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Holy Ground: A Liturgical Cosmology

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Gordon Lathrop's book seeks to examine "the ways in which Christian worship may help us to imagine, understand, care for, and live in the world" (ix). Written in a style that is geared toward clergy and theological students, Lathrop seeks to enact a liturgical renewal in a "top-down" fashion by appealing to those who have the most influence on the actual structure and content of church liturgies. Throughout the book the goal of evaluating how liturgical practice should and does shape the personal cosmologies of all its participants is readily evident and forces the reader to consider the influence that the liturgy can have upon one's life.

The book's introduction is a cosmological prolegomena that convinces the reader of the importance of the task at hand. The first section, "Liturgical Worldmaking", provides the philosophical foundation for Lathrop's liturgical cosmology, drawing on ancient philosophical cosmology and reorienting it in relation to the Gospel of Mark. This important initial section is referred to often in the rest of the book. The second section, "Liturgical Ethics", is the most practical of the three as Lathrop examines the ethical implications of baptism, Eucharist, and liturgical time. In each chapter, he offers a list of very concrete and practical suggestions for renewing and reorienting liturgy in order to reflect a more ethical cosmology. This section could be read as a stand-alone section, although its depth will be missed without reading Lathrop's first section of the book. The section could also be used after initial reading as a reference for ideas to transform liturgical practice. The final section of "Liturgical Poetics" seems to be the least helpful of the three sections; however, the beginning of the section contains a helpful and necessary caution in regard to how the liturgy could reinforce "cosmological distortion".

A recurring theme in the book is that of a liturgical juxtaposition of cosmologies, which is expounded early in the work:

"For the Scriptures, none of the various candidates for a central cosmic principle can be adequate--not the perfect sphere, not the ruling planets, not the conquering god, not the dominant role of humanity, not the end of time, not the Logos, not the Son of Man, not the tree of life. But the cosmologies suggested by all these can be received if they are turned, if their terms are reused to speak of the living God, if the community encounters that living God through all the gaping holes in their cosmological fabric" (44).

This refusal to concede to a meta-cosmology is found throughout the book, along with other facets that point to the author's postmodern tendencies. Often Lathrop finds the power of liturgy within the mixture of two seemingly contradictory components: "silence is set next to speech, concrete symbols juxtaposed to lengthy discourse" (196).

The real foundation for Lathrop's work is Plato's story Timaeus, which Lathrop says is the Western world's most influential philosophical cosmology. Lathrop goes on to argue that the story of "the son of Timaeus" in the Gospel of Mark functions as an "explicit mimesis and reversal of Plato and made the Gospel of Mark a profound contribution to cosmology" (31). Lathrop does not argue that Mark's Gospel is a full cosmology, but says that "[t]he biblical business, time and again, seems to be to propose a hole in these systems or to reverse their values while still using their strengths, to turn or reaim their words toward another purpose" (39). This idea of exposing "holes" in various cosmologies is returned to again and again and makes the valid point that no cosmology is essentially perfect and beyond critique. This also seems to be another way for Lathrop to reject any sort of meta-cosmology and to retain his postmodern bent.

One of the most disheartening aspects of Lathrop's book for many will be the rejection of many biblical stories as historic events. While some may concede to him that the son of Timaeus story in Mark may not exactly be historical fact, I would think that many would be taken back by his assertion that the exodus did not actually occur. In a similar manner, some will find his suggestion to bless homosexual couples and to baptize homosexual individuals as contrary to biblical standards.

While these two aspects of Lathrop's own personal beliefs might find disagreement with potential readers, it would be wise to take Lathrop's own advice and see this simply as a "hole" in his own personal theology and to not throw the book out altogether. He offers profound reflection upon an event that for many worshippers is nothing more than a dull ritual reenacted on a weekly basis. With his help, even with its "holes," the Christian liturgy can be used as an event that can transform the way God's people understand and live within his universe.

My first reaction when I think about this book is that it is not at all what I expected it to be. Although I've read similar literature on how Christianity is shaped by liturgy, this was the first time I'd seen it considered as a "worldview" in the sense of "mapping." This book is not a textbook of how to's or why's about liturgy. Be prepared to have your ideas about the interaction between liturgy and our secular lives shaken up. For Lathrop fans (and I am a huge one) you will find this book to be in his usual style, poetic and intense, but clearly readable for even someone who is only beginning to study liturgical theology. He does have a tendency to redundancy, but only occasionally, and it doesn't detract from the overall readability of this wonderful book. This book is NOT just for liturgical theologians, but if you're a lay person who is reading this out of personal interest, be prepared to have your world rocked.