The Liturgical Cosmos - The World Through the Lens of the Liturgy

The Church's liturgy is an appropriate object for academic study, but it is first and foremost the object of the faithful's participation in divine worship, the site of humanity's deification by the Trinity. The liturgy is thus not just something that we can look at, but, like a window, it is also something we can look from, viewing other matters of Christian doctrine and practice—indeed, the entire created world—through the lens of the liturgy. In this collection of essays representing nearly two decades of writing and reflecting on liturgical theology, David Fagerberg sets out to explore the liturgical cosmos, attending to how the lex orandi of the liturgy illuminates and shapes the lex credenda of the Church's faith and the lex vivendi of the Christian moral life. Addressing such topics as asceticism, beauty, Scripture, spirituality, sacrifice, and social renewal, The Liturgical Cosmos directs our gaze to the ways in which the abundant life that Christ came to offer—a life communicated sacramentally and celebrated cultically—is a life lived daily, and liturgically, as the Holy Spirit refreshes our world and conforms us to Christ, the image of the Father.