Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday: Liturgy as a Way of Life

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine which lets bloggers spotlight upcoming releases that they are looking forward to.


I just found out about a new book in the "Church and Postmodern Culture" Series:
Liturgy as a Way of Life: Embodying the Arts in Christian Worship by: Bruce Ellis Benson, James Smith (Series Editor)

Publication Date: April 15, 2013

Book Description from Goodreads and Amazon:
"How do the arts inform and cultivate our service to God? In this addition to an award-winning series, distinguished philosopher Bruce Ellis Benson rethinks what it means to be artistic. Rather than viewing art as practiced by the few, he recovers the ancient Christian idea of presenting ourselves to God as works of art, reenvisioning art as the very core of our being: God calls us to improvise as living works of art. Benson also examines the nature of liturgy and connects art and liturgy in a new way. This book will appeal to philosophy, worship/liturgy, art, music, and theology students as well as readers interested in engaging issues of worship and aesthetics in a postmodern context, including Christian artists and worship leaders."


I have read the first two books in this series: 
Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church by James K.A. Smith (2006) 

What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church by John D. Caputo (2007)

(I used both of them as research for my culminating project for my Master of Arts in English. The title of the paper was "Postmodernism and the Church: Exploring the Emerging Church Movement".)

And I want to read the rest of the books in the series:

GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn by Carl Raschke (2008)

The Politics of Discipleship: Becoming Postmaterial Citizens by Graham Ward (2009)

Whose Community? Which Interpretation?: Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church by Merold Westphal (2009)

The Economy of Desire: Christianity and Capitalism in a Postmodern World by Daniel M. Bell (2012)


About the Series (from Baker Publishing):
The Church and Postmodern Culture series features high-profile theorists in continental philosophy and contemporary theology writing for a broad, nonspecialist audience interested in the impact of postmodern theory on the faith and practice of the church.

1 comment:

Lynette said...

That looks like a fascinating book, and one I'll definitely look into! Thank you so much for sharing it! :)

My WOW.

~ Lynette @ Escaping Reality – One Book at a Time