This volume provides a study and an original edition and translation from Syriac into English of Discourse Two of Gabriel of Qatar's liturgical commentary, written in the first half of the seventh century.

One of the most influential works in the debate over the concept and definitions of liturgical theology, Context and Text by Monsignor Kevin W. Irwin is now available in a completely rewritten, new edition. In light of the historical, theological, and pastoral mandates of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Context and Text is both a proposal for and an example of an investigation of the church's liturgical praxis from a liturgical-theological perspective. This second edition, which includes an expanded introduction, covers: * new liturgical and ecclesial contexts resulting from newly promulgated liturgies * further research in method for liturgical studies * consideration for changes in the cultural contexts in which people celebrate the liturgy. Besides brand-new chapters on time and sacramentality, and additions to the chapter on the arts, this edition also considers the ongoing 'texts and contexts' of the liturgy as always a new event in the life and ongoing discussion of liturgical theology within Christianity.

Can Christian worship engage our secular culture? Should it? While engaging thinkers in philosophy, history, religious anthropology, and liturgical theology, liturgical theologian Joris Geldhof argues that such engagement is necessary-that our liturgy and faith should embrace our modern culture. He shows that liturgy itself is an immensely resourceful reality that appeals to any human being, regardless of sociocultural and intellectual circumstances. If properly understood, the liturgy can provide a powerful dynamic that helps people overcome any binary, including the unfortunate one between the "left" and "right" within the Catholic Church.

'Domination Christianity' explores Max Weber's understanding of bureaucracy as 'domination through knowledge' -in both Protestant religion and the capitalist culture that it birthed. Management and mission practices have also merged in the last 20 years in such a way as to distort the ongoing ability of mainline Churches to create genuine community. There are several streams of mission attempting to reverse Christianity's decline in the West. Mission Shaped Church is a stream within mainline Christianity that is attempting to do this through creating churches around the needs of the unchurched. Frustratingly all mission initiative is enmeshed in centralized finance and managerial mechanisms. Therefore Church law, policy, regulation and financial priorities control and curb innovation and growth. DOMINATION CHRISTIANITY considers the way practices of hierarchical bureaucracy and management have therefore perpetuated decline in mainline Christian institutions. The way the Gospel is communicated has been distorted to such a degree by these modernist practices as to render it socially impotent in postmodern society.

This book provides an account and explanation of a fundamental dilemma facing secular states: the 'legitimacy gap' left by the withdrawal of religion as a source of legitimacy. Legitimacy represents a particular problem for the secular state. The 'secular' in all its manifestations is very much linked to the historical rise of the modern state. It should not be seen as a category that separates culture and religion from politics, but rather as one that links these different dimensions. In the first part of the book, Depaigne explains how modern constitutional law has moved away from a 'substantive' legitimacy, based in particular on natural law, towards a 'procedural' legitimacy based on popular sovereignty and human rights. Depaigne examines three case studies of constitutional responses to legitimacy challenges which articulate the three main sources of 'procedural' legitimacy (people, rights, and culture) in different ways: the 'neutral model' (constitutions based on the 'displacement of culture'); the 'multicultural model' (constitutions based on diversity and pluralism); and the 'asymmetric model' (constitutions based on tradition). Even if secularization can be considered European in its origin, it is best seen today as a global phenomenon, which needs to be approached by taking into account the particular cultural dimension in which it is rooted. Depaigne's detailed study shows how secularization has moved either towards 'nationalization' linked to a particular national identity (as in France and, to some extent, in India)-or towards 'de-secularization', whereby secularism is displaced by particular cultural norms, as in Malaysia.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1883 Edition.