What Worship Has To Do With It? Interpreting Life Liturgically

Praxis, 2022

In North America, across the political spectrum, we have a strong tendency to reduce religion to nothing more than a tool to promote our own socio-political views. This is a natural consequence of our hyper-polarized culture and our impoverished view of "religion." It is also, however, a problem-particularly for those inspired by the call to renewal through an integration of the quest for social justice and the pursuit of the spiritual life. By focusing on the value of participating in religious liturgy, I show how a renewed respect for religion can help the proponents of social justice fulfil some of the foundational desires of the original aggiornamento movement and, thereby, to bring to fruition some of its dormant promise. This includes, in particular, the desire for social harmony and the desire to pay greater attention to our concrete reality.

2008

In this article we present two perspectives of the relationship between liturgy and the needs of the society as the church seeks to live out her faith. The one perspective is from the white Dutch Reformed Church, while the other is from the predominantly black Presbyterian Church. The main struggle of their faith is lived within a Western and an African culture. Some of the struggles are common, while others are different because of their background. We propose cooperative projects that are already running in some areas between the white Dutch Reformed Church and the Uniting Reformed Church. That can be broadened by ecumenical cooperation between churches in order to address the problem.

Neotestamentica, 2001

The article explores moral challenges and opportunities facing South African churches at the beginning of a new century. It sets out by briefly describing major hermeneutic and societal shifts during the past decades. Numerous structural changes have been accomplished in the South African society, particularly since 1994. However, these have not always been accompanied by attitudinal and behavioural changes, even among Christians. On the level of a collective consciousness the scars of a deeply divided society prevail. Secondly, some implications of these shifts are investigated - for South African churches in general, and religious education and (Reformed) theological training in particular. Serious and complex issues facing these institutions are described as essentially ligtheologicall/ig in nature. Thirdly, as counterfoil to the present so-called "moral crisis" in South Africa, the article investigates aspects of the New Testament's "rhetoric of theological vi...

This thesis, providing a metaphysical grounding for liturgical participation, argues that ‘active participation’ in the liturgy must be understood principally as our participation in God’s act and particularly in the act of Christ and only secondarily as our ritual involvement. Engaging Thomas Aquinas, Joseph Ratzinger, and Catherine Pickstock, as well as Neoplatonist philosophy, both Pagan and Christian, this thesis proposes that this should be understood in terms of theurgy, which is the human participation in divine action, which finds its consummation in the Incarnation. This thesis argues that without the Incarnation, all acts will remain extrinsic and imposed but that acts can become real and intrinsic precisely because the Incarnation makes possible true union with the divine, a metaphysical union-in-distinction, without confusion, because this union is not extrinsic. It is rooted in one person or suppositum, the incarnate Logos. Through union with Christ, as the one common focus of the divine-human relation, we can have true union with God and may offer true worship. In order to make sense of active participation, then, we need to understand theology in theurgic terms, where theurgy is understood not as a mechanical ‘coercion’ of God but as a participation in His act, in creation and through Christ as the true theurgist, the ‘master theurgist,’ whose work transforms our act and the liturgy. Doing so, we find a theological and philosophical basis of how we may participate in the liturgy as a divine work, without either ‘collapsing’ into God, and consequently denying their real and substantial, though derived, integrity, or divorcing our works from their divine source. This thesis, therefore, explores, liturgically, the relation between grace and nature, noting that in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the liturgical act, we also need a deeper understanding of its ground in God. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/14132/

Theologisches Lehr- und Studienmaterial, 2023

This study seeks to show that a carefully planned, solemn service with the inclusion of classical texts and with several recurring elements in addition to the sermon, as it has been practiced by the majority of the church for almost two thousand years, does not represent spiritual rigidity. Rather, it is in harmony with biblical revelation and is a great spiritual help. To show this, we will discuss in detail which elements, based on biblical testimony, are indispensable to regular worship. The goal here is not to urge Christians to change churches or to impose a completely different worship service on congregations. I believe that many elements of this book can be incorporated into any worship tradition, and the book contains many suggestions for all Christians, regardless of whether they are used to a much ‘freer’ or a much more ‘liturgical’ worship service than I propose in this book.

Religious Studies Review, 2014

The Heythrop Journal, 2017

Black Theology: An International Journal, 2007

This article is a first attempt to sketch an agenda for scrutiny of Christian worship through a postcolonial optic. It is suggested that postcolonial theology challenges notions of inculturation and inclusivity as these are sometimes expounded in the context of liturgical studies. Texts and ritual practices are opened to scrutiny and some modest constructive, revisionist proposals are made.