Webber is a leading writer on worship with high and present impact. This book is easy to read and comprehensive in scope.
But there's a few concerns.
I found the Biblical material rather light - its more a dance through the Bible than a serious exegetical study. I'm troubled by his remark on p49 in which he elevates the immediate post-apostolic fathers to having a nearly equivalent to the Scriptures. Thus, his study of post-apostolic early Christian worship is included under his 'Biblical Foundations' and not under his Brief History of Worship. That's a rather significant placement and shows in the rest of the book as Hipploytus etc become a benchmark.
I'm also troubled by what I see as giving insufficient weight to the discontinuity from OT to NT due to the effect of Jesus' ministry. At times he is quite aware of this but he often over-carries OT elements through into Christian worship. He raises the question as to how the coming of Jesus should change our worship actions but I'm not sure that I agree with his answer.
A further area of concern is his notion of worship as a re-enacting event. He reflects the Bible's teaching (Rom 12 :1-2) that the whole of life is an act of worship but it seems to come across that worship really only happens in the intentional church service.
But there's a few concerns.
I found the Biblical material rather light - its more a dance through the Bible than a serious exegetical study. I'm troubled by his remark on p49 in which he elevates the immediate post-apostolic fathers to having a nearly equivalent to the Scriptures. Thus, his study of post-apostolic early Christian worship is included under his 'Biblical Foundations' and not under his Brief History of Worship. That's a rather significant placement and shows in the rest of the book as Hipploytus etc become a benchmark.
I'm also troubled by what I see as giving insufficient weight to the discontinuity from OT to NT due to the effect of Jesus' ministry. At times he is quite aware of this but he often over-carries OT elements through into Christian worship. He raises the question as to how the coming of Jesus should change our worship actions but I'm not sure that I agree with his answer.
A further area of concern is his notion of worship as a re-enacting event. He reflects the Bible's teaching (Rom 12 :1-2) that the whole of life is an act of worship but it seems to come across that worship really only happens in the intentional church service.
All that being said, this is an important book to read because so many are reading Webber and running with his ideas.
1 comment:
I agree with your critique - it seems that the early church framework for worship is based on OT temple worship but not enough said about the departure from the kind of worship practices of the early apostles. I enjoyed the Book though :)
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