Living the Liturgy: Enlarging the Baptist Vision

Baptists have at times been tempted to dismiss liturgy as formulaic. Simply going through the motions or saying set phrases, they have rightly argued, does not necessarily lead to faithfulness. A disconnect between liturgical assemblies and lives of faithfulness, however, does not mean that all liturgy is merely rote. It means, rather, that false idolatrous liturgies have captured our imaginations. In fact, the very idea that liturgy pertains to a sphere separate from the rest of life is itself already a distorted liturgical conviction that is even now disfiguring the body of Christ.

Living the Liturgy argues that there is no sphere of lifepolitical, economic, or otherwisethat is not already liturgical. So understood, liturgies inevitably form our understandings of nature, freedom, time, and much else. The key question is, Which liturgy is in fact shaping our lives? Elizabeth Newman argues that Baptists can expand their liturgical and theological vision by locating themselves more fully within the whole church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

Far from entailing a loss of Baptist identity, genuine ecumenism enhances Christian self-understanding, whatever one's tradition. Ecumenism is an exchange of gifts. A faithful gift exchangewhether giving or receivingbuilds communion, illuminating rather that obfuscating Baptist and other Christian identities, enabling us to live and witness more fully for the life of the world. Living the Liturgy displays in particular ways and through specific examples how an ecumenically informed understanding of liturgy can cultivate an enriched Baptist self-understanding and witness in a late modern context.

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