Trauma Recalled: Liturgy, Disruption, and Theology

Christian commitment and Christian theology both are tempted by complacence. Yet, Dirk Lange asserts, both are brought up short by keen awareness of the traumatic events that liturgy recalls and that theology seeks to explicate. Recalling Martin Luther's great demurrals about a theology of glory, Lange reminds us that Christianity begins with exposure to the primal trauma -the cross - at the core of the Christian story.
Rethinking liturgical theology in this way brings worship back to its roots, opens us up to the disruption of our world by the needs of others, and even refines a theology of promise or grace in which our lives are opened to disruption by God.

Dirk G. Lange is Associate Professor of Worship, Luther Seminary, Saint Paul. He earned his doctorate from Emory University, taught at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, and is editor of Ordo: Bath Word, Prayer, Table (2006).