This summary ends as abruptly as the seminar. No grand conclusions or master plan resulted. It was a chance for scholars to gather and reflect on issues. Our charge is now to create scholarly projects of our own to add to the scholarly reflection on these subjects. We are to keep one another posted on our progress. We will meet to report to each other and critique each other's work in January.
Projects