Liturgical Theology Chapter Summary

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, serves as an Archbishop in Boston, he expresses his thoughts about a book published by the French hierarchy “God has become more accessible that we fail to grasp the true meaning of the Eucharist.” This is how Cardinal O’Malley starts his talk about the importance of the Eucharist as how it plays a major role in our formation as believers of the Catholic Church. Cardinal O’Malley also talks about the three gifts that Jesus gives us in the Eucharist. Lastly, Cardinal O’Malley explains how preparation is useful to fully understand the Eucharist. These are the steps that forms us as a community of faith reflecting on Jesus mission.

The book then addresses the Church and discipleship and looks at some basic questions, baptism, the body of Christ and the visible Church-Community. The book also covers Saints – members called by God. Included in this chapter is sanctification

For the Life of the World authored by Fr. Alexander Schmemann an Orthodox priest was originally intended as a “study guide” in the 1970’s for students preparing themselves for Missionary work, giving them a “world view”, helping to speak about Christian view points along with an approach to how they coalesce through the eyes of the Orthodox Church. A key theme Fr. Schmemann discussed is Secularism, which he believes developed from our progressive alienation of the Christian culture. Additionally, he presents his interpretation of the transforming biblical themes of creation, fall, and redemption through a sacramental understanding. Fr. Schmemann’s experiences within the Orthodox Church liturgy reveal unity in the meanings of these three themes. It is through these understandings he believes can effectively offset the disastrous effects of secularism while revitalizing the sacramental understanding of the world.

This book calls the church to rethink and modify its practices, by providing a middle path between the emerging church and the conservative that aims to benefit all. There are major shift happening in the Western Church that has people talking. The problem is that churches fail to follow a mission-centered approach. Chester and Timmis have found that in order to refocus the churches

The homily presented in chapter nine of William Reese’s Christian Theology dives into the theme of ethics. The children’s father created a rule about not seeing PG-13 or R rated movies, but the boys attempted to find loopholes for this rule. Because they created a list of pros and cons and insisted on seeing a certain PG-13 or R rated movie, the father became extreme. He baked some excellent brownies that contained a small amount of dog poop, and he told his children they could see the movie with trace amounts of profanity if they could look past the trace amount of dog poop in the brownies and eat one. The author expresses the theme of ethics in a shocking way by possibly disgusting his readers, but he forces them to look for the underlying message, which is that God wouldn’t want his followers to allow evil in to their lives simply because there is some goodness involved.

The Protestant Reformation often gets the lion’s share of attention when discussing religious reform and renewal during the Early Modern period. However, to state that the Reformation was the only significant shift in the ideology and practice of Christianity would be to greatly undersell the importance of a myriad of religious reformers that denounced the decrepit and outdated relationship between mainstream religious practice and God. For this new wave of religious reformers, the traditions of the mainstream Church (whether Protestant or Catholic) were getting in the way of godly men and women forging a personal relationship with their savior, one in which the individual is brought into the grace of God through a true lasting connection

Stephen Seamands proffers a Trinitarian description of Christian Ministry as the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the church and the world. The author seems to presume that many in the Christian faith have not adequately observed or applied the doctrine of the Trinity significantly in the vocation of ministry. It is with this perception that he postulates a Trinitarian approach of ministry that emphasizes communion with God shaping our language about God to shape our heart so we might share in the life of God. In arriving at his conclusions, Seamands uses well-grounded Scriptural foundations, along with a descriptive of the Icon of the Holy Trinity painted in 1425 by a Russian Monk, Andrei Rublev, including the historical significance that is traced back to the Enlightenment, and the findings of renowned theologians beginning with Karl Barth. The preponderance of evidence provided supports the author’s contention that the grammar of the Christian faith and life is rooted in the doctrine of the Trinity having created the current Trinitarian renaissance.

H. Williams’ unique background allows him to build a bridge between the patristic heritage and “suspicious” Protestant Christians. D. H. Williams is an assistant professor of patristics and historical theology at Baylor University, but has also worked at Loyola University of Chicago – a Roman Catholic University. One the other hand, Williams is an ordained Baptist minister and pastor allowing him to sympathize with the “tradition” and perspective of Protestant Christians. D. H. Williams argues “that the church’s Tradition sits in indispensable relation – historically and theologically – to the Christian use of Scripture and to the development of doctrine and spirituality (pp. 6).” Thus, this work shows that embracing the “catholic” roots of the faith will not lead to the loss of Protestant distinctiveness but is essential for preserving the Christian vision in our rapidly changing

The differences in the churches exist because of a lack of central authority. However, the differences “varied in form, completeness, and clarity” create what MacMillan defines as the environing culture. These distinctions do not detract from the validity of the Holiness Church, but rather provides a religious framework in accordance with MacMillan’s definition.

Calvin, J. ((1559) 2014). Institutes of the Christian Religion. In L. Prescott, & F. Richards, Ideas of Authority (pp. 217-218). Milton Keynes: The Open Univeristy.

reader to appreciate the peoples of the time and the magnitude of the changes that the Church

Worship has transformed throughout time. The views that various cultures have on what it means to worship have become a controversial topic and a battle known as the worship wars. Could this battle be the plot of the enemy to drive God’s army apart? Despite the brokenness worship wars has brought to the church over several decades, this last year has shown a near resolution to the war.

First, he sees that there is a disrespectful attitude to the early figures of the church (1992: 107). Second, he observes that there is a lack of faith in the means of grace. He says, “They do not speak law which reveals sin and gospel which forgive it, but they speak about God and His word in a variety of ways (1992: 108). Third, most of the current catechetical resources have a main goal to put human’s work as a centre of Christian life and this goal against the teaching of justification and the gospel (Thompson, 1992: 110). Fourth, he sees that many catechetical resources do not take the matter of God’s word and gifts seriously. Modern catechetical resources are written in the form of a ‘search for shortcuts’ that might simplify the understanding of justification (Thompson, 1992: 110). Fifth, he observes that there is ‘a confusion in ecclesiology’ in modern catechetical materials (1992: 112). He says, “We have changed the church from an article of faith to something in the visual sensorium” (1992: 112). The human’s work becomes more important in the ecclesiastical life where it should be focused on the gift of God (Thompson, 1992:

Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume I: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. Second Edi. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2010.

This paper will provide an understanding the theories of theology of the history of the church, the celebration of the atonement; Jesus Christ being the vicarious substitutionary lamb slain for the sins of mankind.