Provance - Pocket Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship

Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009. – 140 p.

ISBN 978-0-8308-2707-7

 

Traditional Christian corporate worship revolves around two regular services, namely the Sunday service and the Daily Office. It is these two services that are a specific focus of this Pocket Dictionary, as most of what is involved in Christian liturgy and worship is part of these two services.

 

Worship or devotional life of a more individual interest is only incidental to this work.

 

Beyond focusing on the two services of Christian corporate worship, the Pocket Dictionary addresses the liturgical year and the traditional time parameters of the Christian community intertwining with the life of individual Christians in the world (daily, seasonally, yearly, lifespan), thus enhancing sensitivity to this particular aspect of Christian worship.

 

A dictionary this size is limited in what and whom it covers. Certain people and places were selected because they were significantly innovative or representative. Scriptural references and allusions in the entries suggest similar themes (analogy), perhaps a common source for consideration (homology) but not necessarily historical derivation (genealogy). Singular contributions to information within an entry are noted by the author's name in parentheses (with bibliographical information in the bibliography).

 

As far as liturgical forms given in some entries, this dictionary does not make any pretense of giving the only "right" or "pure" form of a Christian rite. Not only is Christianity quite diverse on certain issues (a synchronic aspect), but historical ambiguity at times must also be admitted (a diachronic aspect). Variations abound, even in the ancient churches, though there are remarkable similarities in general. What is presented here are generalizations that are representative of a number of traditions in a number of details, but not any one tradition in particular (unless so stated). Generalizations, yes, but by these the student will be better equipped to deal with differences in particulars (indeed, this Pocket Dictionary is intended as an aid and impetus to further study). The liturgical traditions are the ever-evolving expressions of the church concerning God's work in creation and salvation, the appropriate responses of the redeemed.

 

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hymn

From Greek hymnos, a song sung to a deity. The field covering the study and practice of church music is called hymnody. The *Psalter contains many hymns, and Christians sang these (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; 1 Cor 14:26) and other compositions (Phil 2:6-11; 1 Tim 3:16), and early on new compositions were welcome (Tert., Apol. 39). Throughout the Middle Ages hymns, mostly the Psalter, were sung by clerical *choirs, and not by the *laity (in much of the OC singing is done by the *clergy and choir). Modern congregational hymn singing, including newer compositions, essentially began with *Luther, though the Calvinist churches tended toward psalm singing.

 

Later *Watts composed original hymns sung to the older *meters developed for the psalms.Wesley was influenced by the personal emphasis of the pietists (see Routley). The nineteenth century saw the recapturing of the medieval Latin hymns, this time for congregational singing. Many of the well-known English-language hymns sung in churches today are rooted in the later evangelical movements (see gospel song). Revival and evangelistic-meeting songs include "How Great Thou Art!" and "It Is Well with My Soul." A number of women have written hymns, among them Frances Havergal, Christina Rossetti and Fanny *Crosby.

 

moon, month

Both terms derived from the same Proto-Indo-European root, as the cycle of the moon is about the length of a month. The lunar cycle in the OT begins with the new moon (Heb. hades), which is when the moon is invisible or barely visible as a slim waxing crescent, and this is the beginning of a month. The full moon occurs about fourteen days, or halfway, into the cycle. This cycle is critical to determining Jewish feasts (Ps 81:3; Hos 2:11), as well as Christian *Easter.

 

In antiquity, the moon holds a special place as symbolic of the recurring cycle of feminine fertility. The relationship is as ancient as the Gravettian culture in France, where a rock carving shows a pregnant female figure holding a crescent moon or horn with 13 marks (a solar year of 365 1/4 days yields between 12 and 13 moon cycles). With its waxing and waning, the moon also symbolizes growth and decline, as well as the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.