Living the Liturgy

The trajectory in Baptist theological scholarship sometimes described as 'Baptist catholicity' has not previously produced a book-length exploration of the potential of liturgy to form Baptist communities for practices of life together and witness to the world.  Living the Liturgy fills that gap by proposing more intentional practices of liturgical formation by local Baptist congregations and envisioning how they might help Baptists participate more fully in the divine work of healing all creation.

~Steven R. Harmon, Professor of Historical Theology, Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity

In Living the Liturgy Elizabeth Newman has given a wonderful gift, not only to Baptists, but to the church catholic and ecumenical. She links the historic liturgical practices of the church with both her own tradition and the many challenges that believers face in the contemporary world. At the same time profound and accessible, this book will be an invaluable teaching tool for congregations, colleges and universities, and seminaries.

~Barry Harvey, Professor of Theology, Baylor University

Stanley Hauerwas has consistently reminded us that we can only act in the world we can see, and we can only come to see what we can say. In this wonderful book, Elizabeth Newman helps us to understand that we cannot see and act in the world as Christians because many of our baptistic free churches have subjected us to liturgical amnesia so that we have forgotten the world as it really is--God’s good creation, redeemed and reconciled in Jesus Christ. Newman shows us how Baptists, by the nourishing and flourishing of a liturgical practice that draws from the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, can be a visible expression of the body of Christ in the world today.

~Curtis W. Freeman, Research Professor of Theology and Ruth D. Duncan Director of the Baptist House of Studies, Duke Divinity School