Seminar Report 2026

Convener

Ron Anderson

Description of Work

The 2026 seminar discussed papers and reports from several
members:

• Jennifer Lord reported on her Calvin Institute funded study of how
  people in an Orthodox congregation live out their baptismal
  “renunciation of evil” in their daily lives.
• Hwarang Moon presented a paper reconsidering Calvin’s theology
  of worship as he seeks to help Korean Presbyterians move beyond
  the doctrinal boundaries and biblical interpretations of the
  Reformers in a context that tends to read Calvin more strictly than
  Calvin himself.
• Michelle Whitlock led us in a continuing discussion of Christine
  liturgical-hermeneutics Ritual with Ricoeur: Between Fragility and Hope (we had discussed her chapter on liturgical identity at the 2025 meeting).
• Melinda Quivik presented the third chapter “Metaphorical Fire”
  from her book in progress Fire in Your Ears: Preaching to Ignite
  and Tend Faith.
• Lucas Christensen presented the concluding chapter from his
  dissertation on “The Descriptive [ekphrastic] Homily as a Medium
  of Encounter.”
• Virgil Funk invited a conversation about the Vatican note “Antiqua
  et Nova” and a response to it from Ilia Delio, exploring questions
  about how the biological and technological relate to one another.
• Sungguk Park presented his paper “The immaterialization of
  metaverse worship,” exploring what happens when worship
  moves from streaming to metaverse engagement in which all
  participants take the form of a digital entity.
• Ron Anderson invited discussion of his 2024 Kavanagh lecture
  “Hear, listen, attend: Liturgy in an age of distraction” [published in
  Worship 99.4 (October 2025)]

Other Work and Plans for the Future

Although the group did not settle on a specific plan for 2027, we
hope to continue conversation with Melinda Quivik on her
liturgical-hermeneutics several members, and read/discuss Julia Day’s book Hear Our Prayers or perhaps Tony Alonzo’s book Commodified Communion,
both of which would enable us to continue some of the themes
that emerged from the discussions of the 2026 seminar.

Seminar Report 2022

Convener

Sonja Pilz is Rabbi at Congrega- tion Beth Shalom, Bozeman, Montana; Ron Anderson served as convener pro tem.

Members in Attendance

Ron Anderson, Joseph Donnelly, Ed Foley, Gordon Lathrop, Jennifer Lord, Hwarang Moon, Melinda Quivik, Don Saliers, Tom Schattauer, Allie Utley, Andrew Wymer

Visitors in Attendance

Dominik Ackerman, Ken Amani, Chad Fothergill, Jon- ghyun Kim, Teresa Stewart, Michelle Whitlock

Description of Work

The Liturgical Hermeneutics seminar continued a con- versation on liturgy and affect theory begun over the previous three years, with particular attention to Allie Utley’s dissertation exploring the bodily experience of worship and how our feelings control/effect our experiences of worship, fol- lowed by a discussion of emotional valence in the Psalms, led by Don Saliers. We received and reflected on a report from Ed Foley regarding a project he has devel- oped on preaching and the sciences. We discussed part of a forthcoming manu- script from Melinda Quivik, exploring the ways in which we might pursue more honest conversations about race and worship, particularly as they intersect in the context of seminary worship life. We concluded with a conversation led by Ron Anderson in which we explored some questions about the teaching of liturgy as a hermeneutic event.

Papers and Presentations

• Allie Utley, Sensing Worship: An Auto Ethnography of Liturgy and Affect, concluding chapter on affect and good worship.
• Don Saliers, “Emotional Valence in the Psalms: Reflecting on the Rhythms of Lament and Doxology in Psalms 55,104, and 137.”
• Ed Foley, “Preaching and the Sciences: How Engagement with Contemporary Science and Scientists Might Feed the Homiletic Imagination,”
• Melinda Quivik, Worship at a Cross-Roads: Race, Responsibility, and Rea- son, concluding chapter.
• Ron Anderson, “Teaching Liturgy as Hermeneutic Event: As Teachers of Liturgy, We Are Interpreters of Liturgical Traditions Preparing Others to Be Practitioners/Interpreters of Those Traditions.”

Other Work and Plans for the Future

Preliminary plans for 2023:

• discussion of Gordon Lathrop’s forthcoming book The Assembly: A Spirituality,
• an exploration of the “hermeneutics of intercession”, and
• consideration of how the academy’s attention to EDI shapes our own hermeneutical work within the seminar.

Other work will be solicited from the seminar members.

Seminar Report 2020

Convener

Sonja K. Pilz, PhD, Ordained Rabbi, Editor of CCAR Press, Central Conference of American Rabbis

Members in Attendance

Ron Anderson, Michelle Baker-Wright, Bryan Cones, Dirk Ellis, Ed Foley, David Hogue, Jennifer Lord, Hwarang Moon, Gil Ostdiek, Sonja Pilz, Don Saliers, Allie Utley, Michelle Whitlock

Visitors in Attendance

Jonghyun Kim, Nick Peterson

Description of Work

This year’s seminar continued our group’s work on the meaning of the body in liturgy specifically focusing on the body in pain, a topic that we began to explore last year with the presentation of David Hogue and Don Saliers on lament and tragedy.

Papers and Presentations

• Allie Utley, dissertation: “Transmitted Affects: ‘How Worship Feels’”
  Allie Utley presented her doctoral work on the intersection of affect theory and liturgy, focusing especially on liturgical silence, which sparked a rich conversation on the different kinds of silences from the demonic and dead silences to poised and God-filled silences. In the framework of our larger conversation, this conversation led us to a discussion of ritual ambiguity, liturgical practice as a tool, and authoethnography as a method of theological inquiry.

• Michelle Baker-Wright, dissertation: “Kinetic Sacramentality: Liturgy as Technology”
  Michelle Baker-Wright led a conversation about her finished dissertation on the juxtaposition of liturgical theory and musicology. Unpacking her definition of “sacramental symbols [as] kinetic loci of expressive encounter and expressive response, in which the dynamic of symbolic reciprocity serves as a technology that forms a felt sense of divine presence to human experience,” our group engaged in a lively discussion on liturgical practice and musical performance, and embodied and trained liturgical knowledge.

• Dirk Ellis: “Addressing Applause in Worship”
  Dirk Ellis broadened our discussion of embodied liturgical gestures to include clapping defined as applause (in contrast to clapping as an expression of joy, affirmation, enthusiasm, and musical engagement). The inherent difficulty in assessing the experience of the “clapper” and therefore in arriving at the conclusion regarding the meaning of the gesture reaffirmed our initial definition of the embodied liturgical gesture as inherently ambiguous; and of    authoethnography as not only a legitimate, but necessary tool to unveil the layers of lived theology.

• Michelle Whitlock, dissertation: “The Practice of Liturgical Story-Telling”
  In dialogue with Paul Ricœur, Michelle Whitlock presented on liturgical story-telling practices as ambiguous practices that can affirm both belonging, a sense of completeness, and also of hurt, insecurity, and With Ricœur, she examined the potential of the stories we tell in liturgies and the spaces we open to the stories of the prayers and their agency; leading us to raise the following questions: How do we speak about pain in our liturgies? What if the liturgical narrative causes pain?
• Lauren Winner: “The Dangers of Christian Practice” (in the presence of the author). Ron Anderson (moderation)
  We continued our conversation on liturgical ambiguity in conversation with Lauren Winner and her book on the damaged gifts of the Eucharist, prayer, and Baptism as examples of liturgical practices that have caused pain. In her book, Winner argues that liturgical “formation, growth, or damage may happen to us [….] although we do not undertake participation for those purposes” (p. 46). Winner’s critique of core Christian practices opened a conversation on the nature of liturgical critique; the nature of liturgical repentance (liturgy that repents); and liturgical modes of confession, repentance, and lament.
• Joint session on “Liturgy and Pain with Critical Theories.” Gerald Liu and Sonja Pilz (moderation)
  In a larger conversation on liturgy as the potential source of pain and affirmation, our two groups discussed the necessity—in the face of the pain of the assembly and in the face of the non-communicable nature of pain (of embodied experiences in general)—of the humility of the liturgist and of liturgical reciprocity; the potential of our own pain to function as a training to liturgical humility (Romano Guardini, The Lord, Longmans, London, 1956); and the potential commercialization of liturgy as a wellness practice. Our conversation, based on the shared reading of Trauma and Transcendence: Suffering and the Limits of Theory (Intro, Chapter 2 and 3) providing us with a renewed language on “the infinite of obligation demanded by the transcendence of the traumatic experience[s of others]” (based on the writing of Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Buber), and the concept of “ethical transcendence;” as well as  The Body in Pain by Elaine Scarry (Chapter 4), which outlines her concepts of the dichotomy of God as the creator who opens, closes, and wounds the human body, and humans as created (opened, closed, and wounded); tools and (liturgical) objects as an imitation and rebellion of the created God; Christianity as an attempt to overcome pain by means of an embodied God; Capitalism as the enlargement of the individual human body; and Marxism as a tool to embrace the materiality of the world and enlarge the body of the  collective.
• Jennifer Lord: “Liturgy and Pain: Learning from Critical, Palliative, and Hospice Care Nurses’ Encounters with Patients’ Pain”
  Jennifer Lord enriched our conversation with a series of interviews she conducted with hospital nurses and chaplains. Her interview partners reiterated many of the statements with which our group had already familiarized itself (the uncommunicable nature of pain; the emotionally freezing and memory-erasing potential of trauma), but added examples of personal theologies of pain, such as pain as God’s love (Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace; אהבה יםורי) and personal expressions of, at this point, a much discussed theme: “I really wish liturgies would be conscious of the pain people experience in their daily lives.”

• Hwarang Moon: “Funeral Liturgy for Suicide? A Korean Presbyterian Perspective”
• Ed Foley: “Decolonization or Decolonialism”
  Ed Foley presented his paper on an example of the decolonization of liturgy in the Philippines. Decolonization, as opposed to decolonialism, does not only aim at the deconstruction of colonial language and thought, but at the actual redistribution of power and resources. Our conversation focused on the possibilities and limitations of liturgy to make space for indigenous medicine, art, and practices; but also for improvisation, creativity, and lived spir ituality as a liturgical tool. Balancing the dangers of acculturation with the potential of translation, we discussed when liturgy stops to be recognizable, but acknowledged the inherent liquidity of ritual and sacramentality.

Other Work and Plans for the Future

Based on the address of NAAL president Gennifer Brooks, our group will engage in renewed effort to create Wisdom Work. We will continue our discussion on the ambiguity of liturgical practice but focus on the liturgies of joy, awe, delight, enjoyment, play, and resilience. In order to enable us to have deep, profound, and critical conversations, we will limit next year’s submissions to six.