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Book Review: Perspectives on Christian Worship Reviewed by Bob Kauflin Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views, edited by J. Matthew Pinson That's the question Perspectives on Christian Worship: 5 Views seeks to answer. Editor Matthew Pinson introduces the book with a brief and insightful historical overview of Christian worship. Then we're offered five different views (and responses) of public worship today: liturgical (Timothy Quill), traditional evangelical (Ligon Duncan), contemporary (Dan Wilt), blended (Michael Lawrence and Mark Dever), and emerging (Dan Kimball). Liturgical Timothy Quill, a former Lutheran pastor, tries to persuade us that the Liturgy of Word and Sacrament has "sustained the church and reached the lost for the past two thousand years" (21). While that may be overstated, I agree with Ligon Duncan who, in his response, says that Quill is "thoroughly Trinitarian, Christocentric, theological, and biblical in his understanding of worship" (82). Quill highlights worship as God's gift of grace to us, rather than our gift to God, a point he reiterates in most of his responses. Quill admits early on that the Liturgy belongs to the adiaphora, matters neither commanded nor forbidden by Scripture (19), but you get the impression he feels more strongly than that. Thus, his justification for liturgical worship is ultimately more pragmatic and historical than biblical. In response, Duncan points out that, "Liturgy can create complacency and simply going through the motions in worship" (83). As edifying and educational as his chapter is, I don't think Quill sufficiently addresses this point. Traditional Evangelical Duncan' s chapter on traditional evangelical worship focuses less on forms and more on the meaning, elements, goals, and qualities of biblical corporate worship. His values are similar to Quill, with forms being more negotiable, but not irrelevant. He alerts us to the "law of unintended consequences" (112) with respect to the mediums we use. "The minute a service is called 'contemporary,' we have just conveyed, whether we like it or not, that the most important thing about it is the featured musical style" (111). He also warns that using music to attract people encourages participants "to view themselves as consumers rather than as worshipers" (113). Like all the contributors, Duncan says "worship is all about God" (149) and that conviction comes through in his chapter. He roots his views of worship in scriptural principles and commands, and says the Bible is to be read, preached, prayed, sung, and seen in public worship (105). Wilt and Kimball affirm Duncan's chapter, but wonder if his practices are at times more influenced by his own tradition and experiences than he realizes. I think they make a good point. Wilt stresses that cultural accommodation is very different from cultural connection (133). Lawrence and Dever express concerns about Wilt's over-emphasis on cultural relevance and personal authenticity. They write, "Certainly we must worship our Savior from within our culture. Yet just as certainly worship must take its cues not from its context, but from its subject, not from our changing culture, but from the unchanging character of God" (215). In his response, Kimball takes issue with Lawrence and Dever's understanding of the Word in worship. "As much as there is a desire to protect the church using only 'Word-focused' worship, we must remember that the subtle stylistic things we do in addition to words also communicate" (284). Wilt questions viewing the "Word" simply as preaching, and says "the thought that to preach is to transform is magical and lacks substance" (278). In seeking to heighten our awareness of how words are received, both Dans run the risk of minimizing the preached word, despite their claims to the contrary. That said, his references to a Chinese proverb, nine spiritual temperaments, and worship as a "multisensory experience" muddy the waters. Dan Wilt humbly comments, "The random and sometimes cavalier use of Scripture must continue to be eradicated from both contemporary and emerging worship patterns" (346). Lawrence and Dever sound a similar alarm: "We are on safer ground biblically if we assume that culture's default effect will be to misshape our worship, and that what is needed is to allow the Scriptures to constantly reform and reshape our worship according to the pattern of the Spirit rather than the pattern of the world" (351).
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