The primacy of liturgy in Christianity

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
BRUCE ELLIS BENSON

Abstract I argue that liturgy is primary to the Christian faith. By ‘liturgy’, however, I do not mean merely what happens on Sunday morning. Instead, I distinguish between ‘intensive’ and ‘extensive’ liturgies, those that occur when the body of Christ meets together and when that body disperses. All of this together constitutes Christian liturgy. My thesis is not that practice is more primary than theory, for that presupposes the possibility of drawing a sharp line between them – an impossible task. Rather, liturgy is a variety of embodied cognition through which we know God and our neighbours. Theology is something that arises from our liturgies and is itself liturgical in nature. We may believe the Nicene Creed, but saying it aloud is performative in nature. I end by examining the relation of phronēsis and theōria in Aristotle and then consider the way Heidegger uses this distinction to argue that ‘know-how’ (Verstehen) is the most basic kind of human knowledge.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-159
Author(s):  
Jack Reynolds

AbstractIn this paper, I consider a challenge that naturalism poses for embodied cognition and enactivism, as well as for work on phenomenology of the body that has an argumentative or explanatory dimension. It concerns the connection between embodiment and emergence. In the commitment to explanatory holism, and the irreducibility of embodiment to any mechanistic and/or neurocentric construal of the interactions of the component parts, I argue there is (often, if not always) an unavowed dependence on an epistemic and metaphysical role for emergence, especially concerning certain embodied capacities (motor-intentionality, know-how, skilful habits, affordances, etc.). While the problem of emergence is standardly dismissed as a problem for phenomenology, which brackets away the kind of materialist (and scientific) picture from which reflection on emergence derives, I argue that once a phenomenologist takes a fully-fledged embodied turn, they also have a genuine dilemma of emergence to confront, and I evaluate the relevant options.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Yonatan Alex Arifianto ◽  
Joseph Christ Santo

Abstract: In Indonesia as a multicultural country, there is a diversity of beliefs. History proves that unhealthy exclusivism endangers pluralism. Differences in religious beliefs can become a potential for horizontal conflict if the state does not act to prevent this. In order to create a harmonious society, the government has launched the Religious Harmony Trilogy through the Regulation of the Minister of Religion and the Minister of Home Affairs. As citizens of Indonesia, Christians cannot neglect this harmony effort. This study aims to answer the problem of how the role of believers in social life in applying the Religious Harmony Trilogy based on the perspective of the Christian faith. This research uses descriptive analysis method through related literature. The results of this study indicate: first, Christianity teaches living in harmony among fellow Christians as members of the body of Christ. Second, Christianity teaches to be the light of the world and the salt of the world in the midst of people with different faiths, so that harmony can be created. Third, Christianity teaches submission to the government because the government is determined by God, thus creating harmony between Christians and the government.Abstrak: Di dalam negara Indonesia yang multikultural dijumpai adanya keberagaman keyakinan. Sejarah membuktikan bahwa eksklusivisme yang tidak sehat membahayakan kemajemukan. Perbedaan keyakinan agama bisa menjadi potensi konflik horizontal apabila negara tidak bertindak mencegah hal tersebut. Dalam rangka mewujudkan masyarakat yang harmonis, pemerintah telah mencanangkan Trilogi Kerukunan Umat Beragama melalui Peraturan Menteri Agama dan Menteri Dalam Negeri. Sebagai warga negara Indonesia, umat Kristen tidak bisa berlaku abai terhadap upaya kerukunan ini. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjawab permasalahan bagaimanakah peran orang percaya dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat dalam mengaplikasikan Trilogi Kerukunan Umat Beragama berdasarkan persepektif iman Kristen. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif analisis melalui literatur terkait. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan: pertama, kekristenan mengajarkan hidup rukun di antara sesama umat Kristen sebagai anggota tubuh Kristus. Kedua, kekritenan mengajarkan untuk menjadi terang dunia dan garam dunia di tengah-tengah masyarakat dengan keyakinan iman yang berbeda, sehingga tercipta keharmonisan. Ketiga, kekristenan mengajarkan penundukan kepada pemerintah karena pemerintah ditetapkan oleh Allah, dengan demikian terwujud kerukunan antara umat Kristen dengan pemerintah.


Author(s):  
Joy Evelyn Abdul-Mohan

It is evident that disunity is a reality wherever we look in the world today. Even within the Body of Christ there is a lack of unity that is appalling. The universal church needs to develop a greater urgency about it and at the same time, do more about it than most are doing. If the universal church comes to a realization that genuine Christian unity is already ‘an established reality and can progressively be realized and brought into the actualities of life’, perhaps then the universal church would strive harder to create and maintain a sustainable Christian unity making it a ‘lived reality’. As a Reformed family, we believe in the creative and redemptive activity of God, inaugurated in Jesus Christ but not yet completed. The Kingdom of God is a present reality, which will be expressed anew in all its fullness. This is our Christian hope, which is fundamental to our Christian faith and Christian faith is expectant faith. The universal Church therefore must offer the image of a people who are mature in faith and capable of finding a meeting-point beyond denominational barriers and not the image of a people divided and separated because of ecclesiastical differences. It is hoped that the Global Christian Forum will continue to reflect that image.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-96
Author(s):  
Sørina Higgins

In his unfinished cycle of Arthurian poems, Charles Williams developed a totalizing mythology in which he fictionalized the Medieval. First, he employed chronological conflation, juxtaposing events and cultural references from a millennium of European history and aligning each with his doctrinal system. Second, following the Biblical metaphor of the body of Christ, Blake’s symbolism, and Rosicrucian sacramentalism, he embodied theology in the Medieval landscape via a superimposed female figure. Finally, Williams worked to show the validity of two Scholastic approaches to spirituality: the kataphatic and apophatic paths. His attempts to balance via negativa and via positiva led Williams to practical misapplication—but also to creation of a landmark work of twentieth century poetry. . . . the two great vocations, the Rejection of all images before the unimaged, the Affirmation of all images before the all-imaged, the Rejection affirming, the Affirmation rejecting. . . —from ‘The Departure of Dindrane’ —O Blessed, pardon affirmation!— —O Blessed, pardon negation!— —from ‘The Prayers of the Pope’


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