Eastern Christian Worship in Late Modernity Challenges and Opportunities

Dear Colleagues,

As with all Christian liturgical traditions, Eastern Christian liturgical traditions, as ecclesial practices and markers of community identity, have faced similar challenges as those faced by Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant liturgical traditions. These common challenges have most commonly to do with the marginalization of traditional religious communities, the restructuring of the rhythms of human life and work, the centering of the individual person and their experience, and the replacement of Christian narratives of the world and its significance with the narrative of science and instrumental technology as the common narrative by which the world has come to be accounted for and within which it finds its meaning. At the same time, churches now find themselves in a semi-disenchanted world in which people continue to search for viable practices and narratives which serve to provide not only individual meaning, but also new narratives of transcendence, transformation, hope, and frameworks in which the body and the physical world bear positive meaning.

Additionally, however, Eastern Christian liturgical traditions face unique challenges in late modernity. These center around the perceived antiquity of these traditions and the ideological use of such narratives of liturgical antiquity (and supposed historical continuity) in the service of anti-modern theological, social, and cultural movements and agendas. In such a view of modernity and Christian worship held by anti-modern communities and individuals, “change” becomes a byword for “modernity” and its attendant ills and worldview. In such contexts, Eastern Christian churches, and especially their liturgical practices, can (and have) become attractive alternatives to Christians of Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican traditions seeking ecclesial–liturgical traditions perceived not to have been affected by the acids of modernity. Thus, Eastern Christian liturgical and theological traditions become open to interpretations of Orthodox theologies and practices alien to Orthodox traditions, interpretations based upon fundamentalist theological perspectives. Furthermore, the question of liturgical language and translation continues to appear in church life, particularly in (but not limited to) “diaspora” contexts and their complex dynamics, involving language, culture, and the danger of losing young people as they become linguistically and culturally acculturized. The greater visibility of Eastern Christian communities in areas where they have not traditionally had a home raises new questions of the relationships between liturgy and mission, a large number of spiritual “seekers” today, the broader question of the attractiveness of Eastern Christian liturgical traditions to such people, and the potential problems that such vaunted aesthetic attractiveness raises. For example, does an emphasis on the aesthetic dimension downplay or ignore the deep ethical and ascetical dimensions of Eastern Christian traditions? Finally, the question of interpretation arises in unique ways in Eastern Christian liturgical traditions today. How can Eastern Christian churches create ways of interpreting liturgical structures, actions, and symbols in a way that speaks to modern people who live in a partially disenchanted world?

Dr. Grant White
Guest Editor

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• eastern Christian liturgy
• liturgy
• worship
• interpretation
• late modernity
• mission
• liturgical change
• diaspora
• liturgical language
• spirituality
• seekers