Evangelicals, Simon Chan argues, are confused about the meaning and purpose of the church in part because they have an inadequate understanding of Christian worship. He calls evangelicals to develop a theology of worship that is grounded in a theology of the church. He guides the reader through worship practices and their significance for theology, spirituality and the renewal of evangelicalism in the postmodern era.
Simon Chan (Ph.D., Cambridge) is Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Theological College in Singapore. He is the author of Man and Sin, Pentecostal Theology and the Christian Spiritual Tradition, Spiritual Theology: A Systematic Study of the Christian Life and Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community. He is also the associate editor of the Global Dictionary of Theology and the Dictionary of Mission Theology.
"Chan's volume represents a step forward in the evangelical discussion of ecclesiology and deserves to be engaged with care by those who, like Chan, hope to overcome evangelicalism's ecclesiological deficit."
--W. Ravis McMaken, Evangelical Review of Theology, October 2008"This is a book for Catholics as well as Protestants. Its modest title doesn't do justice to its fundamental critique of Evangelical Christianity in the West, or its wisdom in pointing toward those churches' true identity."
--L.P. Fairfield, Touchstone, September 2008"Chan issues a call to evangelicals to develop a mature theology of the church."
--Theology Digest, Spring 2006"The book is accessible and the best work written on church, ministry and sacraments in a very long time."
--Trinity Journal for Theology and Ministry, Fall 2007"This book is an eloquent and well-reasoned critique of many trends in evangelicalism today, and it challenges ministers to examine the liturgical decisions they make for their churches."
--Zach Gautier, Bibliotheca Sacra, October-December 2008"Evangelicals need to care enough about their Lord, His word, and the people gathered at worship on Sundays to read this book. Lutherans and other Christians from liturgical traditions who imitate (or are tempted to imitate) American Evangelicals MUST be encouraged to buy and read this book."
--PJC, Liturgy, Hymnody, Pulpit Quarterly Book Review, Vol. 2, issue 4"In this day of confusion about the meaning and purpose of worship, Simon Chan returns worship to its place of belonging in the church. His calling to return to the catechumenate, to the ordo of Sunday worship and the reinvigoration of the historic liturgy is especially timely given the postmodern moment in which we live."
--Robert Webber, Myers Professor of Ministry, Northern Seminary