Congregational Dancing in Christian Worship

by Doug Adams

1976 THE SHARING COMPANY binder-bound SOFTCOVER

Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Adams was an international scholar in religion and the arts, worship, dance and humor. He brought an enormous amount of energy and enterprise to establish religion combined with art and performance art on Holy Hill.

Reviews

[JD Waggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this from a friend of mine and was surprised to find that the text and the setting don't really match, which is good--the manuscript itself looks like it was torn straight from a typewriter and bound and sent to sale. There's no real care to layout, it's all underline instead of italics for emphasis, and the Greek and Hebrew characters are written in with a pen. Really, Sharing Company? I know it was the 80s, but come on.
So it looks a bit crap, but the text itself is solid. This is a great, readable overview of the place and use of dancing in Christian (and ancient Jewish) worship. There are real, actual footnotes (huzzah scholastics) that reference other solid works on the matter. (Adams does cite himself a lot, but not annoyingly so.) Sure, all the material is dated, and Lord knows what this would look like now in the age of the Internet, but it's good for a theological background/linguistic and historical context introduction. There are also tips and examples of dance to use in your own congregation, although good luck with that; Adams's critique of the stiffness of white folk and the age-old separation of the mind/soul from the body is spot on, and his continued insistence of the need to address this is welcome but much easier to say than do.