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Worship: Searching for Language
Each succeeding generation of Christians takes the words of tradition and inevitably adapts them for contemporary use. Gail Ramshaw examines the language Christians use and have used in the past and outlines suggestions about the words we should choose to express the mystery of God. 224 pages
213 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1988
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January 28, 2023
A FEMINIST PROFESSOR LOOKS AT LITURGICAL SYMBOLS
Gail Ramshaw is professor of religion at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
She wrote in the Introduction to this 1988 book, “It is both a delight and a mortification to edit past essays for reprinting…. I have decided to edit not only the gross errors and to retain the progression of thought. Thus some of these essays are based on a theory of metaphor I later rejected, or are marked by a conviction which I no longer hold. I changed, my positions changed. What did not change is my passion to search for liturgical language, to learn the Scriptures and to read the service books, to study the languages and to examine contemporary speech, to probe for the meaning behind the words, and so to account for the language of the church. I offer these essays back to you, hoping that the evidence of my continuing struggle to know the language of the church will call also you to study and to prayer. I know that one can never know the Name. But one tries. And in the liturgy one discovers a gift of grace: that in the prayers of the church, in the proclamation of the word, in the bread and win, in the handshake of peace, one has already been embraced by all of the Name that one needs.”
She observes, “Often, Mary is dealt with as the maid of Nazareth… In some traditions of piety, Mary is divine. As Queen of Heaven she rules with God… No matter which extreme has been our respite from the tension of truth, our knowledge of religious truth will pull us back into the paradox. Mary is both the maid of Nazareth and the Queen of Heaven… Can a virgin be a mother? Can God have a mother? Christian truth grows within the cracks between human language.” (Pg. 41)
She suggests, “To speak of the divine encounter the sacred text uses the words and categories of the culture. God, goddess, Elohim: we begin where the language allows us as a common noun… Yet for this God, the God of Moses and of Jesus, these words so not set well. The sentences fail to tell the whole truth. The words can only dance around the fire…” (Pg. 81-82)
She explains, “In the Eucharistic Prayer we bless God with the bread and wine. The eucharistic prayer is thus a metaphor for our whole baptized life in which we praise God with all that we have and make. We stand in assembly… and bless God for the person of Christ. In such worship we know the bread and ourselves to be the body of Christ, and we await the eschaton, when all the world will know it.” (Pg. 102)
She says, “God is in our meager … liturgies only because God was first on the cross, and only when we realize that we can do nothing but knee at the cross is there any use in taking about kneeling as metaphor or about liturgy as poetry to God.” (Pg. 116)
She notes, “Perhaps we know best the philosophical tradition of theology which tries to clarify articulately the nature of God and the meaning of God’s name. But throughout the Christian tradition are those who affirm the mystery of the name: the psalms with their barrage of images; the Revelation with its incoherence of glory; the mystics who found unique ways to describe their religious ecstasy; the musicians who rely on the music beyond words; and the contemplatives who are overwhelmed not by muddle but by mystery and in the end deep silence.” (Pg. 151-152)
She argues, “The recasting of the Lord’s Prayer to read, ‘Our Mother in heaven’ dismisses the Bible’s and the church’s traditions… However, God as MOTHER is a wholly different matter. The Bible uses the metaphor, the psalms legitimize it and address God with various anthropomorphic and objectifying terms…. Furthermore, it is true to the biblical spirit that the church guard against any idolatrous imaging of God. At this time in history, the refusal to adopt the metaphor mother appears in many cases to be a subtle idolatry which construes God as male.” (Pg. 184)
She concludes, “inclusivity is the deepest truth of the triune God. Let us work together toward this goal, that we find the words to dance around that God of both Nicea and New York City, of both orthodoxy and inclusivity.” (Pg. 213)
This book will interest many feminists, and Christians of the ‘progressive’ sort.
Gail Ramshaw is professor of religion at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
She wrote in the Introduction to this 1988 book, “It is both a delight and a mortification to edit past essays for reprinting…. I have decided to edit not only the gross errors and to retain the progression of thought. Thus some of these essays are based on a theory of metaphor I later rejected, or are marked by a conviction which I no longer hold. I changed, my positions changed. What did not change is my passion to search for liturgical language, to learn the Scriptures and to read the service books, to study the languages and to examine contemporary speech, to probe for the meaning behind the words, and so to account for the language of the church. I offer these essays back to you, hoping that the evidence of my continuing struggle to know the language of the church will call also you to study and to prayer. I know that one can never know the Name. But one tries. And in the liturgy one discovers a gift of grace: that in the prayers of the church, in the proclamation of the word, in the bread and win, in the handshake of peace, one has already been embraced by all of the Name that one needs.”
She observes, “Often, Mary is dealt with as the maid of Nazareth… In some traditions of piety, Mary is divine. As Queen of Heaven she rules with God… No matter which extreme has been our respite from the tension of truth, our knowledge of religious truth will pull us back into the paradox. Mary is both the maid of Nazareth and the Queen of Heaven… Can a virgin be a mother? Can God have a mother? Christian truth grows within the cracks between human language.” (Pg. 41)
She suggests, “To speak of the divine encounter the sacred text uses the words and categories of the culture. God, goddess, Elohim: we begin where the language allows us as a common noun… Yet for this God, the God of Moses and of Jesus, these words so not set well. The sentences fail to tell the whole truth. The words can only dance around the fire…” (Pg. 81-82)
She explains, “In the Eucharistic Prayer we bless God with the bread and wine. The eucharistic prayer is thus a metaphor for our whole baptized life in which we praise God with all that we have and make. We stand in assembly… and bless God for the person of Christ. In such worship we know the bread and ourselves to be the body of Christ, and we await the eschaton, when all the world will know it.” (Pg. 102)
She says, “God is in our meager … liturgies only because God was first on the cross, and only when we realize that we can do nothing but knee at the cross is there any use in taking about kneeling as metaphor or about liturgy as poetry to God.” (Pg. 116)
She notes, “Perhaps we know best the philosophical tradition of theology which tries to clarify articulately the nature of God and the meaning of God’s name. But throughout the Christian tradition are those who affirm the mystery of the name: the psalms with their barrage of images; the Revelation with its incoherence of glory; the mystics who found unique ways to describe their religious ecstasy; the musicians who rely on the music beyond words; and the contemplatives who are overwhelmed not by muddle but by mystery and in the end deep silence.” (Pg. 151-152)
She argues, “The recasting of the Lord’s Prayer to read, ‘Our Mother in heaven’ dismisses the Bible’s and the church’s traditions… However, God as MOTHER is a wholly different matter. The Bible uses the metaphor, the psalms legitimize it and address God with various anthropomorphic and objectifying terms…. Furthermore, it is true to the biblical spirit that the church guard against any idolatrous imaging of God. At this time in history, the refusal to adopt the metaphor mother appears in many cases to be a subtle idolatry which construes God as male.” (Pg. 184)
She concludes, “inclusivity is the deepest truth of the triune God. Let us work together toward this goal, that we find the words to dance around that God of both Nicea and New York City, of both orthodoxy and inclusivity.” (Pg. 213)
This book will interest many feminists, and Christians of the ‘progressive’ sort.
Displaying 1 of 1 review