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The liturgical tradition of Christian spirituality is constituted by those who say, clearly and consistently, that the primary source for the nourishment of the Christian spiritual life is to be found in the church’s public worship. Surveying the history and contours of this tradition, Susan White asks how the liturgical tradition of spirituality can become a resource for the contemporary spiritual quest. To answer this she shows how this tradition responds to a range of problems: questions about living and dying, about being with others and living ethical lives, about locating ourselves in time and space, about who we are and how we see our relationship with God. Susan J. White received her doctorate in liturgy and sacraments from the University of Notre Dame and currently teaches at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of Christian Worship and Technological Change and (with James F. White) Church Architecture: Building and Renovating for Christian Worship.
“The uniqueness of Anglicanism is that it has no uniqueness. Let it offer itself then as ongoing home to a spirituality that knows nothing except grace, holds nothing certain except that we will be surprised by life.”—From the Introduction by L. William Countryman Anglicanism, as Countryman argues, is unusual among forms of Western Christianity in being defined primarily in terms of community rather than by authoritative theological principles. In the end, Anglicanism may be characterized by a poetic imagination well reflected in the work of many of the great lyric poets of the English language. Poets ranging from Herbert, Donne, and Vaughn, to Blake, Wordsworth, Owen, Eliot, and Auden, for all their differences, show a common reverence for scriptural and liturgical language, an appreciation for the created world, a sense of the presence/absence of God, and the power of grace. L. William Countryman is professor of New Testament at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where he also teaches courses in spirituality. His books include Dirt, Greed & Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament.
Poverty and Joy Brides in the Desert Prayer and Community The Way of Simplicity |
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