Summary of the Lent-Easter 2022 issue of Doxology.
Founded in 1984, Doxology: a journal of worship and the sacramental life is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of liturgical scholarship bridging academic and church communities. It is published by the Order of Saint Luke, a dispersed ecumenical religious order founded by Methodists. The Order currently includes United Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Baptists, members of Holiness movement churches, and many others. Doxology publishes work by established and emerging liturgical scholars to address historical, theological, and cultural questions about Christian worship and the sacramental life.
ARTICLES
Notes towards a Liturgy of Lament
Frank C. Senn
Church life has been interrupted during the coronavirus by an inability to gather in assembly over long periods of time. While we have become adept at using Zoom and other technologies, regular liturgical and sacramental practices have been necessarily suspended for months at a time and even now are practices not fully restored. Among the kinds of worship that were developed during the past two years of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the one type that has not been explored is lament. This article asks why that is, showing the wealth of ways that the Christian tradition has approached lament in the past. In so doing, it also proposes some ways in which Christians of today can reclaim that tradition to grapple liturgically with the threat of disease, climate change, and other present issues.
Throwback Theology Column: “This is My Body” from the First Homily on the Betrayal of Jesus
Introduction by Rebecca L. Holland, OSL
St. John Chyrsostom (347- 407) was born in Antioch and became the archbishop of Constantinople. He studied law under the distinguished pagan rhetorican, Libanias. In this excerpt, which is entitled, “This Is My Body,” Chrysostom opens by warning of the danger of riches (a common theme throughout his preaching and teaching). He then explores both the spiritual and corporeal aspects of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. He examines the multiple layers of meaning in the sacrament of holy communion, and lifts up a rich image of there being both spiritual and physical elements at the Lord’s Table. Finally, he closes with a call for peace and reconciliation that is especially timely for our modern world.
LITURGICAL MATERIAL AND MISCELLANY
New Year’s Eve Lament Liturgy
Frank C. Senn
Three Confession Prayers
Hayden Hobby
Sung Grace: “Hospitality in the Image of Christ”
Commentary by Sarah Mount Elewononi, OSL
“Wherewith thou shalt do signs”
Tristan Cooley
“The Imposition”
Cara Ellen Modisett
“Might We See Jesus Living”
MERLE’S TUNE, text by James Hart Brumm
REVIEWS
Joshua Zentner-Barrett reviews Lisa Allen, A Womanist Theology of Worship: Liturgy, Justice, and Communal Righteousness.
John Brittain, OSL, reviews Marianne Gaarden, The Third Room of Preaching: A New Empirical Approach.
Heather Josselyn-Cranson, OSL, reviews The Eyes of Tammy Faye, written by Abe Sylvia, directed by Michael Showalter.