Twentieth Century Worship Revolutions

Catalog description

Incredible—even revolutionary—change has characterized the history of worship in the Western Church since the mid-twentieth century. Yet some Christians might think that the current state of worship is the way it always has been. This history course will dispel that notion by exploring two main impulses for liturgical change in the twentieth century: the rise of Contemporary Praise and Worship and the Liturgical Movement. In the first, a drive toward popular forms of music making has brought global change to Pentecostalism, evangelicalism, and even some mainline denominations. Through the second impulse, a patristic-based vision of liturgy and sacraments has brought about nothing less than an overhaul of worship in Roman Catholicism and mainline Protestant Christianity. Through a historical examination of these developments students can gain better perspective on the presumptions current-day worshipers have about what they consider normal and standard.