conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

preaching, liturgy and sociology

A friend has taken one of those internet quizes. This one helps you figure out what your college major should be. For her it was dance. For me it suggested sociology. When I stopped wondering why God would punish me so, I popped in on the comments to whine. One of the other commenters suggested that dance was an easy parallel for Beth's interest in liturgy. The same can be said for sociology. And, honestly, perhaps my liturgical interest is more sociological at times than much else.

One possible definition for the word liturgy is "the work of the people." This is more of a translation than a definition, but it sheds a little light on how I understand liturgy and why I study it. Who knew that so much wisdom could be gleaned from an internet quiz?

Liturgy is about people and relationships...the relationships within the gathered community, between that community, other communities and with God. It is a wonderful thing to study liturgy in terms of "what and why we do what we do for God." That is great and fine. But I tend to think of liturgy as indicative of wider cultural movements and trends. Liturgy is seldom invented. It is often appropriated.

This is the focus of my interest in John Calvin. I am interested in who he was and why what he created liturgically took the forms they did. My reasons for wanting to uncover this information and bring it to the fore is that I think the conversations of centuries ago can help us in contemoporary conversations whether they be about ecumenism, the emergent church or the struggles within the Southern Baptist Convention.

How Christians in particular worship is of great importance...even to the wider culture at large. Since much of our history is founded upon religious movements and since those movements often included some degree of liturgical reform, the general statement stands with the particular realities. When congregationalists controled the political life of the New England colonies, how, when ane where one worshiped mattered greatly. When the Irish Catholics immigrated to the US, they were driven to the New York city ghettos because of religious (incl. liturgical) differences. Even their humanness was judged on the basis of their religious loyalty. That the fell into the "papist traps" of weekly or even daily mass and supposed idol worship was proof positive to many in America that the Irish "race" was sub par. The Anglo-Saxon race was the paradigm of greatness in the seventeenth and into the early nineteenth centuries. Read Marty's Righteous Empire for more on that dynamic. It's pretty amazing. And, of course, there are many more examples to turn to. All of these dynamics historical, cultural, sociological, liturgical, play in one another's waters. Simply by taking communion daily, you were seen as less a human being, and less likely to be able to contribute to society.

My hope is that by studying wider historical/sociological trends that are influences of and influenced by religious reforms, specifically the liturgical (a subcategory of reform to be certain), maybe we will better understand ourselves as Christians (and even Americans). That understanding may shed a helpful light on current conversations and allow us to get to the root of our disagreements and reconcile past misjudgments and burdens that could be shed.

Liturgical trends to be aware of right now:

-the mega church and their "convention style" services (a creation of the baby boomer generation).
-the emergent conversations and their neo-liberal reclamation of traditional symbolism...in the midst of post-modern coffee shops (Gen X, Y and Z?).
-the recent ruling of the SBC higher-ups that speaking in tongues has no place in Christian worship...specifically in the mission field (Don't think that the initial "city on a hill" theology of American Christian expansion is gone.).
-Taize services (a global vision of ecumenism that is gaining popularity in the US)

There are many more, but these are the ones that come to mind for me. These different trends come out of particular understandings of and iterations of American sub-cultures and philosophical movements. They directly express and inform what certain American demographics admire and value.

I'm still thinking about this...but I want to know what thoughts pop to mind for you in all this.

Ah, right, and let's not forget the "liturgy free" spiritualists in this country. Their social liturgy is also important to understand and incorporate into the conversation.

Posted by tripp at January 17, 2006 09:46 AM