P: The book explores the use of Trinitarian language in our church worship, in songs (doxologies, hymns), liturgy (prayers), preaching, Baptism, and visual arts. The authors draw from Scriptures, church traditions and contemporary new songs/liturgy to explore how our worship has incorporated languages that represent the Trinity--not just saying "Trinity" as a concept, but as a mystery and truth about our God in relation to His work related to us believers.
The problem: "so often speaks about the Trinity in the language of formal academic theology, and not the language of praise, faith, and piety, may contribute to the perception that the Trinity is peripheral to Christian life and worship." p.3
-"The main liturgiacl alternative to academic explanations of the Trinity has been the formula "Fahter, Son, and Holy Spirit," which, without further elaboration, may become a matter of rote recitation without room for wonder and growth in devotion and praise." p.3
-"...concern for correct theological formulation in the church's liturgy came to overshadow the search for vital praise." p.3
-"theologians such as Karl Rahner, Catherine LaCugna, Ted Peters, and Gail Ramshaw have also expressed the concern that the Trinity is not central to Christian faith and life." p.4
Why trinitarian worship is important:-"When Christian preaching and worship do not point to the possibility of new life in Christ, when the church does not witness to the power of the Holy Spirit, when Christians do not express their dependence on the holy Source of life, the faith experience of congregations is impoverished." p.4-5
-"The triune God, fount of all blessing, comes to us with gifts of abundant life, joy, and 'courage in the struggle for justice and peace.' Fully trinitarian worship lays out before the congregation the gifts of God and invites Christians to new life." p.5
On worship:
-"worship shapes the faith of Christians, over time inadequate language of praise will distort a church's understanding and experience of faith." p.4
-"One aspect of doing our best to glorify God is to consider how adequately the words of our worship express our faith." p.5
Language: -"Because our language can shape and motivate our actions, which contribute to creating the consequent nature of God, language is important." p.13
-"The criteria for their God-language grow from a determination to be faithful to the encounter between God and the world to which the scriptures testify and also to this encounter in contemporary language that is given birth, and shaped, by a feminist perspective." p.17
-"First, our language cannot be a projection about a deity that is the same reality as we are. Second, we do not believe the deity to be totally removed from us and unlike us. Those of us who speak of a divine reality not comprehended in this world, but in some way present in and to this world, must speak in metaphor and analogy." p.17
"Metaphor, analogy, symbol, and imagery are interrelated in classical and modern theologies. They assume a relatedness of the divine and the created order; they reject a useful adequacy of literal discourse to express the interrelationship of the divine and human realities; they also allow that once can and must speak about and to the deity." p.19
-"Language used to speak of the Trinity should reflect love, justice, and equality, which are the marks of ethical life based in trinitarian faith. ... Fully trinitarian liturgical language is emancipatory, showing the Holy One at work bringing justice and communion among humanity in the continuing mission of Jesus the Christ through the power of the Spirit." p.31
How do we speak to and about the trinitarian God in worship?
-"The trinitarian God is not a product of theology or philosophy, but is the God experienced and spoken about by the Christian community." p.19
-"the Trinity is the vast sea in which our small boats sail, intimately known to us, yet still mysterious." p.25 "The Trinity as mystery is not an unknowable abyss nor an unsolvable puzzle, but a living reality far beyond our experiences, our traditions, and our reason.
e.g. Brian Wren's Praising a Mystery hymns: "God is not one-dimensional, but a multi-dimensional mystery, decisively known in Jesus, active now as the Holy Spirit. The living God is a mystery, not a secret: secrets puzzle us, but lose their fascination when they are revealed. A mystery deepens the more it is pondered and known. At their best, worship, thinking and action are attempts to praise that mystery, to know God, and be known." p.25
-"Like the intratrinitarian relationship, this relationship between God and worshipers is not a closed system, but one which opens out in care for the world." p.26
-Guidelines about what we can say (or cannot say) about the Trinity:
1. should reflect coequality among the three partners, rather than a subordination of one to another. The triune reality is eternal; though the Word is begotten and the Spirit proceeds, this does not refer to a time sequence, but to the distinctive relationship of Word and Spirit to Source.
2. The unity of the trinitarian persons
3. The distinctiveness of each partner should not be blurred but recognised in Christian worship. p.27
the immanent Trinity: the relationality of God within God's self
the economic Trinity: the relationality of God with creation
[Source, Word, and Spirit], the Living/Eternal One/God
Outline/topics in the book:
1. in liturgical language the church speaks through metaphor and analogy of a God who is not simply a projection or creation of humanity, but a reality with whom we are in relationship.
2. how in worship we can and do give witness to the triune God through varied language for the Trinity (not exclusively male language for God) and the trinitarian dimensions of particular aspects of worship
3. preaching as trinitarian proclamation
4. the riches of Christian hymnody as a means of praising and testifying to the Trinity
5. the use of Wisdom (Sophia) imagery in worship, a contemporary issue
6. the connection between the Trinity, its representation in art and liturgy, and human life
Doxologies: are "words of praise to God, usually with trinitarian content and structure. They play an important part in worship, as a way of focusing on the triune God as the center of worship." p.49 e.g. Thomas Ken 1674 sung to the OLD HUNDREDTH.
Liturgy is "a drama of the development of our communion in God and also a pattern of how we are called to live and to act in God." p.120 How is the Trinity incorporated into our life of worship? in liturgical art, in images adorning the church walls, windows, statues, books for worship. In the words (rites, repeated words of community prayer) of liturgical prayer, we find in a different medium specific images of the Trinity, which also directly or indirectly interconnect the Trinity with human moral behaviour and ethics. p.120
-"Visual art and the repeated words of community prayer affect the whole of our personhood, not just our reason, aesthetic sense, or physical enjoyment of what we see and hear. Our minds and hearts are drawn into these forms of expression, and the whole human responds to and reflects on liturgical expression in visual and aural form." p.121
3 images of the Trinity in Salvation History: Gen 18 OT type of the Trinity: the appearance of the three angels to Abraham and Sarah under the tree at Mamre.; the baptism of Jesus; the crucifixion.
30 Jan-24 Mar 2018
Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999
Showing posts with label worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worship. Show all posts
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Thursday, September 28, 2017
32. Protestant Worship: Traditions in Transition - James F. White
White surveyed the nine Protestant worship traditions/distinctives/historical development using seven categories: piety, time, place (circumstances of worship), prayer, preaching, music (acts of worship, and people. p.16
-In trying to be a 'descriptive' instead of 'normative' historian, White did not tell the history of Protestant worship in terms of eucharistic texts/liturgical texts. "A liturgical theology that gives preferential treatment to some forms over others is highly dubious." p.15
-"People are the primary liturgical document." p.16
-piety is the traditional term for spirituality. p.18
-Place "We must look at the relationship of the basic spaces for worship: gathering, movement, congregational, choir, baptismal, and altar-table. p.19
-Tradition: we mean inherited worship practices and beliefs that show continuity from generation to generation. ...Worship traditions, then, are specific ways of and attitudes toward doing worship that are passed on from generation to generation. p.21
16th C. Anabaptist, Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran
17th C. Quaker, Puritan
18th C. Methodist
19th C. American Frontier
20th C. Pentecostal
The Reformation era:
-"The insistence today in many parts of the Reformed tradition on beginning all worship with confession is a good instance of late-medieval penitential piety still flourishing." p.27
The future of Protestant worship:
-"If convergence becomes too prominent, we must ask whether some of the richness of the variety of Protestant worship will suffer. The richness of Protestant worship consists in its diversity and its consequent ability to serve a wide variety of people." p. 212
-new traditions will develop
-"...when more study and research are given to understanding the process, all the churches will benefit. Very little has been done to conceptualize the process of transmission of the various traditions down to the present, ..." p. 216
P: I appreciate the author's look at the historical development of Protestant worship through the lenses of people: what they do and the circumstances (space!) because this is closer to what I am used to when doing research as learned in my musicology course. However, as a Christian historian, I find very little evidence of describing God's Hands in the course of how these evolved. The book does provide a good survey of the important key moments and charts the events and people that shaped the different traditions--whether by reform or by holding onto their central theological beliefs/interpretations. White also acknowledged how certain elements of other traditions are borrowed and incorporated into one, e.g. how Methodist hymnody are adopted by the Anglicans.
26-29 Sep 2017
Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989
-In trying to be a 'descriptive' instead of 'normative' historian, White did not tell the history of Protestant worship in terms of eucharistic texts/liturgical texts. "A liturgical theology that gives preferential treatment to some forms over others is highly dubious." p.15
-"People are the primary liturgical document." p.16
-piety is the traditional term for spirituality. p.18
-Place "We must look at the relationship of the basic spaces for worship: gathering, movement, congregational, choir, baptismal, and altar-table. p.19
-Tradition: we mean inherited worship practices and beliefs that show continuity from generation to generation. ...Worship traditions, then, are specific ways of and attitudes toward doing worship that are passed on from generation to generation. p.21
16th C. Anabaptist, Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran
17th C. Quaker, Puritan
18th C. Methodist
19th C. American Frontier
20th C. Pentecostal
The Reformation era:
-"The insistence today in many parts of the Reformed tradition on beginning all worship with confession is a good instance of late-medieval penitential piety still flourishing." p.27
The future of Protestant worship:
-"If convergence becomes too prominent, we must ask whether some of the richness of the variety of Protestant worship will suffer. The richness of Protestant worship consists in its diversity and its consequent ability to serve a wide variety of people." p. 212
-new traditions will develop
-"...when more study and research are given to understanding the process, all the churches will benefit. Very little has been done to conceptualize the process of transmission of the various traditions down to the present, ..." p. 216
P: I appreciate the author's look at the historical development of Protestant worship through the lenses of people: what they do and the circumstances (space!) because this is closer to what I am used to when doing research as learned in my musicology course. However, as a Christian historian, I find very little evidence of describing God's Hands in the course of how these evolved. The book does provide a good survey of the important key moments and charts the events and people that shaped the different traditions--whether by reform or by holding onto their central theological beliefs/interpretations. White also acknowledged how certain elements of other traditions are borrowed and incorporated into one, e.g. how Methodist hymnody are adopted by the Anglicans.
26-29 Sep 2017
Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989
Friday, August 25, 2017
27. Songs of the Saints: Enriching our singing by learning from the songs of Scripture - Mike Raiter & Rob Smith
Exodus 15-the song of Moses. Saved people sing: "when the Saviour God has captured someone's heart, forgiven their sins and worked in them the new birth, one of the spontaneous responses of the newly redeemed is to sing. They realize that God has done something incredible for them, something they could never have done for themselves. And he has done this both for his glory and as an expression of his grace. The only appropriate human response to this is wonder, praise and gratitude; a response that naturally finds its voice in singing." p.33-34
-"to praise is to express respect, adoration or gratitude by declaring the greatness, goodness or worthiness of the object of our praise." p.34
-"The songs God wants us to sing celebrate both what he has done, and his eternal purposes in winning salvation for us. Our Christian songs must turn our eyes backwards and forwards. ...And it is so important that our songs lift our eyes beyond the here and now, which so consumes our thoughts, anxieties, dreams and prayers, to the place where God is leading us." p.38
-"the songs of Scripture don't just invite us to praise the Lord, but give us a mountain of reasons why we should do so." p.53
-Chronicles: "How, then, do God's people respond appropriately to the presence of the God who is now in their midst? ...appoint...singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy (15:16)" p.63
-association of music and warfare..."the singers and musicians are set apart 'for the ministry of prophesying' (25:1)...because their praise and thanksgiving was understood to be the result of divine inspiration. ...the Lord himself both commanded and enabled this ministry (2 Chr 29:25). Second, because of the vital teaching role their ministry played." e.g. Asaph Psalms 50, 73-83
-"in the act of worship, the 'singing prophets' both led the people in praise and edified them by addressing profound theological questions of life and faith, all the while reminding them of the character and deeds of their faithful, sovereign God." p.65
-"73 of the 150 psalms are laments, either in part or in whole. Why, then, do so few of our contemporary songs present us with the brutal realities of life outside of Eden? ...a handful of musical resources that both express these sufferings and help us find strength and comfort by turning our hearts and minds to God? Theologian Carl Trueman suggests: "...Perhaps--and this is more likely--it has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards them as little short of embarrasing. Yet the human condition is a poor one--and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart and are looking for a better country should know this." p.77
-Ps 42-43 tell the story of a believing man's profound sense of estrangement from God.' p.78
-"The importance of lament is not that it makes our troubles disappear, but that as we come before the throne of God and give voice to our present distress, hope is awakened and we are enabled to 'rejoice in our sufferings' (Rom 5:3-5). While we wait for the end of our sufferings, singing has a unique way of helping us process the emotional dimension of our pain and so bring us to a point of genuine praise." p.90
Hannah's song 1 Sam 2:1-10
-we're singing it on two levels: Hannah's personal testimony to God's saving grace in her life & Israel's anthem for what the Lord is about to do for all of his people. p.102
-"Too many churches have embraced the world's intolerence of the God of Hannah. ...we would rejoice in the fact that God both "brings down to the grave and raises up" (v. 6, NIV). WE would teach our children all the truth about God, and they would grow up deeply loving him and appropriately fearing him." p. 103
-1 Sam 2:4-9 "Hannah's song celebrates the truth that God is the God of reversals, the one who confounds the ways of the world. She catalogues the mighty warrior (whose weapons are broken), the wealthy (who are left beggars), the mother of many (who is rendered childless), and the rich (who is impoverished), while the feeble, the hungry, the barren and the poor take their places. This is what the New Testament calls the gospel." p.104
& Mary's song/the magnificat Luke 1:46-56
-God has "always responded with kindness to those who fear him (Luke 1:50), he has always been the God who delights to dwell with the humble (vv. 51-52), and he has always acted mercifully when his people have been in need (v. 54).
Eph 5:19, Col 3:16
-calls upon Christian congregations to engage in singing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs". p.118
Zephaniah 3:17 "...he will exult over you with loud singing." p.155
Emotions and music, singing
-Robert Robert, who has written extensively on emotions in the Christian life, calls them "concern-based construals." ...emotions--like joy, fear, anger, exasperation, regret--are the natural responses we have, when we grasp 'with a kind of perceptual immediacy" the significance of the situation we are in." ...the significance of this event grips you...
in singing a good hymn, "the response is both intellectual and emotional." p.179
-Music can both express and arouse emotion. Stephen Davies, a philosopher at the University of Auckland, suggests that the connection lies in what he calls 'appearance emotionalism'. That is, there is a connection between the appearance of something and the emotion it evokes. e.g. a weeping willow... Music, acts in much the same way. e.g. a gradual downward movement/dark timbres/thick harmonic bass textures, music can recall an appearance of sadness." p.180
-"when we sing, we usually sing words with meanings, and those words not only express the cognitive content of the song, but the singing of them helps communicate the emotional content of the song as well."
Yip Harburg: "Words make you think a thought; music makes you feel a feeling; a song makes you feel a thought'. p.183
-our emotional responses, are largely determined by our (selfish) instincts, (corrupted) values, (false) beliefs and (foolish) thoughts. p.185 but "just as God's Spirit continually transforms our ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour, so he transforms our emotional responses as well." p.186
-"For God wants us to not only 'think his thoughts after him', but to 'feel his feelings after him' as well--to share his passions, grieve his griefs and know his joys. This is part of our growth. Indeed it is part of the renewing of our minds. ...'There is a distinction to be made,' wrote Edwards, 'between a mere notional understanding, wherein the mind only beholds things in the exercise of a speculative faculty; and the sense of the heart, wherein the mind don't [sic] only speculate and behold, but relishes and feels." p.190
The book ends with several practical ideas for how we should do congregational singing in our churches. Song leaders' roles etc.
P: Overall, this book is an easy read, very helpful for having a comprehensive discussion about how we should sing in churches, following the biblical examples of songs and what the Bible teaches about singing. It makes me want to join in in singing with my heart and being with other Christians, to praise and proclaim that "God's truth is marching on" and what a wonderful Saviour He is, kind and compassionate and just. To sing to Him and sing to one another to edify each other.
4-25 Aug 2017
Sydney: Matthias Media, 2017
-"to praise is to express respect, adoration or gratitude by declaring the greatness, goodness or worthiness of the object of our praise." p.34
-"The songs God wants us to sing celebrate both what he has done, and his eternal purposes in winning salvation for us. Our Christian songs must turn our eyes backwards and forwards. ...And it is so important that our songs lift our eyes beyond the here and now, which so consumes our thoughts, anxieties, dreams and prayers, to the place where God is leading us." p.38
-"the songs of Scripture don't just invite us to praise the Lord, but give us a mountain of reasons why we should do so." p.53
-Chronicles: "How, then, do God's people respond appropriately to the presence of the God who is now in their midst? ...appoint...singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy (15:16)" p.63
-association of music and warfare..."the singers and musicians are set apart 'for the ministry of prophesying' (25:1)...because their praise and thanksgiving was understood to be the result of divine inspiration. ...the Lord himself both commanded and enabled this ministry (2 Chr 29:25). Second, because of the vital teaching role their ministry played." e.g. Asaph Psalms 50, 73-83
-"in the act of worship, the 'singing prophets' both led the people in praise and edified them by addressing profound theological questions of life and faith, all the while reminding them of the character and deeds of their faithful, sovereign God." p.65
-"73 of the 150 psalms are laments, either in part or in whole. Why, then, do so few of our contemporary songs present us with the brutal realities of life outside of Eden? ...a handful of musical resources that both express these sufferings and help us find strength and comfort by turning our hearts and minds to God? Theologian Carl Trueman suggests: "...Perhaps--and this is more likely--it has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards them as little short of embarrasing. Yet the human condition is a poor one--and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart and are looking for a better country should know this." p.77
-Ps 42-43 tell the story of a believing man's profound sense of estrangement from God.' p.78
-"The importance of lament is not that it makes our troubles disappear, but that as we come before the throne of God and give voice to our present distress, hope is awakened and we are enabled to 'rejoice in our sufferings' (Rom 5:3-5). While we wait for the end of our sufferings, singing has a unique way of helping us process the emotional dimension of our pain and so bring us to a point of genuine praise." p.90
Hannah's song 1 Sam 2:1-10
-we're singing it on two levels: Hannah's personal testimony to God's saving grace in her life & Israel's anthem for what the Lord is about to do for all of his people. p.102
-"Too many churches have embraced the world's intolerence of the God of Hannah. ...we would rejoice in the fact that God both "brings down to the grave and raises up" (v. 6, NIV). WE would teach our children all the truth about God, and they would grow up deeply loving him and appropriately fearing him." p. 103
-1 Sam 2:4-9 "Hannah's song celebrates the truth that God is the God of reversals, the one who confounds the ways of the world. She catalogues the mighty warrior (whose weapons are broken), the wealthy (who are left beggars), the mother of many (who is rendered childless), and the rich (who is impoverished), while the feeble, the hungry, the barren and the poor take their places. This is what the New Testament calls the gospel." p.104
& Mary's song/the magnificat Luke 1:46-56
-God has "always responded with kindness to those who fear him (Luke 1:50), he has always been the God who delights to dwell with the humble (vv. 51-52), and he has always acted mercifully when his people have been in need (v. 54).
Eph 5:19, Col 3:16
-calls upon Christian congregations to engage in singing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs". p.118
Zephaniah 3:17 "...he will exult over you with loud singing." p.155
Emotions and music, singing
-Robert Robert, who has written extensively on emotions in the Christian life, calls them "concern-based construals." ...emotions--like joy, fear, anger, exasperation, regret--are the natural responses we have, when we grasp 'with a kind of perceptual immediacy" the significance of the situation we are in." ...the significance of this event grips you...
in singing a good hymn, "the response is both intellectual and emotional." p.179
-Music can both express and arouse emotion. Stephen Davies, a philosopher at the University of Auckland, suggests that the connection lies in what he calls 'appearance emotionalism'. That is, there is a connection between the appearance of something and the emotion it evokes. e.g. a weeping willow... Music, acts in much the same way. e.g. a gradual downward movement/dark timbres/thick harmonic bass textures, music can recall an appearance of sadness." p.180
-"when we sing, we usually sing words with meanings, and those words not only express the cognitive content of the song, but the singing of them helps communicate the emotional content of the song as well."
Yip Harburg: "Words make you think a thought; music makes you feel a feeling; a song makes you feel a thought'. p.183
-our emotional responses, are largely determined by our (selfish) instincts, (corrupted) values, (false) beliefs and (foolish) thoughts. p.185 but "just as God's Spirit continually transforms our ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour, so he transforms our emotional responses as well." p.186
-"For God wants us to not only 'think his thoughts after him', but to 'feel his feelings after him' as well--to share his passions, grieve his griefs and know his joys. This is part of our growth. Indeed it is part of the renewing of our minds. ...'There is a distinction to be made,' wrote Edwards, 'between a mere notional understanding, wherein the mind only beholds things in the exercise of a speculative faculty; and the sense of the heart, wherein the mind don't [sic] only speculate and behold, but relishes and feels." p.190
The book ends with several practical ideas for how we should do congregational singing in our churches. Song leaders' roles etc.
P: Overall, this book is an easy read, very helpful for having a comprehensive discussion about how we should sing in churches, following the biblical examples of songs and what the Bible teaches about singing. It makes me want to join in in singing with my heart and being with other Christians, to praise and proclaim that "God's truth is marching on" and what a wonderful Saviour He is, kind and compassionate and just. To sing to Him and sing to one another to edify each other.
4-25 Aug 2017
Sydney: Matthias Media, 2017
Monday, April 17, 2017
11. Contemporary Worship Music and Everyday Musical Lives -- Mark Porter
Research Question: How individuals relate their varied experiences of music outside of a church environment to their experiences within it.
Literature Review:
-Monique Ingalls & Anna Nekola, both writing from a North American perspective, provide important foundational work in the field (of Christian congregational music) from within music scholarship.
-Contemporary Worship Music (Ingalls' definition): 'the broad repertory of evangelical congregational song composed from the late 1960s to the late 2000s in mainstream Western popular music styles' (2008, p.16)
-The enduring influence of key tenets surrounding the music's origins:
"The idea that music was simply a vehicle or tool for promoting the Christian message; that musical style was not an integral part of the evangelical tradition; and that the timeless Christian message not only could, but should, be paired with contemporary cultural styles--each of these ideas and practices would become increasingly important in the ensuing decade as the contemporary song repertory gained popularity. -Ingalls (2008, p.72)
Anna Nekola wrote on the "worship wars" in late 20th C. America...disputes about the role of music; attitudes of ahistioricism within evangelicalism. p.6
-Howard and Streck's research: Contemporary Christian Music (1999)-beyond congregational to Christian music industry as a whole.: separational, integrational, and transformational (p.7)
...
-the alliance between popular music and charismatic experience-both emphasise the personal experience.
-Pete Ward: (UK), provided a detailed "summary of its history and development,
charting the music’s rise as part of evangelical youth culture in the 1960s and 1970s through movements, events and festivals, groups and publications, and its later association with the charismatic movement, noting that ‘charismatic [worship music] has become the default setting in most evangelical churches in Britain’" (Ward 2005b, p1). p.7
Methodology:
-it is not, primarily, a historical project.
"The core of this research centres around 42 individual unstructured and semi-structured interviews with members of the congregation, members of the worship team and church staff at St Aldates, through which I interrogate the ways in which individuals frame and articulate their experiences within and outside of a worship context and examine the connections and disjunctures between their experience and evaluation of these different environments." p.8
-pros, cons, situate the research, acknowledge self-bias...
The chapters:
road map of the rest of the discussions/how you organised the research into sections/chapters
"Chapter 2 is largely theoretical in nature, focusing on some of the key issues raised by my research questions and highlighted in the foregoing discussions. I suggest the problematic nature of frequent ascriptions of neutrality to music within the church, alongside associated relegations of musical attachment to the level of personal preference, while suggesting that attention to the ethical has the potential to provide a more-helpful basis for discussion. After a brief discussion of music and identity I examine models of diversity in congregational music, suggesting the applicability of frameworks taken from the ‘new cosmopolitanism’, and offering this body of social and political theory as an alternative to the shortcomings I find within existing models. I finish by introducing the framework under which I will be discussing material from the interviews.
Chapters 3, 4 and 5 are dedicated to a discussion of the interview data within my chosen framework, the division into three chapters reflecting the framework’s tripartite nature detailed at the end of Chapter 2. I discuss in detail individuals’ experiences of music both inside and outside the church,
paying attention to the way in which they navigate the movement between ecclesiastical and extra-ecclesiastical musical environments and relating this to a variety of concerns in theory and in discourse.
Chapter 3: (worth re-reading: pp. 59-63)
The malleability of music:
-"Laudan Nooshin’s work (2011) draws attention to the way in which the meanings associated with different musics can be altered in the movement between un-related contexts in such a way that their significance becomes almost entirely different. She draws particular attention to the way in which mediated technology makes it possible for musical style to migrate without a necessity for it to do so alongside particular peoples or cultures which might serve to maintain its ‘original’ meanings." p.60
-concepts of ‘oppositional’ and ‘negotiated’ readings. p.61
-Timothy Rice (2001): the multiple levels on which music can be assigned meaning p.61
"metaphors as ‘music as object’, ‘music as art’, ‘music as emotional expression’, ‘music as text’, ‘music as social behaviour’, ‘music as political symbol’ and ‘music as sign’ serve to make truth claims about the ontological status of music and should be taken seriously as ‘fundamental claims to truth, guides to practical action and sources for understanding music’s profound importance in human
life’ (2001, p22)." p.62 'music as a space of worship', 'music as a neutral canvas for worship'=>different musical metaphors leave space for each person who chooses a different metaphor to interpret the significance of music in the worship context.
-"If intertextuality refers to the possibility (or inevitability) of the formation of significant or meaningful relationships, through a variety of methods and agencies, between texts, then we might refer to the possible relationship between different musical worlds as a form of intercontextuality, highlighting the likelihood that meaning (as we will see later in the chapter) will spill over between multiple contexts. ... the idea of intercontextuality avoids the necessity of focussing on pre-given meaning, allowing a fluid relationship between constructed, experienced and given meanings." p.63
-"a music’s context is not merely a passive and semi-neutral background but is capable of becoming meaningful as much as the texts embedded within it. Discussion of the relationship between contexts can often fall to the background as they are often treated as self-contained worlds within which to
understand the content they contain" p.63
-Different metaphors the interviewees adopted: expression of the heart, power to move and connect, contemplation, ...
Chapter 4: Boundaries--Communal and private, spiritual and secular
-"the establishment of significant boundaries is an important key to their experience of worship music, their ability to maintain attachments to multiple disparate musical environments and their ability to evaluate and experience multiple musics in a positive manner." p.82
-Catherine Bell: the close similarities between ritual and other performances, & the dynamics which often underlie this kind of ritual separation: 'Another feature of performance lies in the dynamics of framing. As noted with regard to sacral symbols, distinctions between sacred and profane, the special and the routine, transcendent ideals and concrete realities can all be evoked by how some activities, places, or people are set off from others. Intrinsic to performance is the communication of a type of frame that says, ‘This is different, deliberate, and significant – pay attention!’ By virtue of this framing, performance is understood to be something other than routine reality. Bell (2009, p160); contemporary worship music reverses this separation and tries to be similar to everyday music, erasing the boundaries between the everyday and the special
-The interplay of similarity and differentiation: anthropologist Anthony Cohen: "the greater the pressure on communities to modify their structural forms to comply more with those elsewhere, the more are they inclined to reassert their boundaries symbolically by imbuing these modified forms with meaning and significance which belies their appearance. In other words, as the structural bases of boundary become blurred, so the symbolic bases are strengthened." (1988, p.45)
Chapter 5: At the Edges--Value transfer, judgments, discontent
-"a broad range of experiences in which musical value judgements formed largely outside of the church either become problematic for worshippers or need to be consciously suppressed in order to maintain a positive experience of Sunday worship. This is, perhaps, the most pastorally sensitive of the three categories of experience as it can sometimes lead to frustration and alienation on the part
of musicians and congregation members." p.105
-an associated renewal of social space. As Hesmondhalgh suggests: The great advantage of [Habermas’s notion of] the public sphere, when used appropriately and with attention to other Habermasian concepts such as discourse ethics, is that it can encourage us to think properly about the institutional conditions that make it possible for people to question simplifications and projections … The idea of an aesthetic public sphere relates … to the degree to which a social space provides those
participating in … debates with the resources to undertake discussion in a thoughtful and informed way." Hesmondhalgh (2007, p524) p.124
-the public sphere as ‘a sphere between civil society and the state, in which critical public discussion of matters of general interest was institutionally guaranteed’ (Thomas McCarthy 1989, pxi).
Chapter 6 Alternative musical spaces in the church: I examine two marginal/third spaces musical spaces within the life of the church: ‘Sing O barren woman’ – a week long prayer event, and ‘Word on the street’ – an evangelistic busking group that go out each Saturday onto Oxford’s main pedestrianized shopping street. I suggest that these two spaces embody different relationships between individuals’ diverse musical backgrounds and the church, offering differently nuanced musical ontologies from that found in the main Sunday worship services. I suggest that these spaces serve both to challenge and to reinforce the musical patterns of the main church services." p.10-11
-marginal/third spaces: "in-between realms, standing at the intersection of the music of the church and individuals’ broader musical lives. As such, I want to suggest that they can helpfully be understood through the idea of ‘third space’, as locations in which discourses and knowledges from two usually-distinct spaces encounter one-another and interact. p.127
-"Moje et al (2004) outline three principal ways in which such third spaces can be understood:
1. "as a means of building bridges between conventional institutional discourses and discourses marginalised in such settings.
2. they put forward the understanding of third space ‘as a navigational space, a way of crossing and succeeding in different discourse communities’.
3. ‘third space can be viewed as a space of cultural, social, and epistemological change in which the competing knowledges and discourses of different spaces are brought into “conversation”’ (Moje et al 2004, p44).
According to these understandings third spaces are largely productive in nature, a means of reconciling disparate identities and belongings." p.124
-While Moje et al’s understandings position third space as a relatively stable
structural phenomenon, other authors highlight its potential to destablise. ~Routledge, following the lead of Homi Bhabha (Bhabha 1994), suggests that it is ‘a place of invention and transformational encounters, a dynamic in-between space that is imbued with the traces, relays, ambivalences, ambiguities and contradictions, with the feelings and practices of both sites, to fashion something
different, unexpected’.
~Hoover and Echchaibi likewise highlight Bhabha’s understanding that ‘third space displaces the histories that constitute it, and sets up new structures of authority, new political initiatives, which are inadequately understood through received wisdom. [it] gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new area of negotiation of meaning and representation’ (2012, p.13), suggesting that playful and negotiative practices in which signs and symbols are subverted and re-read stand at the centre of such spaces (2012, pp12, 20)." p.124
-Physical distance creates freedom for a different musical space--Word on the street: "As a project at some distance from both the authority structures and the physical space of the church," p.144
Conclusion:
-theoretical lens of cosmopolitanism, drawing on a typology of usages set out by Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen "in order to examine the multiple ways in which cosmopolitan thought can be brought to bear on the experiences presented in this book." p.11
-"The various chapters of this book suggest a multi-faceted conception of musical identity that is far from straightforward. It is the result of an interplay of boundaries and connections, individuals and institutions, freedom and constraint such that these elements and a host of others are in a constant process of negotiation and contestation." p. 153
P: Basically, the author interviewed church members at St. Aldates, a church in Oxford that focuses on using soft rock type of church music and asked them how this style of church music relates to the music that they listen to in their daily lives. A lot of them don't really listen to the worship music style in their lives but saw the worship music as good to be used in church as it is the lowest common denominator and a music that buzzes, unites worshippers to sing together to worship God, and that the lyrics/worship attitude is more important than if they enjoyed this type of music anyway; music is just a tool while spiritual experience is more important. However, the author suggests that there is a relation between how they feel about the music and how that changes their formation by the church music and when they were given freedom and an alternative space (in-between) in the 24/7 prayer room and Word in the street, they could express their theology and faith using music styles that more represent them (e.g. jazz, hip hop) and experience a different area of their spiritual lives.
Feb-31 Mar, 2017
Abingdon: Routledge, 2017
Literature Review:
-Monique Ingalls & Anna Nekola, both writing from a North American perspective, provide important foundational work in the field (of Christian congregational music) from within music scholarship.
-Contemporary Worship Music (Ingalls' definition): 'the broad repertory of evangelical congregational song composed from the late 1960s to the late 2000s in mainstream Western popular music styles' (2008, p.16)
-The enduring influence of key tenets surrounding the music's origins:
"The idea that music was simply a vehicle or tool for promoting the Christian message; that musical style was not an integral part of the evangelical tradition; and that the timeless Christian message not only could, but should, be paired with contemporary cultural styles--each of these ideas and practices would become increasingly important in the ensuing decade as the contemporary song repertory gained popularity. -Ingalls (2008, p.72)
Anna Nekola wrote on the "worship wars" in late 20th C. America...disputes about the role of music; attitudes of ahistioricism within evangelicalism. p.6
-Howard and Streck's research: Contemporary Christian Music (1999)-beyond congregational to Christian music industry as a whole.: separational, integrational, and transformational (p.7)
...
-the alliance between popular music and charismatic experience-both emphasise the personal experience.
-Pete Ward: (UK), provided a detailed "summary of its history and development,
charting the music’s rise as part of evangelical youth culture in the 1960s and 1970s through movements, events and festivals, groups and publications, and its later association with the charismatic movement, noting that ‘charismatic [worship music] has become the default setting in most evangelical churches in Britain’" (Ward 2005b, p1). p.7
Methodology:
-it is not, primarily, a historical project.
"The core of this research centres around 42 individual unstructured and semi-structured interviews with members of the congregation, members of the worship team and church staff at St Aldates, through which I interrogate the ways in which individuals frame and articulate their experiences within and outside of a worship context and examine the connections and disjunctures between their experience and evaluation of these different environments." p.8
-pros, cons, situate the research, acknowledge self-bias...
The chapters:
road map of the rest of the discussions/how you organised the research into sections/chapters
"Chapter 2 is largely theoretical in nature, focusing on some of the key issues raised by my research questions and highlighted in the foregoing discussions. I suggest the problematic nature of frequent ascriptions of neutrality to music within the church, alongside associated relegations of musical attachment to the level of personal preference, while suggesting that attention to the ethical has the potential to provide a more-helpful basis for discussion. After a brief discussion of music and identity I examine models of diversity in congregational music, suggesting the applicability of frameworks taken from the ‘new cosmopolitanism’, and offering this body of social and political theory as an alternative to the shortcomings I find within existing models. I finish by introducing the framework under which I will be discussing material from the interviews.
"...the values of the St Aldates church community, offering a range of important qualities including freedom, fluidity, simplicity, flexibility, the ability to respond to the Spirit, dynamic range, easy participation, accessibility, and easy replicability at home. The musical style adopted by the church
is one that is able to fulfil its function well and to serve the purposes to which it is put within the context of the church community through its service to a range of other practical goals. The way in which these goals are embedded in the music connects with the way in which congregation members are expected to identify with the music." p.24
-Musical meaning:
"Much recent work in musicology (Small 1998; Chua 1999; Cook 2001; Kramer 2003, 2004; Cross and Tolbert 2008) and ethnomusicology (DeNora 2000, 2003; Clayton 2001; Rice 2001; Nooshin 2011) has sought to conceptualize in a variety of ways the different kinds of meaning that are present within and around music and the activity of music-making. In particular, the ways in which musical meaning can be socially constructed and ascribed have replaced earlier conceptualisations of ‘absolute music’ which push many forms of musical meaning to the margins in favour of granting music a more autonomous existence. Such an understanding is not, however, one that is immediately at home within the discourses of Contemporary Worship Music; as Monique Ingalls highlights, part of the founding ideology of the movement is that music is a profoundly neutral medium (2008, p248), an understanding that has clear and important historical roots in the worship wars surrounding the introduction of Contemporary Worship Music." p.32
-In evangelical churches, there is an ontology of neutrality that deflect attention away from music and onto more spiritual concerns. "Neutrality has become a model for music which not only denies it inherent moral significance but which, in doing so, sets up a conceptual frame which pushes out other ways in which it might be conceived of as significant." p.33 "Christians worry that talking about music and potentially ascribing power to it in a setting where direct encounter with God is expected risks ascribing power to an aspect of the experience that should not become powerful and potentially confuses the source of encounter." p.33
-Difference: Rowan Williams: "Williams maintains that such a situation is undesirable in society and that instead, in order to create a healthy liberal democracy, there is the need for public negotiation
of difference in an environment where different voices can be heard and taken seriously without the assumption that in doing so the result would be inevitable animosity, conflict or disloyalty to the larger community. Conversely, he argues that in providing a space for these differences to be taken seriously there is the potential for a more powerful level of social identification to take place." p.34 "David Hesmondhalgh (2007) examines some of the ways in which discourse around music may have the potential to establish commonality despite differences in perspective and initial dismissals of others and their values."
-"Monique Ingalls draws attention to the way in which assumptions about the neutrality of style and the emphasis, instead, on the heart and the motives of the individual within the activity of worship can serve to deflect critical reflection away from musical practices (2008, p247). A lack of music-talk provides a means of maintaining authority," p.35
-Ethical significance:
"These priorities seem to affect people’s relationship with the church community, its worship and its spirituality in wide-ranging and significant ways which, due to the value-laden nature of such relationships, seem to best be thought of in ethical terms." p.35
-Can affect: "how questions of music have the potential to draw in matters of spirituality, justice, authority, cultural and contextual engagement, theology and gender, amongst others and how these are negotiated within the life of the church community. " p.35
-Ethics does not point us to one particular set of concerns, but rather allows a particular mode of attentiveness to the concerns and issues of particular situations, people and things – in the case of this book, those that arise within the St Aldates community. For the purposes of this book, to say that something has ethical significance is to say:
1 that it is not neutral and, instead, is closely bound up with particular goods or evils whether in and of itself or through those things with which it forms some kind of connection.
2 that something matters and it matters for and in relation to particular people or communities.
-"In the case of music, and within the concerns of this project, this means to say that not only is music a vehicle for a range of meanings but that many of these meanings are in some manner associated with particular values and that, within the context of a community of diverse and different individuals, these will inevitably be subject to negotiation as to their appropriate functioning within that community’s ongoing life. This ongoing negotiation can be seen to constitute the practice of ethics. The ethical dimension of music is an inevitable function of its nature as significantly meaningful in the context of shared musicking in community." p.36
-"Timothy Rommen, ... has sought to draw up a framework within which to think about some of the ethical issues surrounding church music on the island. He proposes an ‘ethics of style’ which:
[f]ocuses attention on the discursive spaces between individual and community (self and other) in order to come to a more nuanced understanding of music in its sociocultural contexts … investigates the process by which musical style informs identity formation for both artists and audience; illustrates how style thus becomes the vehicle for a multifaceted communal discourse about value and meaning; and interrogates the process of personal identification or disidentification with musical style as a
moment of ethical significance." Rommen (2007b, p2), p.38
-"Habermas and Rommen draw our attention to the fact that the way in which congregation members encounter discourse surrounding music and worship can be highly significant." p. 40
-"Nanette Nielsen and Marcel Cobussen suggest a number of key locations through which music can become ethically charged: Fundamental to our understanding is music’s association with activity (‘Interaction’), including contact with music through the act of listening (‘Listening’ and ‘Voice’), music as an immanent critical process that possesses profound cultural and historical significance (‘Discourse’), and as an art form that can be world-disclosive, formative of subjectivity, and contributive to intersubjective relations (‘Interaction’, ‘Affect’, and ‘Voice’)." Cobussen and Nielsen (2012, p4), p.41
-"Shusterman (who articulates similar claims) argues that a routine isolation of the aesthetic can even lead to ethically undesirable situations ‘provid[ing] an excuse for the powers and institutions that structure our everyday life to be brutally indifferent to natural human needs for the pleasure of beauty and imaginative freedom." p.42
"These are not to be sought in real life, but in art, whose and escape from the real gives us human sufferers temporary solace and relief’ (1992, p20). More recent trends towards a virtue ethics which focuses on the good and the good life (Higgins 2011, pxviii) and a view of music which draws both subjects and social meanings into its very core mean that the conceptual gap has begun to fade to the background. Music can carry with it a range of different goods by virtue of the different ways in which it becomes meaningful, and these can thus become part of the process of ethical negotiation as they make themselves felt in different situations and experiences. As we have seen, attention to ethics serves to focus this research on musical value and meaning, encounters with discourse, patterns of authority and community, the relationship between music, subjectivity and the wider world and the negotiation of all of these. Examining these in the course of this book helps to reconnect music with a plane of significance that has both been frequently side-lined, not least within Contemporary Worship Music, and which is deeply meaningful within the life of the church." p.43
-"Differences of taste and the specifics of individual attachment are thereby positioned outside the
realm of meaningful negotiation and contestation. Psychological studies of music often serve to reinforce this subjectivization of musical judgment, investigating the different traits that lead one person to prefer music with certain characteristics over other kinds of music (Chamorro-Premuzic et al 2010; Schäfer and Sedlmeier 2010; Rentfrow et al 2011) and thereby setting to one side questions
of agency, individuality and deeper significance." p.43
-Hennion: "By conceptualizing taste as a matter of varying modes of attachment and engagement...opens up the discourse around taste in a way that can make it meaningful and productive, able to involve diverse aspects of listener and music and the establishment of different forms of relationship between the two." p.44
"Likewise, if music and taste both have engagement and interaction at their core, then music is able to
become a significant participant in the process of tasting, not merely as a separate object, but as something which can be discussed using a common language. Hennion helps us to move beyond common models which locate taste largely in the internal make-up of the subject, thus subjectivizing it, and instead allows taste to become part of an interaction in which both subject and object (music) have crucial roles to play and in which the relationship between the two stands as the key determining element. This, in turn, opens taste up much more readily to negotiation – the process of tasting and the activity of the relationship is one that can provide room for manoeuvre that is harder to come by in a space where there is a strict dichotomy between a subject’s tastes and the properties of a musical object. Such a view is remarkably at home in the situation of congregational worship music, in which worshipers actively engage in the process of singing. Views about preferences in such a situation are
hard to frame without addressing individuals’ experiences of being present and their modes of engagement within the process of congregational singing." p.44
Music & identity:
-"some of the diverse ways in which music and identity can be conceptualized:
1 Do we want to argue that music contributes to the psychology of an individual’s identity or to some form of collective social identity or to both?
2 If we want to argue that music contributes to the psychology of identity, then are we talking about a sense of ‘who am I?’ – that is, ‘what is my essential nature?’ – or are we talking about a person’s desire to ‘suture’ himself or herself to a social group?
3 How many identities does an individual have? Do all individuals have the same possibilities for multiple identities or are the possibilities constrained by social, economic, and political inequalities? Does music contribute in the same way to all of them?
4 If we are arguing that music contributes to the social identity of a group, then how does it do that? Through performativity? Symbolization? Boundary formation?" Rice (2010, p322), p.45
-Subcultural studies gradually waned in favour as the fluid, fragmented and individual aspect of identity became more prominent (Gelder 2005, p12). Alternative notions such as the neo-tribe (Bennett 2000) and the scene (Straw 2001)..." p.46
-"Tia DeNora, rather than focusing on group identity, takes the individual as a starting point, focusing on the way in which music is present within the regular patterns of daily life (2000, 2003). Music, for DeNora, gains meaning through its ability to ‘afford’ different meanings depending on context. She uses case studies to show how music can afford different meanings for particular individuals, allowing them to exploit these affordances for identity-formation and meaning." p.46
-"For Turino ‘identity is the representation of selected habits foregrounded in given contexts to define self to oneself and to others by oneself and by others … Social identities are based on recognized similarities within groups, and differences from others, which in turn serve as the basis of collective feeling and action. Group identities are the foundation of all social and political life’ (2004, p8). Turino notes that these identities will tend to play out differently between different groups depending on whether it is helpful to highlight difference or unity." p.46
-How, then, can we account for movement across and between identities? Here it becomes critically important to distinguish between individual self-identity and collective identity in relation to music... Without such a distinction between individual and collective forms of musical identity …we cannot address the potential disjunctures and conflicts between individual and collective musical identities, the way that cultural expectations and norms, or dominant musical discourses, may be in tension with individual identities and may exert powerful pressures of musical subjectification."
Born and Hesmondhalgh (2000a, pp32–33) p.47
-"Nancy Ammerman proposes a similar position from the sociology of religion: I am unwilling to discard the possibility that persons seek some sense of congruence within the complexity of their lives. Nor do I believe that structured categories exist untouched by the actions and resistance of the actors who inhabit them … What we need is a way to talk about who we are and how we behave without reducing ourselves either to a single determining structural essence or to complete chaotic indeterminacy …"Ammerman (2003, pp211–212)
-The inadequacy of assimilation and multiculturalism p.48
-Cosmopolitanism:
-"A turn towards intercultural processes is often complemented by a move towards cosmopolitan models of community, and it is these which, I suggest, in seeking to provide frameworks for understanding the interactive negotiation of cultural movement, inter-relation and difference, form a helpful basis for understanding the various negotiations of congregational diversity." p.50
-A number of ethnomusicologists have, in recent years, been drawn to cosmopolitan frameworks in order to understand a variety of musical negotiations and practices (Turino 2000; Stokes 2007; Tsiouslakis 2011; Perman 2012; Bosse 2013; Harnish 2013; Webster-Kogan 2014).
-While cosmopolitanism often refers primarily to national identities and international flows and exchanges this is not the only level on which it can be a useful concept. Gerard Delanty suggests that:
It is useful to distinguish three main dimensions of cosmopolitanism: the historical level of modernity, the macro or societal level of the interaction of societies or societal systems, and the micro level of identities, movements and communities within the social world … cosmopolitanism is not to be equated with transnationalization … it makes more sense to see it expressed in more reflexive kinds of self-understanding … it resides in social mechanisms and dynamics that can exist in any society at any time in history where world openness has a resonance." Delanty (2006, pp41–42), p.50
-Vertovec and Cohen make a similar point, suggesting that ‘present-day processes … such as diasporic identification and the rise of identity politics, have multiplied people’s interests and affiliations. Now gender, sexuality, age, disability, ‘homeland’, locality, race, ethnicity, religion - even cultural hybridity itself - are among the key identifications around which the same person might at one time or another politically mobilize’ (Vertovec and Cohen, 2002, p12). p.50
-Thus, the cosmopolitan conceptual framework can be applied to "the micro-scale of everyday movements within individuals’ lives." p.51
-"Onyx et al suggest that ‘everyday cosmopolitanism reflects the ordinary interactions that occur between individuals of different cultures routinely negotiating across difference in order to coexist
within a shared social space’ (Onyx et al 2011, p61) and Anthony Appiah suggests that 'cosmopolitanism imagines a world in which people and novels and music and films and philosophies travel between places where they are understood differently, because people are different and welcome to their difference’ (2005, p258)." p.51
-"Beck suggests that ‘The central defining characteristic of a cosmopolitan perspective is the “dialogic imagination” … The dialogic imagination corresponds to the coexistence of rival ways of life in the individual experience, which makes it a matter of fate to compare, reflect, criticize, understand, combine contradictory certainties’ (2002, p18), while Vertovec and Cohen quote Waldron, who suggests that ‘[cosmopolitanism] means the ability to stand outside of having one’s life written and scripted by any one community, whether that is a faith or tradition or religion or culture - whatever it might be - and to draw selectively on a variety of discursive meanings’ (Vertovec and Cohen 2002, p4)." p.51
paying attention to the way in which they navigate the movement between ecclesiastical and extra-ecclesiastical musical environments and relating this to a variety of concerns in theory and in discourse.
Chapter 3: (worth re-reading: pp. 59-63)
The malleability of music:
-"Laudan Nooshin’s work (2011) draws attention to the way in which the meanings associated with different musics can be altered in the movement between un-related contexts in such a way that their significance becomes almost entirely different. She draws particular attention to the way in which mediated technology makes it possible for musical style to migrate without a necessity for it to do so alongside particular peoples or cultures which might serve to maintain its ‘original’ meanings." p.60
-concepts of ‘oppositional’ and ‘negotiated’ readings. p.61
-Timothy Rice (2001): the multiple levels on which music can be assigned meaning p.61
"metaphors as ‘music as object’, ‘music as art’, ‘music as emotional expression’, ‘music as text’, ‘music as social behaviour’, ‘music as political symbol’ and ‘music as sign’ serve to make truth claims about the ontological status of music and should be taken seriously as ‘fundamental claims to truth, guides to practical action and sources for understanding music’s profound importance in human
life’ (2001, p22)." p.62 'music as a space of worship', 'music as a neutral canvas for worship'=>different musical metaphors leave space for each person who chooses a different metaphor to interpret the significance of music in the worship context.
-"If intertextuality refers to the possibility (or inevitability) of the formation of significant or meaningful relationships, through a variety of methods and agencies, between texts, then we might refer to the possible relationship between different musical worlds as a form of intercontextuality, highlighting the likelihood that meaning (as we will see later in the chapter) will spill over between multiple contexts. ... the idea of intercontextuality avoids the necessity of focussing on pre-given meaning, allowing a fluid relationship between constructed, experienced and given meanings." p.63
-"a music’s context is not merely a passive and semi-neutral background but is capable of becoming meaningful as much as the texts embedded within it. Discussion of the relationship between contexts can often fall to the background as they are often treated as self-contained worlds within which to
understand the content they contain" p.63
-Different metaphors the interviewees adopted: expression of the heart, power to move and connect, contemplation, ...
Chapter 4: Boundaries--Communal and private, spiritual and secular
-"the establishment of significant boundaries is an important key to their experience of worship music, their ability to maintain attachments to multiple disparate musical environments and their ability to evaluate and experience multiple musics in a positive manner." p.82
-Catherine Bell: the close similarities between ritual and other performances, & the dynamics which often underlie this kind of ritual separation: 'Another feature of performance lies in the dynamics of framing. As noted with regard to sacral symbols, distinctions between sacred and profane, the special and the routine, transcendent ideals and concrete realities can all be evoked by how some activities, places, or people are set off from others. Intrinsic to performance is the communication of a type of frame that says, ‘This is different, deliberate, and significant – pay attention!’ By virtue of this framing, performance is understood to be something other than routine reality. Bell (2009, p160); contemporary worship music reverses this separation and tries to be similar to everyday music, erasing the boundaries between the everyday and the special
-The interplay of similarity and differentiation: anthropologist Anthony Cohen: "the greater the pressure on communities to modify their structural forms to comply more with those elsewhere, the more are they inclined to reassert their boundaries symbolically by imbuing these modified forms with meaning and significance which belies their appearance. In other words, as the structural bases of boundary become blurred, so the symbolic bases are strengthened." (1988, p.45)
Chapter 5: At the Edges--Value transfer, judgments, discontent
-"a broad range of experiences in which musical value judgements formed largely outside of the church either become problematic for worshippers or need to be consciously suppressed in order to maintain a positive experience of Sunday worship. This is, perhaps, the most pastorally sensitive of the three categories of experience as it can sometimes lead to frustration and alienation on the part
of musicians and congregation members." p.105
-an associated renewal of social space. As Hesmondhalgh suggests: The great advantage of [Habermas’s notion of] the public sphere, when used appropriately and with attention to other Habermasian concepts such as discourse ethics, is that it can encourage us to think properly about the institutional conditions that make it possible for people to question simplifications and projections … The idea of an aesthetic public sphere relates … to the degree to which a social space provides those
participating in … debates with the resources to undertake discussion in a thoughtful and informed way." Hesmondhalgh (2007, p524) p.124
-the public sphere as ‘a sphere between civil society and the state, in which critical public discussion of matters of general interest was institutionally guaranteed’ (Thomas McCarthy 1989, pxi).
Chapter 6 Alternative musical spaces in the church: I examine two marginal/third spaces musical spaces within the life of the church: ‘Sing O barren woman’ – a week long prayer event, and ‘Word on the street’ – an evangelistic busking group that go out each Saturday onto Oxford’s main pedestrianized shopping street. I suggest that these two spaces embody different relationships between individuals’ diverse musical backgrounds and the church, offering differently nuanced musical ontologies from that found in the main Sunday worship services. I suggest that these spaces serve both to challenge and to reinforce the musical patterns of the main church services." p.10-11
-marginal/third spaces: "in-between realms, standing at the intersection of the music of the church and individuals’ broader musical lives. As such, I want to suggest that they can helpfully be understood through the idea of ‘third space’, as locations in which discourses and knowledges from two usually-distinct spaces encounter one-another and interact. p.127
-"Moje et al (2004) outline three principal ways in which such third spaces can be understood:
1. "as a means of building bridges between conventional institutional discourses and discourses marginalised in such settings.
2. they put forward the understanding of third space ‘as a navigational space, a way of crossing and succeeding in different discourse communities’.
3. ‘third space can be viewed as a space of cultural, social, and epistemological change in which the competing knowledges and discourses of different spaces are brought into “conversation”’ (Moje et al 2004, p44).
According to these understandings third spaces are largely productive in nature, a means of reconciling disparate identities and belongings." p.124
-While Moje et al’s understandings position third space as a relatively stable
structural phenomenon, other authors highlight its potential to destablise. ~Routledge, following the lead of Homi Bhabha (Bhabha 1994), suggests that it is ‘a place of invention and transformational encounters, a dynamic in-between space that is imbued with the traces, relays, ambivalences, ambiguities and contradictions, with the feelings and practices of both sites, to fashion something
different, unexpected’.
~Hoover and Echchaibi likewise highlight Bhabha’s understanding that ‘third space displaces the histories that constitute it, and sets up new structures of authority, new political initiatives, which are inadequately understood through received wisdom. [it] gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new area of negotiation of meaning and representation’ (2012, p.13), suggesting that playful and negotiative practices in which signs and symbols are subverted and re-read stand at the centre of such spaces (2012, pp12, 20)." p.124
-Physical distance creates freedom for a different musical space--Word on the street: "As a project at some distance from both the authority structures and the physical space of the church," p.144
Conclusion:
-theoretical lens of cosmopolitanism, drawing on a typology of usages set out by Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen "in order to examine the multiple ways in which cosmopolitan thought can be brought to bear on the experiences presented in this book." p.11
-"The various chapters of this book suggest a multi-faceted conception of musical identity that is far from straightforward. It is the result of an interplay of boundaries and connections, individuals and institutions, freedom and constraint such that these elements and a host of others are in a constant process of negotiation and contestation." p. 153
P: Basically, the author interviewed church members at St. Aldates, a church in Oxford that focuses on using soft rock type of church music and asked them how this style of church music relates to the music that they listen to in their daily lives. A lot of them don't really listen to the worship music style in their lives but saw the worship music as good to be used in church as it is the lowest common denominator and a music that buzzes, unites worshippers to sing together to worship God, and that the lyrics/worship attitude is more important than if they enjoyed this type of music anyway; music is just a tool while spiritual experience is more important. However, the author suggests that there is a relation between how they feel about the music and how that changes their formation by the church music and when they were given freedom and an alternative space (in-between) in the 24/7 prayer room and Word in the street, they could express their theology and faith using music styles that more represent them (e.g. jazz, hip hop) and experience a different area of their spiritual lives.
Feb-31 Mar, 2017
Abingdon: Routledge, 2017
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
17. Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith - Diana Butler Bass
The new village church:
1. Tradition, not traditionalism
2. Practice, not purity
-gives ppl the ability to grow deeper instead of just talking about doctrinal purity
3. Wisdom, not certainty "Practice meant doing Christian things; wisdom meant thinking like Christians." p. 51
Justice:
"Doing justice means engaging the powers--transforming the 'inner spirit' of all systems of injustice, violence, and exclusion." p.161 "we are the hands and feet of Christ" ... the Methodist ideal of "social holiness," "For them doing justice means being a faithful church."
-"ministry in the world, 'provide time to reflect on what the Chrstian calling means in everyday life.'" (p.163)
Worship:
"Worship, Author Anthony Robinson concludes, needs to be an 'experience of God,' rather than a 'reflection about God." p.176
-'Worship is right harmony, all sounds of discord gone, all injustice banished. Every act of worship, no matter how private or public, how discreet or elaborate, enacts God's dream for the world. By learning to look for it, by opening ourselves to sensing the awe and wonder of the dance, we might glimpse the ripples of God. Worship is much more than something Christians attend on Sunday morning--it is something pilgrims make together. By making it, we join in the dance. This is what Christians mean when they refer to 'mystery,' seeing that which lies beyond human knowledge to the passions and purposes of creation."
-"Hospitality, beauty, celebration. Awe, wonder, mystery. Communities making merry. For too long, mainline Protestants equated worship with thinking about God. Now, in at least some places, their hearts--the whole capacity of being human--are learning to experience God." p. 178
"Being a tourist means experiencing something new; being a pilgrim means becoming someone new. Pilgrimages go somewhere--to a transformed life." p.216
-"They exchange their nomad identities (wanderers without a home), for pilgrim identities (people on a journey who believe they have a home)." p.229
Aimlessness: From busyness to vocation
Consumption: From consumers to practitioners
Fragmentation: From individuals to community
Forgetfulness: From amnesia to memory
24 Feb, 2017
New York: HarperCollins, 2006
1. Tradition, not traditionalism
2. Practice, not purity
-gives ppl the ability to grow deeper instead of just talking about doctrinal purity
3. Wisdom, not certainty "Practice meant doing Christian things; wisdom meant thinking like Christians." p. 51
Justice:
"Doing justice means engaging the powers--transforming the 'inner spirit' of all systems of injustice, violence, and exclusion." p.161 "we are the hands and feet of Christ" ... the Methodist ideal of "social holiness," "For them doing justice means being a faithful church."
-"ministry in the world, 'provide time to reflect on what the Chrstian calling means in everyday life.'" (p.163)
Worship:
"Worship, Author Anthony Robinson concludes, needs to be an 'experience of God,' rather than a 'reflection about God." p.176
-'Worship is right harmony, all sounds of discord gone, all injustice banished. Every act of worship, no matter how private or public, how discreet or elaborate, enacts God's dream for the world. By learning to look for it, by opening ourselves to sensing the awe and wonder of the dance, we might glimpse the ripples of God. Worship is much more than something Christians attend on Sunday morning--it is something pilgrims make together. By making it, we join in the dance. This is what Christians mean when they refer to 'mystery,' seeing that which lies beyond human knowledge to the passions and purposes of creation."
-"Hospitality, beauty, celebration. Awe, wonder, mystery. Communities making merry. For too long, mainline Protestants equated worship with thinking about God. Now, in at least some places, their hearts--the whole capacity of being human--are learning to experience God." p. 178
"Being a tourist means experiencing something new; being a pilgrim means becoming someone new. Pilgrimages go somewhere--to a transformed life." p.216
-"They exchange their nomad identities (wanderers without a home), for pilgrim identities (people on a journey who believe they have a home)." p.229
Aimlessness: From busyness to vocation
Consumption: From consumers to practitioners
Fragmentation: From individuals to community
Forgetfulness: From amnesia to memory
24 Feb, 2017
New York: HarperCollins, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Veni, Creator Spiritus -Rabanus Maurus (776-856)
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,
and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.
Kindle our sense from above,
and make our hearts o'erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high
the weakness of our flesh supply.
Now to the Father and the Son,
Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter,
henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen
(quoted via How Would Jesus Lead Worship p. 107)
(quoted via How Would Jesus Lead Worship p. 107)
16. How Would Jesus Lead Worship? Biblical insights for today's church -- Sam and Sara Hargreaves
Worship (summary of the biblical perspective on worship):
-Worship is about reverently drawing near to God.
-being obedient in service to God's design for our lives.
-offering God the praise and glory that he alone deserves. p. 9-10
1. Jesus is my worship leader?
-Heb 13:15 'Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name."
Jesus is the fulfilment of OT worship, which was centred on the sacrificial system and was led not primarily by the musicians but by the priests.
The central chapters of Hebrews "show how Jesus fulfils all that God set up for worship in that first covenant and goes beyond it to allow everybody access to worship their heavenly Father God."(p.21)
-"When God created humanity, his plan was always for us to worship him and live in his presence. but we sinned (Gen 3) OT worship's central problem: 'if an unholy ppl come into contact with the holy God, the result can only be certain death (Exo 33:20; Leviticus 10:1-3; 1 Chron 13:9-10) p.21
"we are 'infected' by the disease of sin, which leads to death (Rom 5:12). God's holiness is a 'consuming fire' (Heb 12:29), obliterating any unholiness it encounters. p. 22
Atonement-Heb 10:19-22 the blood of Jesus, a great priest (the representatvie of God's ppl in their worship, closest figure in the OT to a worship leader p.24; Heb 4:15). 'It is all too easy to be casual and glib about coming into God's presence in worship, forgetting that we can do so only because we have been saved from death. Luke 23:44-46-curtain torn, made possible for us to enter the heavenly reality of which the OT system was only a picture--coming into the presence of our loving Father. p. 24
How is this possible? the incarnation and the Trinity.
2. Humble servant
3. Leader with authority
how Jesus was with his 12 disciples, spent time with them, he picked those for their character. "How much do you value prayer and the creation of space to listen to God when you recruit ppl to be in your team?" p.75 Jesus began by allowing the disciples to observe him as he ministered (7:11); "make it a habit to pray specifically & regularly for our team members and those we mentor" (Lk 22:31-32) Jesus prayed for Simon's faith.
-what we can hope to express in worship:
Gathering ppl (Ps 95:1-2)
Praising God (66:1-4)
Remembering God's deeds in recent & personal experience (40:1-3), and in our corporate life and long ago (78:1-4; 136: 1-26)
Giving thanks (92:1-4)
Placing trust in God (25:1-3)
Recognizing God's holiness and majesty (29:1-11; 93:1-5)
Coming quietly to hear his voice (95:6-7; 131:1-2)
Contemplating how nature reveals and glorifies God (19:1-6; 104:1-32)
Intimate adoration (63:1-8)
Lament, expressing sorrow over disappointment or tragedy (22:1-2; 137:1-4)
Confession & absolution: personal (51:1-17) & corporate (130:1-8)
Intercession: for justice (58:1-11), for the world (67:1-7) & for ourselves (80:1-3)
Reflecting on and responding to God's word (119:9-16)
Remembering what God thinks of us (139:1-18)
Pronouncing blessing (121:5-8)
4. Creative communicator
-"The Bible is full of creative engagement with God. ...God's beautiful, symbolic design for the tabernacle and its furnishings (Exodus 25-28), the singing and dancing of the Israelites (Exodus 15:2-; 1 Chron 25; 2 Sam 6:13-15) or the dramatized actions of hte prophets (Eze 4; Jer 19:1-13)" p.86
-Jesus used parables-relating everyday life things to the message & to different audience
-limitations of music: only hearing & some ppl can't sing. multisensory: illustrations with props, visual aids, audience participation. e.g. write lament prayer, art corners for reflection/express themselves before God.
-Lk 7:36-50: "the extent to which we have been forgiven, and that we are 'loved much' by Jesus, do we respond by 'loving much' with extravagant offerings of worship?'
Jn 12:1-8 Judas complains that the money the woman who poured perfume on Jesus. Have we ever been guilty of scrimping financially or in the use of our gifts in our worship of Jesus?" p. 89
-Celebrating the Communion: "to encounter Jesus as he offers himself and us to the Father, by the Spirit; to join around the table as brothers and sisters, as equals, to proclaim his gracious death for us until he comes again." p.97
5. Reliant on the Spirit
Lk 10:38, 5:17, 24:19
power 'dynamis' of the Holy Spirit. Pray. Allow space for the HS to reveal truth so that congregation can response in worship.
-"all Christian worship must be empowered by the Spirit (see Philippians 3:3)
-Lk 11:11-13 our Father longs to give us his Holy Spirit, bc he loves us as his children. Jesus promises that the Spirit will well up within us (Jn 7:37-39); The real test of being Spirit-filled is if we are empowered to live and worship more like Jesus (Gal 5:22-25). Lk 11:5-10 keep asking and seeking.
2015-21 Feb 2017
Abingdon: The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2009
-Worship is about reverently drawing near to God.
-being obedient in service to God's design for our lives.
-offering God the praise and glory that he alone deserves. p. 9-10
1. Jesus is my worship leader?
-Heb 13:15 'Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name."
Jesus is the fulfilment of OT worship, which was centred on the sacrificial system and was led not primarily by the musicians but by the priests.
The central chapters of Hebrews "show how Jesus fulfils all that God set up for worship in that first covenant and goes beyond it to allow everybody access to worship their heavenly Father God."(p.21)
-"When God created humanity, his plan was always for us to worship him and live in his presence. but we sinned (Gen 3) OT worship's central problem: 'if an unholy ppl come into contact with the holy God, the result can only be certain death (Exo 33:20; Leviticus 10:1-3; 1 Chron 13:9-10) p.21
"we are 'infected' by the disease of sin, which leads to death (Rom 5:12). God's holiness is a 'consuming fire' (Heb 12:29), obliterating any unholiness it encounters. p. 22
Atonement-Heb 10:19-22 the blood of Jesus, a great priest (the representatvie of God's ppl in their worship, closest figure in the OT to a worship leader p.24; Heb 4:15). 'It is all too easy to be casual and glib about coming into God's presence in worship, forgetting that we can do so only because we have been saved from death. Luke 23:44-46-curtain torn, made possible for us to enter the heavenly reality of which the OT system was only a picture--coming into the presence of our loving Father. p. 24
How is this possible? the incarnation and the Trinity.
2. Humble servant
3. Leader with authority
how Jesus was with his 12 disciples, spent time with them, he picked those for their character. "How much do you value prayer and the creation of space to listen to God when you recruit ppl to be in your team?" p.75 Jesus began by allowing the disciples to observe him as he ministered (7:11); "make it a habit to pray specifically & regularly for our team members and those we mentor" (Lk 22:31-32) Jesus prayed for Simon's faith.
-what we can hope to express in worship:
Gathering ppl (Ps 95:1-2)
Praising God (66:1-4)
Remembering God's deeds in recent & personal experience (40:1-3), and in our corporate life and long ago (78:1-4; 136: 1-26)
Giving thanks (92:1-4)
Placing trust in God (25:1-3)
Recognizing God's holiness and majesty (29:1-11; 93:1-5)
Coming quietly to hear his voice (95:6-7; 131:1-2)
Contemplating how nature reveals and glorifies God (19:1-6; 104:1-32)
Intimate adoration (63:1-8)
Lament, expressing sorrow over disappointment or tragedy (22:1-2; 137:1-4)
Confession & absolution: personal (51:1-17) & corporate (130:1-8)
Intercession: for justice (58:1-11), for the world (67:1-7) & for ourselves (80:1-3)
Reflecting on and responding to God's word (119:9-16)
Remembering what God thinks of us (139:1-18)
Pronouncing blessing (121:5-8)
4. Creative communicator
-"The Bible is full of creative engagement with God. ...God's beautiful, symbolic design for the tabernacle and its furnishings (Exodus 25-28), the singing and dancing of the Israelites (Exodus 15:2-; 1 Chron 25; 2 Sam 6:13-15) or the dramatized actions of hte prophets (Eze 4; Jer 19:1-13)" p.86
-Jesus used parables-relating everyday life things to the message & to different audience
-limitations of music: only hearing & some ppl can't sing. multisensory: illustrations with props, visual aids, audience participation. e.g. write lament prayer, art corners for reflection/express themselves before God.
-Lk 7:36-50: "the extent to which we have been forgiven, and that we are 'loved much' by Jesus, do we respond by 'loving much' with extravagant offerings of worship?'
Jn 12:1-8 Judas complains that the money the woman who poured perfume on Jesus. Have we ever been guilty of scrimping financially or in the use of our gifts in our worship of Jesus?" p. 89
-Celebrating the Communion: "to encounter Jesus as he offers himself and us to the Father, by the Spirit; to join around the table as brothers and sisters, as equals, to proclaim his gracious death for us until he comes again." p.97
5. Reliant on the Spirit
Lk 10:38, 5:17, 24:19
power 'dynamis' of the Holy Spirit. Pray. Allow space for the HS to reveal truth so that congregation can response in worship.
-"all Christian worship must be empowered by the Spirit (see Philippians 3:3)
-Lk 11:11-13 our Father longs to give us his Holy Spirit, bc he loves us as his children. Jesus promises that the Spirit will well up within us (Jn 7:37-39); The real test of being Spirit-filled is if we are empowered to live and worship more like Jesus (Gal 5:22-25). Lk 11:5-10 keep asking and seeking.
2015-21 Feb 2017
Abingdon: The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2009
Monday, December 12, 2016
4. The Emerging Christian Way: Thoughts, Stories, & Wisdom for a Faith of Transformation-Michael Schwartzentruber (ed.)
I. "An Emerging Way"-Marcus Borg, pp. 9-32
-The deep division: "Followers of the earlier vision (fundamentalists, many conservative-evangelicals, and some mainline Christians) see the new way of being Christian as a watering down or even abandonment of Christianity. From their point of view, it makes too many concessions to modern thought, producing an anemic, politically correct, and vaguely theistic humanism. On the other side of the divide, emerging Christians often see the more rigid forms of the earlier vision as anti-intellectual, literalistic, judgmental, self-righteous, and uncritically committed to right-wing politics." (p. 10)
-a paradigm conflict: paradigm defined as "a way of seeing a whole; a comprehensive way of seeing; a large framework that affects the way particulars are seen"
II. "Experience: The Heart of Transformation"-Tim Scorer, pp. 33-
-"Experience has a significant connection to our innate tendency to be reflective." (p.33) Experience in your life of faith.
-"to move from an identified dilemma to resolution, from a human predicament to a solution.... transformative..."
-"when our hearts are open, we are alive to wonder; we live with a spirit of gratitude and we are compassionate as God is compassionate. The open heart is the one that is turned toward God, living with grace and spontaneous appreciation of the miracles of creation." (p.41p)
-in community and in tradition (p.46)
III. New Creeds-Tom Harpur, pp.51-
-"it's a fitting, biblical time...to reflect on and examine any 'jewels' found on life's path thus far." (p.52)
-"To be made in the Imago Dei is to share now, in some way in this world, in the nature and essence of God. It is not just a capacity or a remote potentiality, but an inner reality." (p.54) Ps 82:6
-...Jesus' chief teaching was not about sin...was about the kingdom of God. God's active presence everywhere....God in our midst; God within." (p. 57) Omission from the Creeds e.g." teaching of Jesus about the kingdom of God, which includes the entire ethic of social justice, - the theme both of Old Testament prophets and of Jesus. " (p. 62)
IV. "The Great Work"-Thomas Berry, pp.65-76
-conservationists
-'The Great Work before us, the task of moving modern industrial civilization from its present devastating influence on the Earth to a more benign mode of presence, is not a role that we have chosen. It is a role given to us, beyond any consultation with ourselves." (p.71)
V. "Consider the Lilies of the Field: How Should Christians Love Nature?" -Sallie McFague, pp. 77---The sacramental tradition (Augustine, Hildegard of Bingen, Gerard Manley Hopkins: "the world is charged with the grandeur of God.") assumes that God is present with us not only in the hearing of the Word an in the Eucharist but also in each and every being in creation. (p.78)
-to love the natural world for its intrinsic worth-incarnationalism. An incarnational theoloy, an earthly, bodily theology
-pay attention to difference
-"Art frames fragments of our world; paintings, poetry, novels, sculpture, dance, music help us to look at colors, sounds, bodies, events, characters--whatever--with full attention." (p.80)
-Murdoch: engagement with the "unutterable particularity" of the natural world.
R: I'm getting more and more uncomfortable with the grand talks about breaking all the boundaries (since that is so "modern" and now we are in a postmodern age), the radical reaction against "earlier", text-based, belief-based Christianity in favour of action and experience-fulfilling (& experience as starting points for belief) type of Christianity. Their assertions seem to be based on poorly defined concept of Jesus' teaching of "kingdom of God"; can you really say that repentance from sin is not part of Jesus' main teaching? The eagerness to accept other religions as ways for spirituality, and the eagerness to be close to EVERYONE without regards for/having a foundational belief seems dangerous. All these coming from North American writers who (from my perspective as a Southeast Asian Christian who had also been educated in the West) reacted strongly because of their experiences and visits to other poor parts of the world and they were so disoriented with the suffering that they couldn't understand, so they just throw out the belief systems, criticise how earlier Christians did church all wrong in order to deal with their sense of disjunction. So many of them do not really elaborate the biblical meaning of Jesus' "kingdom of God" but uses this point to champion their ideas that living with pluralism, embracing this newer paradigm is THE answer to Christianity today. They too eagerly attribute wars, hate, etc to "earlier" Christians to make their point and do not reflect upon what they might have sacrificed with their new way of doing Christianity.
I do wonder though, how can we do ecumenism well, not the truth compromising type...
Ok, I finally found a REALLY good chapter in this book:
X. "Worship: Pilgrims in the Faith"-Mark MacLean, pp. 171-187
-blended, ancient-future, seeker, tribalism emerging, emergent styles etc do not really work (misguided language)
It's not the question of whether the "liturgical renewal movement" or the "contemporary/evangelical" worship style is right, but reflecting on themes in corporate worship that "point to deep forms of the Spirit and its artistic interpretation" (p.183)/themes as guideposts on our shared pilgrimage in faith/tools for evaluating worship, or simply as a means to reflect upon the task of creating worship:
1. Revelation: "what does the gospel have to say to us. ...takes seriously the incarnation of Jesus Christ as prophetic, pastoral, and priestly voice in dialogue with human experience. This worship honors sacrament as a mystery and moment of unity, among people of the Spirit created in God's image. Revelatory worship accepts human frailty and diversity as an essential witness to God's image amogn us. In this radical inclusion, we can experience the incarnation reflected, named, and realised in the community of Christ."
2. A new emphasis on the Bible: "new"=a radical retelling of the faith history and teaching of the story of salvation. ... This new emphasis takes the radical challenge of the sacred texts as presented in their context, and drops it directly into our context as raw and real, as if it were written for us today. 'hermeneutic of relevance'"
3. Historical consciousness:
Topics: The historical consciousness of the evangelical & mainline denominations Chinese Christians about worship in the historical church till today. "We cannot go forward with innovation without knowing where we have come from. ... This requires the worship designer to explore the deep richness of the local community and of the historical church, in order to inspire and bear witness to the faith with a new and fresh voice." (p.184)
4. Influence of the Reformation: "we must all acknowledge the deep influence of the reformed movement on our worship and theology. ... This reformed spirit is where we can begin to break down the false boundaries of denominationalism and theological division to claim shared history and to vision and reunite the faithful."
5. Ecumenical character: "This reference is not to the movement of 'ecumenism' that grew out of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Here is where we name in worship the unique identity of Jesus Christ, held up as giver of the Spirit and incarnation of God among us, Emmanuel. We claim ourselves in worship as Christians and share this identity with our brothers and sisters in the Christian faith beyond all boundaries, as imposed by human experience. In doing so, we acknowledge our unique Christian identity openly and honestly with our brothers and sisters of every faith, and in so doing honour their distinct revelation of the creator God." (p. 184-5)
- "We have now moved beyond the limited language of style and function, to form and substance. We return to the open and fluid language of the community at worship--the ekklesia (faith community/church) and liturgia (liturgy/worship)." "As those who accept the intimate challenge of creating and forming worship in community, we must accept that, like all art, the form and substance of our creation is not always of our choosing. ...The community at worship is a vast and diverse canvas and we cannot be about limiting its authentic presentation." (p.185) authentic, innovation worship
-A very beautiful analogy of pilgrims: "Pilgrims know well that they are not the first to walk a road and they know well that they will not be the last. Pilgrims have a clear destination in mind but are always open to Spirit-filled, mysterious, and unexpected experiences along the journey. More importantly, true pilgrims revel in the rich stories of the other pilgrims around them, who are moving on their own distinct paths toward the same destination." (p.185)
-"Worship that stands against the imperialistic nature of our history welcomes and stands with the oppressed and the excluded. Worship that challenges the individualistic materialism of the 'pop-culture' creates authentic communities that are relevant and innovative for a new generation of faith. With worship that takes seriously the experience of revelation, the radical nature of biblical faith, and that claims our shared historic path, we can look to the future with hope. Authentic worship names our unique heritage amidst our diverse reality, and openly shares the richness of the full human condition as spiritual gift." (p.186)
-"We must breathe God's breath Ruah in our liturgia so we might truly be the ekklesia for the world." (p.186)
9-13 Dec 2016
Kelowna: CopperHouse, 2006.
Topics: The historical consciousness of the evangelical & mainline denominations Chinese Christians about worship in the historical church till today.
R: but how might this task of creating and forming an authentic and innovative worship look like in the Chinese church here? Some have limited resources and some have gotten used to directly inheriting/choosing to imitate the worship liturgy and songs from the Western church either for being safe or for lack of thoughts, while others do not see the importance of creating their own worship presentations suitable to their own context and fail to incorporate the richness of their own cultural heritage (or there is also the fear of using things that are unsuitable for the holy, as there are lots of cultural traditions that are connected with superstitions).
R: The celebration of 500 years of Reformation in 2017. What can the Asian church say about the worship (including the tradition of Word, song, and prayer) so far, and how the future looks for the Asian church in this central corporate activity of the church--worship? As worship is the gifted response of God to His people, and it tells us about our relationship with God.
"For a new generation of faith, our worship must capture this breath of God as the church moves forward and as Christianity is born anew. ...This is a hungry, thirsty, spiritually sensitive and yet deeply critical collection of people who cross all boundaries of age, race, and gender. They are no longer bound by convention in lifestyle, or tradition in their daily existence, and yet they remember these things. Theirs might not be a conscious longing, or clearly defined memory, but certainly the church today represents something, both for those within it and for those at its edges. ...How our worship represents this faithful convention and living tradition is the core challenge to the church in its mainline incarnation in our age. ... It is essential that each worshipping community find a way to lifts its faithful membership into that Spirit of God which binds our hearts. Our worship needs to flow in and through our communities, for God's Breath --Ruah--is central to our being and vocation." (p.173)
-The deep division: "Followers of the earlier vision (fundamentalists, many conservative-evangelicals, and some mainline Christians) see the new way of being Christian as a watering down or even abandonment of Christianity. From their point of view, it makes too many concessions to modern thought, producing an anemic, politically correct, and vaguely theistic humanism. On the other side of the divide, emerging Christians often see the more rigid forms of the earlier vision as anti-intellectual, literalistic, judgmental, self-righteous, and uncritically committed to right-wing politics." (p. 10)
-a paradigm conflict: paradigm defined as "a way of seeing a whole; a comprehensive way of seeing; a large framework that affects the way particulars are seen"
II. "Experience: The Heart of Transformation"-Tim Scorer, pp. 33-
-"Experience has a significant connection to our innate tendency to be reflective." (p.33) Experience in your life of faith.
-"to move from an identified dilemma to resolution, from a human predicament to a solution.... transformative..."
-"when our hearts are open, we are alive to wonder; we live with a spirit of gratitude and we are compassionate as God is compassionate. The open heart is the one that is turned toward God, living with grace and spontaneous appreciation of the miracles of creation." (p.41p)
-in community and in tradition (p.46)
III. New Creeds-Tom Harpur, pp.51-
-"it's a fitting, biblical time...to reflect on and examine any 'jewels' found on life's path thus far." (p.52)
-"To be made in the Imago Dei is to share now, in some way in this world, in the nature and essence of God. It is not just a capacity or a remote potentiality, but an inner reality." (p.54) Ps 82:6
-...Jesus' chief teaching was not about sin...was about the kingdom of God. God's active presence everywhere....God in our midst; God within." (p. 57) Omission from the Creeds e.g." teaching of Jesus about the kingdom of God, which includes the entire ethic of social justice, - the theme both of Old Testament prophets and of Jesus. " (p. 62)
IV. "The Great Work"-Thomas Berry, pp.65-76
-conservationists
-'The Great Work before us, the task of moving modern industrial civilization from its present devastating influence on the Earth to a more benign mode of presence, is not a role that we have chosen. It is a role given to us, beyond any consultation with ourselves." (p.71)
V. "Consider the Lilies of the Field: How Should Christians Love Nature?" -Sallie McFague, pp. 77---The sacramental tradition (Augustine, Hildegard of Bingen, Gerard Manley Hopkins: "the world is charged with the grandeur of God.") assumes that God is present with us not only in the hearing of the Word an in the Eucharist but also in each and every being in creation. (p.78)
-to love the natural world for its intrinsic worth-incarnationalism. An incarnational theoloy, an earthly, bodily theology
-pay attention to difference
-"Art frames fragments of our world; paintings, poetry, novels, sculpture, dance, music help us to look at colors, sounds, bodies, events, characters--whatever--with full attention." (p.80)
-Murdoch: engagement with the "unutterable particularity" of the natural world.
R: I'm getting more and more uncomfortable with the grand talks about breaking all the boundaries (since that is so "modern" and now we are in a postmodern age), the radical reaction against "earlier", text-based, belief-based Christianity in favour of action and experience-fulfilling (& experience as starting points for belief) type of Christianity. Their assertions seem to be based on poorly defined concept of Jesus' teaching of "kingdom of God"; can you really say that repentance from sin is not part of Jesus' main teaching? The eagerness to accept other religions as ways for spirituality, and the eagerness to be close to EVERYONE without regards for/having a foundational belief seems dangerous. All these coming from North American writers who (from my perspective as a Southeast Asian Christian who had also been educated in the West) reacted strongly because of their experiences and visits to other poor parts of the world and they were so disoriented with the suffering that they couldn't understand, so they just throw out the belief systems, criticise how earlier Christians did church all wrong in order to deal with their sense of disjunction. So many of them do not really elaborate the biblical meaning of Jesus' "kingdom of God" but uses this point to champion their ideas that living with pluralism, embracing this newer paradigm is THE answer to Christianity today. They too eagerly attribute wars, hate, etc to "earlier" Christians to make their point and do not reflect upon what they might have sacrificed with their new way of doing Christianity.
I do wonder though, how can we do ecumenism well, not the truth compromising type...
Ok, I finally found a REALLY good chapter in this book:
X. "Worship: Pilgrims in the Faith"-Mark MacLean, pp. 171-187
-blended, ancient-future, seeker, tribalism emerging, emergent styles etc do not really work (misguided language)
It's not the question of whether the "liturgical renewal movement" or the "contemporary/evangelical" worship style is right, but reflecting on themes in corporate worship that "point to deep forms of the Spirit and its artistic interpretation" (p.183)/themes as guideposts on our shared pilgrimage in faith/tools for evaluating worship, or simply as a means to reflect upon the task of creating worship:
1. Revelation: "what does the gospel have to say to us. ...takes seriously the incarnation of Jesus Christ as prophetic, pastoral, and priestly voice in dialogue with human experience. This worship honors sacrament as a mystery and moment of unity, among people of the Spirit created in God's image. Revelatory worship accepts human frailty and diversity as an essential witness to God's image amogn us. In this radical inclusion, we can experience the incarnation reflected, named, and realised in the community of Christ."
2. A new emphasis on the Bible: "new"=a radical retelling of the faith history and teaching of the story of salvation. ... This new emphasis takes the radical challenge of the sacred texts as presented in their context, and drops it directly into our context as raw and real, as if it were written for us today. 'hermeneutic of relevance'"
3. Historical consciousness:
Topics: The historical consciousness of the evangelical & mainline denominations Chinese Christians about worship in the historical church till today. "We cannot go forward with innovation without knowing where we have come from. ... This requires the worship designer to explore the deep richness of the local community and of the historical church, in order to inspire and bear witness to the faith with a new and fresh voice." (p.184)
4. Influence of the Reformation: "we must all acknowledge the deep influence of the reformed movement on our worship and theology. ... This reformed spirit is where we can begin to break down the false boundaries of denominationalism and theological division to claim shared history and to vision and reunite the faithful."
5. Ecumenical character: "This reference is not to the movement of 'ecumenism' that grew out of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Here is where we name in worship the unique identity of Jesus Christ, held up as giver of the Spirit and incarnation of God among us, Emmanuel. We claim ourselves in worship as Christians and share this identity with our brothers and sisters in the Christian faith beyond all boundaries, as imposed by human experience. In doing so, we acknowledge our unique Christian identity openly and honestly with our brothers and sisters of every faith, and in so doing honour their distinct revelation of the creator God." (p. 184-5)
- "We have now moved beyond the limited language of style and function, to form and substance. We return to the open and fluid language of the community at worship--the ekklesia (faith community/church) and liturgia (liturgy/worship)." "As those who accept the intimate challenge of creating and forming worship in community, we must accept that, like all art, the form and substance of our creation is not always of our choosing. ...The community at worship is a vast and diverse canvas and we cannot be about limiting its authentic presentation." (p.185) authentic, innovation worship
-A very beautiful analogy of pilgrims: "Pilgrims know well that they are not the first to walk a road and they know well that they will not be the last. Pilgrims have a clear destination in mind but are always open to Spirit-filled, mysterious, and unexpected experiences along the journey. More importantly, true pilgrims revel in the rich stories of the other pilgrims around them, who are moving on their own distinct paths toward the same destination." (p.185)
-"Worship that stands against the imperialistic nature of our history welcomes and stands with the oppressed and the excluded. Worship that challenges the individualistic materialism of the 'pop-culture' creates authentic communities that are relevant and innovative for a new generation of faith. With worship that takes seriously the experience of revelation, the radical nature of biblical faith, and that claims our shared historic path, we can look to the future with hope. Authentic worship names our unique heritage amidst our diverse reality, and openly shares the richness of the full human condition as spiritual gift." (p.186)
-"We must breathe God's breath Ruah in our liturgia so we might truly be the ekklesia for the world." (p.186)
9-13 Dec 2016
Kelowna: CopperHouse, 2006.
Topics: The historical consciousness of the evangelical & mainline denominations Chinese Christians about worship in the historical church till today.
R: but how might this task of creating and forming an authentic and innovative worship look like in the Chinese church here? Some have limited resources and some have gotten used to directly inheriting/choosing to imitate the worship liturgy and songs from the Western church either for being safe or for lack of thoughts, while others do not see the importance of creating their own worship presentations suitable to their own context and fail to incorporate the richness of their own cultural heritage (or there is also the fear of using things that are unsuitable for the holy, as there are lots of cultural traditions that are connected with superstitions).
R: The celebration of 500 years of Reformation in 2017. What can the Asian church say about the worship (including the tradition of Word, song, and prayer) so far, and how the future looks for the Asian church in this central corporate activity of the church--worship? As worship is the gifted response of God to His people, and it tells us about our relationship with God.
"For a new generation of faith, our worship must capture this breath of God as the church moves forward and as Christianity is born anew. ...This is a hungry, thirsty, spiritually sensitive and yet deeply critical collection of people who cross all boundaries of age, race, and gender. They are no longer bound by convention in lifestyle, or tradition in their daily existence, and yet they remember these things. Theirs might not be a conscious longing, or clearly defined memory, but certainly the church today represents something, both for those within it and for those at its edges. ...How our worship represents this faithful convention and living tradition is the core challenge to the church in its mainline incarnation in our age. ... It is essential that each worshipping community find a way to lifts its faithful membership into that Spirit of God which binds our hearts. Our worship needs to flow in and through our communities, for God's Breath --Ruah--is central to our being and vocation." (p.173)
Thursday, December 8, 2016
2. Gifted Response: The Triune God as the Causative Agency of our Responsive Worship-Dennis Ngien
-"how worship is our participation in God's causative agency... how the creature redeemed by grace is a passive recipient of God's grace that enables our response in worship."
-"It is not incidental that a Greek Father, two Latin doctors, and two Reformers all identify trinitarian agency as central to Christian worship."--foreword by Ralph Del Colle
Introduction:
"Much of the contemporary Church's emphasis on worship has been concerned primarily with what we do in the act of worshipping God. The focus has been on the 'how-to' aspect of worship and the discussion has been largely devoid of theological underpinning." (p. xv)
-Analysis of the theo-logic of worship in the major thinkers of each period.
-The unifying theme: "worship is God's gift, in which we participate. It is primarily God's causative action in us, and secondarily our corresponding response to him, the former being logically prior to the latter." (p. xv)
I. Basil of Caesarea's De Spiritu Sancto: not only is the Spirit the legitimate object of worship, the one who receives our praise, but also the perfector [of our worship], the one through whom worship offered in the Son joins with the heavenly choir of angels." (p. xvi)
II. Anselm's Proslogion: God is "that than which nothing greater can be thought" (the divine superlative) and must be worshipped as such. "The moment of understanding is precisely the moment of doxology."
-rational reflection and meditative prayer-Prayers and Meditations: "to stir up the mind of the reader to the love or fear of God or to self-examination." "Anselm habitually places more emphasis on I-thou encounter with God, without undermining the I-it aspect of knowing God...His intent is to issue a transposition from faith seeking understanding to understanding seeking worship, the latter being his chief end." (pp. 43-44) "the unsurpassable perfection...-demands a fiduciary response that is necessary, natural and proper to a being like God." (p. 44)
-a relationship of wonder, not a friend because of the hidenness of God. Anselm: "The truth is, I am darkened by myself and also dazzled by you. I am clouded by my own smallness and overwhelemed by your immensity; I am restricted by my own narrowness and mastered by your wideness."(p. 46)
-"Just as our knowledge of God is hindered by sin, so it is with our worship. The worshipping experience as ascent to God is rendered ineffectual, unless by the intervening grace of God the 'Re-creator'." (p.46)
-God as the object of faith->object of adoration/delight. John 16:24 not the joy that the Lord has but "a subjective one: the joy that the Lord is." (p.60) "joyous entrance into the superlative fullness" "to know God is to love him; to love him is to enjoy him. The more he knows God the more he loves him; the more he loves him the more he rejoices in him" --enabled through the counsel of the Holy Spirit (p.61).
III. Bernard of Clairvaux's sermons on the Song of Songs: "worship is comprehended in the groom's kiss, which is shared with the bride in the efficacy of the Spirit, the unitive kiss between the Father and Son." [thinking about God in these pictures is quite foreign to me and so I find it difficult to comprehend-unfamiliar concepts...]
-3 kiss: 1. feet (repentance of sin and forgiveness) 2. the hands: liberality bc it gives generously & fortitude imparts the power to persevere and adorn with virtues (contrition, thanksgiving and pious deeds are the 3 ointments of worship by which the bride is anointed, which please the groom." (p. 71) growth in His grace, intimacy
3. mouth-"The kiss that the Bridegroom offers is the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which the bride is drawn into the infinite sweetness or embrace between the Father and the Son." "The Holy Spirit as the Bond of Love" (Augustine in De Trinitate); "the kiss of the kiss (the Spirit)"-for the bride, participated kiss instead of the constitutive kiss, which belongs to God's divine life (intra-Trinity) p.80
-"We learn to accustom ourselves with the gift of redemption and praise God through the merit of the cross, for making possible all intimacy with him." (p. 93)
-meditating on the groom's wound "while the kenotic movement (kissing humanity) of the Son sent by the Father to die constitutes the motive of worship, the ascending movement of Christ's resurrection and ascension is the completion of worship, as the bride reaches 'that holy hiding place, that hidden sanctuary, to look upon the Son in th eFather and the Father in the Son.'" (p.100)
IV. "the theme of worship is ontologically constitutive of Luther's theologia crucis... The creatures, of their own reason and strength, cannot ascend to heaven, obligating God and causing him to be gracoius. Thus..god alone must begin and lay the first stone (grace, we are passive recipients; God is the causative agency of our responsive worship of him)". "our worship reaches the heavenly sanctuary not by means of our response but by Christ's efficacious response (imputed to us through the Holy Spirit.) Worship then is a performative action in which God is both subject and object." (p. xvii)
-the 'performative authority' of the Word of God being preached (p.119) "For Luther, 'to hear God's Word and believe it,' Hughes Oliphant Old writes, 'is the essence of worship.'" (p.121)
-"Because hearing and believing God's Word is worship at its highest, ... God reveals himself in a hidden manner, under the visible, earthly means of creation in order to effect his presence for us." [Lord's Supper] (p.122)
-"True worship is communion with God, which therein includes a humble, reverent, thankful appropriation of his sacramental provision for our need of him." (p.125)
-Christ the Mediator, priestly role, the representative (p.133)
V. Calvin's theology of worship in his Institutes (1559): "Christ's mediation is the theological basis of the believer's active response to God: in his person, in his Name, our worship has access to God." As Basil, the double-movement in worship: "the God-humanwardness, in which God first descends to us in his Son, reveals himself by the Holy Spirit as the object of our worship; and the human-Godwardness, in which the Spirit elevates us to Christ's Ascension, to participate in the incarnate Son's communion with the Father" (p. xvii)
-God is the Giver of all" (p.139)
-"The true knowledge of God is always accompanied by reverential acknowledgement of him in that there is no speech about God without worship." (p.143) to know God and yet not worship him is idolatry, or using our own efforts to worship him is wrong too.
-"Christ's mediation does not derogate human agency, but inspires it." (p.156)
-"A proper theology of worship takes into consideration the two divine movements in Trinity: the God-humanward movement-God from the Father through the Son by the Spirit to us, and conversely, the human-Godward movement - we by the Spirit through the Son to the Father. This is not an ordo essendi, of essence, but an ordo cognoscendi, of experience." (p.162)
7-8 Dec, 2016
Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2008.
-Q: What is 16th century Protestant magisterial theology?
-Meditate on what Lex orandi, lex credendi (prayer and doctrine) means.
-"It is not incidental that a Greek Father, two Latin doctors, and two Reformers all identify trinitarian agency as central to Christian worship."--foreword by Ralph Del Colle
Introduction:
"Much of the contemporary Church's emphasis on worship has been concerned primarily with what we do in the act of worshipping God. The focus has been on the 'how-to' aspect of worship and the discussion has been largely devoid of theological underpinning." (p. xv)
-Analysis of the theo-logic of worship in the major thinkers of each period.
-The unifying theme: "worship is God's gift, in which we participate. It is primarily God's causative action in us, and secondarily our corresponding response to him, the former being logically prior to the latter." (p. xv)
I. Basil of Caesarea's De Spiritu Sancto: not only is the Spirit the legitimate object of worship, the one who receives our praise, but also the perfector [of our worship], the one through whom worship offered in the Son joins with the heavenly choir of angels." (p. xvi)
II. Anselm's Proslogion: God is "that than which nothing greater can be thought" (the divine superlative) and must be worshipped as such. "The moment of understanding is precisely the moment of doxology."
-rational reflection and meditative prayer-Prayers and Meditations: "to stir up the mind of the reader to the love or fear of God or to self-examination." "Anselm habitually places more emphasis on I-thou encounter with God, without undermining the I-it aspect of knowing God...His intent is to issue a transposition from faith seeking understanding to understanding seeking worship, the latter being his chief end." (pp. 43-44) "the unsurpassable perfection...-demands a fiduciary response that is necessary, natural and proper to a being like God." (p. 44)
-a relationship of wonder, not a friend because of the hidenness of God. Anselm: "The truth is, I am darkened by myself and also dazzled by you. I am clouded by my own smallness and overwhelemed by your immensity; I am restricted by my own narrowness and mastered by your wideness."(p. 46)
-"Just as our knowledge of God is hindered by sin, so it is with our worship. The worshipping experience as ascent to God is rendered ineffectual, unless by the intervening grace of God the 'Re-creator'." (p.46)
-God as the object of faith->object of adoration/delight. John 16:24 not the joy that the Lord has but "a subjective one: the joy that the Lord is." (p.60) "joyous entrance into the superlative fullness" "to know God is to love him; to love him is to enjoy him. The more he knows God the more he loves him; the more he loves him the more he rejoices in him" --enabled through the counsel of the Holy Spirit (p.61).
III. Bernard of Clairvaux's sermons on the Song of Songs: "worship is comprehended in the groom's kiss, which is shared with the bride in the efficacy of the Spirit, the unitive kiss between the Father and Son." [thinking about God in these pictures is quite foreign to me and so I find it difficult to comprehend-unfamiliar concepts...]
-3 kiss: 1. feet (repentance of sin and forgiveness) 2. the hands: liberality bc it gives generously & fortitude imparts the power to persevere and adorn with virtues (contrition, thanksgiving and pious deeds are the 3 ointments of worship by which the bride is anointed, which please the groom." (p. 71) growth in His grace, intimacy
3. mouth-"The kiss that the Bridegroom offers is the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which the bride is drawn into the infinite sweetness or embrace between the Father and the Son." "The Holy Spirit as the Bond of Love" (Augustine in De Trinitate); "the kiss of the kiss (the Spirit)"-for the bride, participated kiss instead of the constitutive kiss, which belongs to God's divine life (intra-Trinity) p.80
-"We learn to accustom ourselves with the gift of redemption and praise God through the merit of the cross, for making possible all intimacy with him." (p. 93)
-meditating on the groom's wound "while the kenotic movement (kissing humanity) of the Son sent by the Father to die constitutes the motive of worship, the ascending movement of Christ's resurrection and ascension is the completion of worship, as the bride reaches 'that holy hiding place, that hidden sanctuary, to look upon the Son in th eFather and the Father in the Son.'" (p.100)
IV. "the theme of worship is ontologically constitutive of Luther's theologia crucis... The creatures, of their own reason and strength, cannot ascend to heaven, obligating God and causing him to be gracoius. Thus..god alone must begin and lay the first stone (grace, we are passive recipients; God is the causative agency of our responsive worship of him)". "our worship reaches the heavenly sanctuary not by means of our response but by Christ's efficacious response (imputed to us through the Holy Spirit.) Worship then is a performative action in which God is both subject and object." (p. xvii)
-the 'performative authority' of the Word of God being preached (p.119) "For Luther, 'to hear God's Word and believe it,' Hughes Oliphant Old writes, 'is the essence of worship.'" (p.121)
-"Because hearing and believing God's Word is worship at its highest, ... God reveals himself in a hidden manner, under the visible, earthly means of creation in order to effect his presence for us." [Lord's Supper] (p.122)
-"True worship is communion with God, which therein includes a humble, reverent, thankful appropriation of his sacramental provision for our need of him." (p.125)
-Christ the Mediator, priestly role, the representative (p.133)
V. Calvin's theology of worship in his Institutes (1559): "Christ's mediation is the theological basis of the believer's active response to God: in his person, in his Name, our worship has access to God." As Basil, the double-movement in worship: "the God-humanwardness, in which God first descends to us in his Son, reveals himself by the Holy Spirit as the object of our worship; and the human-Godwardness, in which the Spirit elevates us to Christ's Ascension, to participate in the incarnate Son's communion with the Father" (p. xvii)
-God is the Giver of all" (p.139)
-"The true knowledge of God is always accompanied by reverential acknowledgement of him in that there is no speech about God without worship." (p.143) to know God and yet not worship him is idolatry, or using our own efforts to worship him is wrong too.
-"Christ's mediation does not derogate human agency, but inspires it." (p.156)
-"A proper theology of worship takes into consideration the two divine movements in Trinity: the God-humanward movement-God from the Father through the Son by the Spirit to us, and conversely, the human-Godward movement - we by the Spirit through the Son to the Father. This is not an ordo essendi, of essence, but an ordo cognoscendi, of experience." (p.162)
7-8 Dec, 2016
Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2008.
-Q: What is 16th century Protestant magisterial theology?
-Meditate on what Lex orandi, lex credendi (prayer and doctrine) means.
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