WORSHIP: ADORATION AND ACTION, edited by D. A. Carson

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

by Steve West

 

Table of Contents

1. ‘Worship the Lord Your God’: The Perennial Challenge – D. A. Carson
2. Theology of Worship in the Old Testament – Yoshiaki Hattori
3. Worship in the New Testament – David Peterson
4. The Reformed Liturgy in the Dutch Tradition – Klaas Runia
5. Presbyterian Worship – Edmund Clowney
6. Worship in Anglicanism – Roger Beckwith
7. Worship in Lutheranism – Norvald Yri
8. ‘Free Church’ Worship in Britain – Peter Lewis
9. Some Reflections on the Meaning and Practice of Worship from inside South America – Felicity Houghton
10. Worship in the Independent/Free Church/Congregational Tradition: A View from the Two-Thirds World – Guillermo Mendez
11. Charismatically-oriented Worship – Alistair Brown
12. Patterns of Worship Among Students Worldwide – Sue Brown
13. Worship as Adoration and Action: Reflections on a Christian Way of Being-in-the World – Miroslav Volf

 

Summary

 

Chapter 1: ‘Worship the Lord Your God’: The Perennial Challenge

When Satan tempted Jesus to worship him, he was positing the fundamental question of worship: Who do you worship? Who you worship is more essential than the modes and styles of your worship. Sin is profoundly self-centered and thus directs our worship to ourselves. In Christ, we are transformed so that we can live in a God-centered way, and this reorients our worship. There are many common reductionisms in how contemporary churches view and talk about worship. For many, worship is what takes place in the corporate church service, while others reduce it further so that it is equated with only the service’s musical component. Others have tied worship to liturgy. Still others have recognized that worship includes all of life but have then screened out the church service from worship, arguing that its primary function is edification. Worship does touch every area of the Christian life, but this includes our corporate gatherings. God-centeredness should be found at the heart of both our individual and corporate experience.

 

Chapter 2: Theology of Worship in the Old Testament

Since worship involves our entire life in relation to God, worship was present from the very beginning of creation. Genesis reveals that God takes the initiative, and his creatures are supposed to respond properly to him in attitude and deed (i.e., they are to worship him in all of life as a response to who he is and what he has done). After the fall into sin, we see people beginning to call on the name of the Lord in prayer and beginning to offer sacrifices. In the patriarchal period, sacrifice and sacred space became more prominent. In Israel, we see that God is offered praise in prayers and songs. At Sinai, the people had to properly prepare themselves to meet with God. Worship in the old covenant revolved around offerings and sacrifices, and obedience to the laws given by God. The tabernacle was at the center of the community’s cultic worship. In Leviticus, the Day of Atonement was crucial, and the holiness code provided regulations for a worshipful life consecrated to Yahweh. Numbers and Deuteronomy show many examples of times when Israel failed to worship properly, but a few times in which they did.

The era of the judges was one of disintegration ethically and religiously, and proper worship faded away as the priests led the way in corruption. In the monarchy, David worshiped God mightily, and Solomon built the temple as the place of prayer and worship. Jerusalem became the central location for worship, until the divided monarchy put high places in different locations. Organized worship and singing became more prominent at these centers. When the exile occurred, the people could no longer sacrifice at the temple, so the study of Scripture and the messianic hope took on new importance in the community. After the exile, holiness and proper worship were stressed as the way to enjoy God’s favor and avoid exile in the future. Worship must be understood in its largest canonical horizon. It is part of the created order and finds its necessary significance in relation to Jesus Christ. Our appropriate response to God is now viewed in context of the covenant of redemption, fulfilled by Christ. . . .

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