Date of Award

7-1-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Systematic Theology

First Advisor

Kent Burreson

Scripture References in this Resource

1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; 1 Timothy 4:6, 16; Acts 2:42; Hebrews 10:25; Hebrews 8:2; Hosea 4:6; Luke 1:23; Romans 13:6; Romans 15:16

Abstract

Omolo, Joseph, T. "Worshipping Meaningfully: The Complementary Dynamics of Liturgy and Theology in Worship." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 242 pp.

This dissertation is a work in systematic theology which explores the relationship between liturgy and theology in the current scholarship of liturgical theology. It examines how the complementary dynamics of liturgy and theology enhance the appropriation of meaning experientially and conceptually in the Christian assembly and thereby making worship meaningful event. Worship is meaningful when the Christian assembly encounters the Triune God in his word and sacraments and the assembly responds in praise, prayer and thanksgiving. In such encounter the assembly experiences God's gift of salvation and apprehends the truth of the Christian metanarrative. Such experience and conception occur in the liturgical celebration and faithful theological reflection in the context of worship. This dissertation explores how both liturgy and theology contribute in their unique ways to meaningful worship and how the two aspects of meaning—experiential and conceptual—play out in the liturgical context.

Since Christian worship occurs in different milieus, this dissertation also examines how Christian worship can remain meaningful in different spatio-temporal contexts. God offers his gift of salvation to people in their own socio-cultural contexts and at different times. Liturgy and theology will thus mediate or communicate the unchanging meaning of the mystery of salvation in changing contexts, utilizing the local media of communication.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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