Can Christian worship engage our secular culture? Should it? While engaging thinkers in philosophy, history, religious anthropology, and liturgical theology, liturgical theologian Joris Geldhof argues that such engagement is necessary-that our liturgy and faith should embrace our modern culture. He shows that liturgy itself is an immensely resourceful reality that appeals to any human being, regardless of sociocultural and intellectual circumstances. If properly understood, the liturgy can provide a powerful dynamic that helps people overcome any binary, including the unfortunate one between the "left" and "right" within the Catholic Church.
"How does one release a logjam? We ask because there does seem to be a deadlock in certain conversations over liturgy these days. Geldhof proposes...the impasse...is...the relationship of sacred liturgy to the secular world. ... The result is not a modernized liturgy, but a liturgy that functions in our modern lives."
David W. Fagerberg, University of Notre Dame
"This learned, wise, and clearly-written book invites us again to a dense celebration of the liturgy as a complex of symbols that can save us all from the loneliness and isolation belonging to ideological secularism, while refusing to reject secularity itself. Both progressive and conservative, this lovely book affirms the world while welcoming God's urgently needed salvation."
Gordon W. Lathrop, Professor of Liturgy Emeritus
"Joris Geldhof brings to a wider audience a much-needed application of social-philosophical theory to move analysis of the weakening force of liturgy in late-modernity beyond the tired polemics of so-called traditionalist versus reformist church politics to a deeper understanding of the fundamental challenges yet unique potential for liturgical practice today."
