Through tracing the liturgical history of the Christian faith from its foundation in Old Testament
Israel through the early church, middle ages, Reformation, to the present, this book demonstrates
that liturgy forms religion and religion forms liturgy.
One of the best ways to truly understand what lies at the core of the Christian faith is by studying
its worship, for corporate worship does something far more significant than many Christians
recognize-public worship both reveals belief and forms belief. How a community
worships-its content, its liturgy, and its forms of expression-reveals the underlying religious
commitments of those who plan and lead the worship. Conversely, corporate worship forms the
beliefs of the worshipers. Public worship is not simply about authentic expression of the
worshipers; rather, how a church worships week after week progressively shapes their beliefs
since those worship practices were cultivated by and embody certain beliefs.
This is why it is so important for church leaders, and indeed all Christians, to carefully identify
what kinds of beliefs have shaped their various worship practices so that they will choose to
worship in ways that best form their minds and hearts consistent with their theological
convictions. That is the goal of this book: studying worship in the Old and New Testaments will
reveal how God deliberately prescribed worship that would form his people as he desires, and
tracing the evolution of Christian worship from after the close of the New Testament to the
present day will help elucidate how theological beliefs affected the worship practices Christians
have inherited.
