Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:10:44.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The liturgy of the in-between

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2019

Joas Adiprasetya*
Affiliation:
Jakarta Theological Seminary, Jl. Proklamasi 27 Jakarta Pusat [email protected]

Abstract

By using the idea of theology as symbolic engagement, I propose the ‘in-between’ as a liturgical category that engages with multiple tensions in Christian theology. The concept of the in-between becomes the primary lens through which to analyse not only the relationship between ecclesial and social liturgies, but also the interstices between the two. I then apply the concept to construct theological imagination in the ministries of ushering, intercessory prayer and the sending. The article concludes with a story of the worship of the GKI Yasmin church in front of the presidential palace in Indonesia, which demonstrates the prophetic dimension of the in-between.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Evdokimov, Paul, The Struggle with God, trans. Getrude, Sister (Glen Rock, NJ: Paulist Press, 1966), p. 63Google Scholar.

2 Neville, Robert C., On the Scope and Truth of Theology: Theology as Symbolic Engagement (New York: T&T Clark, 2006)Google Scholar.

3 The word metaxy appears ninety-nine times in Plato's corpus and only eight times throughout the Christian Bible.

4 Plato, Symposium, 202e, trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (New York: Random House, 1937).

5 Ibid., 203a.

6 For an extensive philosophical and theological discussion of metaxy between 100 and 1300, see Starkloff, Carl F., A Theology of the In-Between: The Value of Syncretic Process (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2002), pp. 1952Google Scholar.

7 Voegelin, Eric, The Ecumenic Age, vol. 4 of Order and History, ed. Franz, Michael (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Weil, Simone, Gravity and Grace (London and New York: Routledge, 2002)Google Scholar.

8 Starkloff, Theology of the In-Between; Philip, Mary, ‘The Space in between Spaces: The Church as Prophetic Pest/Parasite’, in Bloomquist, Karen L. (ed.), Being the Church in the Midst of Empire: Trinitarian Reflections (Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2007), pp. 91106Google Scholar; Hauerwas, Stanley, Christian Existence Today: Essays on Church, World, and Living In Between (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2010)Google Scholar; Park, Sophia, ‘Pastoral Care for the 1.5 Generation: In-between Space as the “New” Cultural Space’, in Stevenson Moessner, Jeanne and Snorton, Teresa (eds), Women Out of Order: Risking Change and Creating Care in a Multicultural World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), pp. 230–42Google Scholar; Bekel, Girma, The In-Between People: A Reading of David Bosch through the Lens of Mission History and Contemporary Challenges in Ethiopia (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2011)Google Scholar; Thompson, Beverly and Thompson, George B. Jr., Grace for the Journey: Practices and Possibilities for In-Between Times (Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2011)Google Scholar; Waldenfels, Hans, In-Between: Essays in Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue (Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2011)Google Scholar; Harris, Melanie L., ‘Womanist Interfaith Dialogue: Inter, Intra, and All the Spaces in Between’, in Pui-lan, Kwok and Burns, Stephen (eds), Postcolonial Practice of Ministry: Leadership, Liturgy, and Interfaith Engagement (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016), pp. 199214Google Scholar.

9 Louth, Andrew, Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), pp. 44Google Scholar, 115; Louth, ‘Theology of the “In-Between”’, Communio Viatorum 55/3 (2013), pp. 223–36.

10 Louth, ‘Theology of the “In-Between”, p. 226.

11 Ibid., p. 234.

12 Quoted in von Balthasar, Hans Urs, Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor, trans. Daley, Brian E. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003), p. 256Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., p. 322.

14 Rahner, Karl, ‘Considerations on the Active Role of the Person in the Sacramental Event’, in Ecclesiology, Questions in the Church, the Church in the World, vol. 14 of Theological Investigations, trans. Bourke, David (New York: Seabury Press, 1976), pp. 169–70Google Scholar.

15 Phan, Peter C., Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), pp. 257–78Google Scholar.

16 Bria, Ion, The Liturgy After the Liturgy: Mission and Witness from an Orthodox Perspective (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1996)Google Scholar.

17 John Chrysostom, ‘Homily 20 on Second Corinthians’, in Homilies on First and Second Corinthians, vol. 12 of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st ser., ed. and trans. Philip Schaff (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889), http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/220220.htm.

18 See Niebuhr, H. Richard, Christ and Culture (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001Google Scholar [1951]).

19 The phrase ‘liturgy after the liturgy’ was formulated at the consultation ‘Confessing Christ the Liturgical Life of the Church Today’, organised by the World Council of Churches in Etchmiadzin, Armenia, in 1975, although it is Ion Bria who popularised the term later in his book of the same title (see n. 16 above).

20 Bria, Ion, ‘The Liturgy after the Liturgy’, in Vassiliadis, Petros (ed.), Orthodox Perspectives on Mission (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014), p. 47Google Scholar.

21 The interplay between the two liturgies inspires Basilius J. Groen to suggest that Bria's ‘liturgy after the liturgy’ also implies ‘the liturgy before the liturgy’. Groen, Basilius J., ‘“Just Like in the Early Church”: Hermeneutics of the Use of Early Liturgical Practice for Modern Liturgical Reform’, in Feulner, Hans-Jürgen (ed.), Liturgies in East and West: Ecumenical Relevance of Early Liturgical Development. Acts of the International Symposium Vindobonense I, Vienna, November 17–20, 2007 (Zurich and Berlin: Lit, 2013), p. 206Google Scholar.

22 Johnson, Luke Timothy, Hebrews: A Commentary (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), p. 339Google Scholar.

23 Johnson argues, ‘Hospitality is connected to brotherly love by an obvious linguistic link: love among brothers (philadephia) extends itself to love for strangers (philoxenia).’ Ibid., p. 339.

24 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Life Together/Prayerbook of the Bible, vol. 5 of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English edn, ed. Kelly, Geffrey B., trans. Burtness, James H. and Bloesch, Daniel W. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), pp. 67Google Scholar.

25 Cf. Collins, John N., Diakonia Studies: Critical Issues in Ministry (Oxford: OUP, 2014), p. 67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Bishop, Andrew, Eucharist Shaping and Hebert's Liturgy and Society: Church, Mission and Personhood (London: Routledge, 2016), p. 106CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Wells, Samuel, God's Companions: Reimagining Christian Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), p. 183CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Zizioulas, Jean, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1985), p. 56Google Scholar.

29 Schmit, Clayton J., Sent and Gathered: A Worship Manual for the Missional Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), p. 48Google Scholar.

30 Edgardh, Ninna, ‘Towards a Theology of Gathering and Sending’, Worship 82/6 (Nov. 2008), p. 510Google Scholar.

31 The term ‘little Christs’ comes from C. S. Lewis, who maintains, ‘Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.’ Lewis, C. S, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 177Google Scholar; cf. pp. 192, 225. It echoes Martin Luther's assertion that we should be a Christ to one another; see Luther, Martin, Christian Liberty (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1903), p. 43Google Scholar.

32 Bhabha, Homi K., The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994)Google Scholar.

33 Carvalhaes, Cláudio, ‘Worshiping with the Homeless: Foreign Ecclesiologies’, in Snyder, Susanna, Ralston, Joshua and Brazal, Agnes M. (eds), Church in an Age of Global Migration: A Moving Body (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), p. 141Google Scholar.