Summary
Liturgical theology is concerned with the meaning of Christian worship. It encompasses different approaches to searching for meaning, some of which begin from the ritual pictures and ceremonial scenes of the churches’ forms of worship, some which begin with ideas about Christian doctrine. Method in liturgical theology often discusses these different kinds of emphasis, the former associated with the Latin phrase lex orandi, the latter with the phrase lex credendi. It is increasingly common to place these in relation to further considerations to do with ethical living (lex agendi) and justice (lex Iustitiae). Key differences turn on questions about how context affects the meaning of worship.
It is important to notice that none of the above presumes that the meaning of Christian worship is contained in words that may be spoken in a service or written in a prayer book. It is safe to say that consideration of words alone falls short of a threshold for liturgical theology.
Search Terms
- Liturgy
- Worship
- Assembly
- Word
- Sacrament
- Ritual
- Ceremony
Call Numbers
Public Worship: UG to UG69
Liturgical Worship: UH10 to UH90
Liturgies and Liturgical Books by Denomination: UJ10 to UT9
Introductions
- Christian Worship: 100,000 Sundays of Rituals and Symbols, by Gail Ramshaw (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009), which is written for readers who may not have much experience of liturgy in churches.
- Foundations of Christian Worship, by Susan White (Louisville: WJKP, 2006), which is a slightly adapted version of her Groundwork of Christian Worship (Peterborough: Epworth Press, 1997).
- Liturgy (SCM Studyguide), by Stephen Burns (London: SCM Press, 2018), an ecumenical approach.
Reference Texts
- The New SCM Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, ed. by Paul Bradshaw (London: SCM Press, 2002) remains valuable for initial guides to liturgical subjects.
- Primary Sources in Liturgical Theology, ed. by Dwight W. Vogel (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2000) introduces key contributors to the discipline at the turn of the millennium, some of whom continue to influence contemporary developments.
Regional Contributions
- Christian Worship in Australia: Inculturating the Liturgical Tradition, ed. by Stephen Burns and Anita Monro (Strathfield: St Pauls, 2009) is an ecumenical collection of Australian perspectives.
- Worship as Meaning: A Liturgical Theology for Late Modernity, by Graham Hughes (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003) is an important exploration of liturgy through the lens of semiotics, emphasizing the need to attend how context contributes to liturgical meaning.
Other Important Texts
- Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology, by Gordon W. Lathrop (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993) is the first of an important trilogy (also Holy People, and Holy Ground) which has been hugely influential, especially in Protestant liturgical theology.
- Gender Differences and the Making of Liturgical History: Lifting a Veil on Liturgy’s Past, by Teresa Berger (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011) is a feminist exploration of a discipline that has often been overrun by men.
- What, Then, is Liturgy?, by Anscar Chupungco (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2014) is a posthumously published collection of essays by a hugely influential Roman Catholic scholar.
- Worship and Culture: Foreign Country or Homeland?, by Glaucia Vasconcelos Wilkey (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014) raises important questions of context around an ecumenically significant document (‘The Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture’).
- Christian Worship: A Theological and Historical Introduction, by Glenn O’Brien (Melbourne: Mosaic Press, 2014) is an introduction to the field by a UD teacher.
- This Assembly of Believers: The Gift of Difference in the Church at Prayer, by Bryan Cones (London: SCM Press, 2020) is a recent UD doctorate in liturgical theology, emphasizing intersections with disability and queer theologies.
Journals
- Australian Journal of Liturgy.
- Liturgy: A journal of the Liturgical Conference.
- Studia Liturgica.
- Worship (because the title is so generic, this one: https://journalworship.org)