After receiving probation for getting busted for drugs, Gary Froman triesw to straighten up his life and keep a promise he made to his pastor when he was just a young boy. Though, without his new friend Jimmy Barnes, taking him to and from church, it may have never been possible.

Despite widespread interest in spirituality, its most common corporate form, congregational worship, is rarely discussed in those terms. This book explores liturgical spirituality as a holy conversation between God and us.Linking the themes of spirituality and worship and giving each needed focus in ways that are biblically and theologically rich and consistent with ecumenical traditions, this book specifically explores the relationship of sacred reading (lectio divina) to worship. Linman sees this practice as one element in the larger liturgical action of Gathering, Word, Meal, and Sending. Our "spiritual worship" (cf. Rom 12:1), he argues, is the holy conversation between worshipers and the triune God who leads us to greater participation in Christ and to transformation through Christ's presence.Raising important issues for worship renewal and interspersed with practical insights and suggestions, this book serves as a primer for those who want to more fully learn how to worship, and, through the power of the Spirit, to deepen their awareness of the encounter with Christ made known in Word and Sacrament.

Harry Emerson Fosdick was one of the most popular liberal preachers of the early 20th century, and his The Meaning of Prayer is considered by many one of the finest studies of the meditative communion with God. This lovely little book features daily devotional readings focused on understanding prayer, reflecting upon: . The Naturalness of Prayer . Prayer and the Goodness of God . Hindrances and Difficulties . Unanswered Prayer . Prayer as Dominant Desire . Unselfishness in Prayer ..and other issues arising from conversing with the divine. This warm, friendly guidebook to a profoundly personal act remains an important exploration of one of the world's dominant faiths... just as it was when it was first published in 1915. American theologian HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK (1878-1969) was born in New York, educated at Colgate and Columbia Universities, and served as professor of practical theology at Union Theological Seminary from 1915 to 1946. Among his many works are A Guide to Understanding the Bible (1938) and A Book of Public Prayers (1960).

Using light as fil rouge reuniting theology and ritual with the architecture, decoration, and iconography of cultic spaces, the present study argues that the mise-en-scene of fifth-century baptism and sixth-century episcopal liturgy was meant to reproduce the luminous atmosphere of heaven. Analysing the material culture of the two sacraments against common ritual expectations and Christian theology, we evince the manner in which the luminous effect was reached through a combination of constructive techniques and perceptual manipulation. One nocturnal and one diurnal, the two ceremonials represented different scenarios, testifying to the capacity of church builders and willingness of Late Antique bishops to stage the ritual experience in order to offer God to the senses.

How can we find serenity in the midst of so much noise without and within? Wayne Oates maintains that we can nurture silence in our lives if we truly value it and are eager and dedicated to nourishing it. He explores practical and spiritual ways to maintain peace and centeredness in our work, our relationships, and our daily routines. In silence we can find healing, and in silence we can experience the presence of God as Friend. This highly readable and engaging guide to finding and cultivating inner peace offers practical tips for the general reader whose life is filled with busyness and stress. Nurturing Silence in a Noisy Heart includes a "practice of silence" test and questions for reflection and discussion which make the book ideal for small group study or as the focus of a retreat or conference.

This is a study of the social construction and the impression management of the public forms of worship of Catholicism and Anglicanism. Interest centres on the dilemmas of the liturgical actors in handling a transaction riddled with ambiguities and potential misunderstandings. Simmel, Berger and Goffman are used in an original manner to understand these rites which pose as much of a problem for sociology as for their practitioners.;These rites are treated as forms of play and hermeneutics is linked to a negative theology to understand their performative basis. The study is an effort to link sociology to theology in a way that serves to focus on an issue of social praxis.

In popular thought, Christianity is often figured as being opposed to dance. Conventional scholarship traces this controversy back to the Middle Ages. Throughout the medieval era, the Latin Church denounced and prohibited dancing in religious and secular realms, often aligning it with demonic intervention, lust, pride, and sacrilege. Historical sources, however, suggest that medieval dance was a complex and ambivalent phenomenon. During the High and Late Middle Ages, Western theologians, liturgists, and mystics not only tolerated dance; they transformed it into a dynamic component of religious thought and practice. This book investigates how dance became a legitimate form of devotion in Christian culture. Sacred dance functioned to gloss scripture, frame spiritual experience, and imagine the afterlife. Invoking numerous manuscript and visual sources (biblical commentaries, sermons, saints' lives, ecclesiastical statutes, mystical treatises, vernacular literature, and iconography), this book highlights how medieval dance helped shape religious identity and social stratification. Moreover, this book shows the political dimension of dance, which worked in the service of Christendom, conversion, and social cohesion. In Ringleaders of Redemption, Kathryn Dickason reveals a long tradition of sacred dance in Christianity, one that the professionalization and secularization of Renaissance dance obscured, and one that the Reformation silenced and suppressed.

In introducing eight new eucharistic prayers, "Common Worship" has focused fresh attention on the most central act of Christian worship. This text offers a wealth of information on both the words and actions of the Eucharist. Part one focuses on the content of the Eucharist, from the opening greeting to the final blessing and dismissal. Each stage of the service is explored from a biblical and historical perpective and readers discover how the Eucharist has evolved from the days of the Early Church. Part two focuses on the actions of the Eucharist: the posture and movement of the celebrant and participants, ceremonial, symbolism, the role of memory, essentials and variables in the rite. Part Three explores the eight different Eucharistic prayers of "Common Worship", their distinctive styles, provenance, theological features and pastoral uses.