Dear Editor,
I think Pete Woodcock and Tom Sweatman’s consideration of James K.A. Smith’s You Are What You Love mischaracterises the book in two primary ways.
First, it is ironic to say that Smith’s project is ‘reversing the Reformation’ since the book’s vision of gathered worship is thoroughly Calvinian (see pp.69-74). Following Calvin, Smith insists that, far more than a meeting for preaching, the goal of gathered worship is interaction between God and his people, where God acts and is present in word and sacrament. We must preach with clarity, power and imagination – being mindful that God is present in and through the other parts of the service as well.
Second (and directly related), while any evangelical would dismiss ‘extravagance, mystification, alienating strangeness’ et al in worship, it is an overcorrection to say that ‘Old Testament physical, tangible, tactile forms of worship have been superseded in Jesus and the gospel age’. If this is the case, why do the NT writers consistently use OT categories – the church is God’s temple, the people of God throughout time are a priesthood, and Christians still approach God on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice – to furnish their understanding of the church’s life? These categories may sound alienating and strange to the modern ear, but we have not abandoned them. Why should we not undertake similar typological interpretations of OT worship practices in light of the new covenant?
Though there is no lack of spiritual deadness in the liturgical life of the church in the UK, the solution does not lie in abolishing ‘physical, tangible, tactile forms of worship’ in favour of a few songs and a Bible talk. Rather, in conversation with Scripture and mindful of history, we must develop a strong theology of corporate worship, grounded in the whole counsel of God, and be ready to embody and teach these theologies in our congregations. (Curious? Michael Horton A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God- Centred Worship, Baker Books 2003, and Allen Ross Recalling the Hope of Glory, Kregel Academic 2006, are great places to start.)
Worship flowing from such an understanding would involve our minds as well as our bodies, training us in both doctrine and rightly ordered love. This is the substance of Smith’s plea in his timely, commendable and thoroughly Reformational book.
Respectfully,
