Gordon W. Lathrop has taught liturgy at Wartburg Theological Seminary, the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, Yale Divinity School, and the Virginia Theological Seminary.

This latest work from leading liturgical theologian Gordon Lathrop explores the extent to which the central symbols and interactions of Christian liturgy yield, for their participants, a new proposal for their understanding and experience of the world. In the process, it considers various kinds of world-making, the diverse maps, and the differing senses of "cosmology" in which we all live. Finally, the book examines how certain liturgical reforms can contribute to a refreshed sense of ecological ethics-to a Christian sense of the holiness of the earth itself.

This sequel to Gordon Lathrop's highly successful Holy Things is an exercise in liturgical theology, viewing the activities of worship as a means of defining and discussing the concept ?church.? It centers on community and assembly to discuss the sacraments. It focuses on ecumenism and inculturation as central test cases for a liturgically derived idea of church. In hopes of invigorating the local church, Lathrop explores the meaning of the term ?church, ? the relationship of the local liturgical assembly and other Christian assemblies (catholicity); the personal and communal character of liturgical assembly; the unity of the churches; the critical principles of liturgy and culture; openness to what is radically other; and liturgical evangelization. Lathrop's work grounds a notion of church that is personal yet communal, universal, but not triumphalistic.

New in paperback Cyril of Jerusalem wrote about "holy things." He thereby reflected the communion invitation used in his fourth-century liturgy to call people to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Mystagogical Catecheses). The present times call for strong and healthy symbols that hold people into hope. The Christian communities need a reintroduction into the ways in which liturgical symbols respond to human need. Indeed, Lathrop argues, Christian communities continually need to reconsider the meaning of their liturgies and reform those liturgies toward authentic clarity. In its three parts, this book (1) proposes that an ecumenical pattern or ordo of worship can be discerned which is also a pattern of meaning, (2) discusses the ways in which meaning occurs in the meeting for worship itself, and (3) draws practical conclusions about the organization of that meeting and its importance to current human need. Throughout, Lathrop undertakes to do theology, that is, to say what the liturgy actually says about God.