The God We Worship: An Exploration of Liturgical Theology by Nicholas Wolterstorff
Reviewed by: The God We Worship: An Exploration of Liturgical Theology by Nicholas Wolterstorff David W. Fagerberg Nicholas Wolterstorff The God We Worship: An Exploration of Liturgical Theology Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015 192pages. Paperback. $20.00. Three things are necessary for the reader to know about the author of this book. First, he is a very intelligent man. Second, he is a philosopher. Third, he is an intelligent philosopher in the Reformed tradition. Certain consequences follow from these three characteristics. For one thing, he is humble enough as a practicing believer to admit that his profession has rarely taken worship into consideration. “The liturgical theology that has emerged from our discussion does at least pose a challenge to traditional philosophical theology, a challenge that, to the best of my knowledge, none of those who have written about philosophical theology has taken into account—I include myself in this generalization. I now regard that as a serious shortcoming” (169). For another, he believes that a philosophical examination of the act of worship will be beneficial. “My project in this book is to make explicit the understanding of God implicit in the Christian liturgy and then to make a beginning at the developing and elaborating those understandings theologically” (21). And for one more, he is brought to a particular understanding of the relationship between worship and liturgy. “Christian liturgical actions are best thought of as one species of acts of Christian worship – an exceedingly prominent species, indeed, but only a species. Acts of worship are liturgical when they are scripted” (8). He adds that most liturgical worship is communal, but one could follow a script in one’s private devotions, therefore Christian worship is liturgical when it is scripted, rule-governed actions. These chapters come from the Kantzer lectures Wolterstorff gave in 2013 at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. While edited for print, they maintain a clarity and [End Page 64] straightforwardness to be expected of orally delivered talks. An educated lay reader could easily follow, with perhaps the exception of chapters 5–6 when he adopts more philosophical vocabulary about locution and illocution, speech-act theory, and analogous predication. Wolterstorff’s project is to “uncover the fundamental presuppositions of the Christian liturgy” (17) and to “make explicit the understanding of God implicit in the Christian liturgy and then to make a beginning at developing and elaborating those understandings theologically” (21). In this, he thinks he is following the lead of Alexander Schmemann, whom he interprets as calling us to the ontology of liturgy, and he holds up the Swiss theologian J.-J. von Allmen as another example of such work. The project is to make explicit what is implicit in the liturgy, and this Wolterstorff proceeds to do in each of his chapters, by examining liturgy on four levels: looking at worship as a whole, at various types of liturgical acts, at particular liturgical actions, and at particular sequences. We can summarize his process because he explains it clearly. Let us take his first case. What explicit actions do we do in the liturgy? We adore God, which means offering Him awe, reverence, and gratitude. And why do we do it? That is, what implicit understanding do we have of God that motivates us to do these actions? God is glorious, holy, and love—these taken together referring to God’s greatness. In other words, the theology of divine greatness is implicit in the explicit liturgical actions of adoration. His other cases can be quickly summarized. The explicit liturgical act of worship itself (with a sense that we ought to) includes confession, intercession, and blessing, and the implicit theology shown by these activities is that God is vulnerable. In our explicit liturgy we address God in various ways, saying “you” to him, which implicitly says that God participates in mutual address as a listener. We may be astonished that we can address God, that he will listen, that it is not presumptuous or pointless, but this activity reveals God as listener. We make intercessions and pleas to God because we implicitly believe that God will hear us favorably and cause his kingdom to come. And God himself is...
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