The cultural shift since 2001 is very different than that of the 60's and 70's. It is a culture tired of noise, turned off by phoniness, sick of glitz, and wary of the superficial. It is a culture that is searching for an authentic encounter with God, longing for depth and substance, craving quiet and spiritual contemplation, and moved by visual, tactile forms of communication.""The New Worship Awakening" examines the wide array of worship styles, from traditional to contemporary, currently in practice in today's churches. Webber makes a compelling case for renewing the vigor of the spiritual life of the church through two means: grounding worship in the biblical narrative while at the same time integrating an understanding of worship traditions throughout history.
Through astute observations and personal experiences, the author emphasizes that Christ can be encountered through the arts, the services of the Christian year, the Sacraments, the singing of hymns and folk songs, the passing of the peace, the Liturgy, and many other means that incorporate Christian worship styles through the ages. He makes the all-important point that worship today celebrates the same Christ who walked the earth two thousand years ago, and that in true and lively worship there is divine action. "There is an action from above: the Holy Spirit delivers Christ and the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection to the worshippers."
Robert E. Webber (1933 - 2007)
was an American theologian known for his work on worship and the early church. He played a key role in the Convergence Movement, a move among evangelical and charismatic churches in the United States to blend charismatic worship with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical sources. Webber began teaching theology at Wheaton College in 1968. Existentialism was the primary focus of Webber's research and lectures during his first years at Wheaton. However, he soon shifted his focus to the early church. In 1978 he wrote Common Roots, a book that examined the impact of 2nd-century Christianity on the modern church.In 1985 Webber wrote Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church, in which he described the reasons behind his own gradual shift away from his fundamentalist/evangelical background toward the Anglican tradition. Webber faced an enormous amount of criticism from evangelicals in response to this book. Nevertheless, his work was highly influential, and his ideas grew in popularity in evangelical circles. During the latter half of his life, Webber took a special interest in Christian worship practices. He wrote more than 40 books on the topic of worship, focusing on how the worship practices of the ancient church have value for the church in the 21st century postmodern era. Among his books are Ancient-Future Worship, Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, Ancient-Future Evangelism, The Younger Evangelicals, and The Divine Embrace.
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