Engaging With God
From Neoredemptive
| Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship | |
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David Peterson
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| Book Review Policy |
Synopsis
A biblical theology of the worship of God. Peterson is not concerned with deriving formulas, mandates, and liturgies from scripture; "I believe [...] that we have enough how-to-do-it books and not enough reflection on worship as a total biblical idea." (p.21) Instead, he focuses upon distilling the categories, concepts, and concerns espoused by the text of the Bible in each of a series of sections: the Old Testament, the Gospels, the book of Acts, the Pauline epistles, the book of Hebrews, and the book of Revelation, which he then synthesizes in the final chapter:
Throughout the Bible, acceptable worship means approaching or engaging with God on the terms that he proposes and in the manner that he makes possible. It involved honouring, serving and respecting him, abandoning any loyalty or devotion that hinders an exclusive relationship with him. Although some of Scripture's terms for worship may refer to specific gestures of homage, rituals or priestly ministrations, worship is more fundamentally faith expressing itself in obedience and adoration. Consequently, in both Testaments it is often shown to be a personal and moral fellowship with God relevant to every sphere of life. (p.283)
Doc's Take
Not an enjoyable read (I picked it up and put it down several times before finishing), but a rewarding one. Peterson's Biblical Theology approach (to describe what Scripture says using the categories Scripture provides instead of using external categories as in Systematic Theology or Narrative Theology) enables him to simultaneously praise and critique much present-day evangelical practice based upon their conformity, digression from, and orthogonality to Biblical concepts. Peterson frequently observes how popular ideas and practices are not justified by their common proof-texts and how those same proof-texts often suggest things of which we have only the faintest shadows in our churches, but does so with an appropriate pastoral gentleness which calls us to re-examine ourselves and move towards faithfulness without demanding an instant and immediate condemnation and renunciation of all of the ways we have drifted astray.
Peterson is adamant on several recurring themes. One is his insistence that "priesthood" in the Old Testament sense has been completely fulfilled in Christ, and as such nothing which pretends to it in obligation, form, or function belongs in a Church which belongs to Jesus. Not that it is necessarily evil to have a function in the church which is named "priesthood", but it is essential that all notions of priestly mediation and sacrementalism be completely banished from that office. Another prominent theme is the disconnect between modern practice of the Eucharist and the ways in which the New Testament speaks of both table fellowship and the bread and wine; still another is the place of spontaneity and direct personal connection between participants in the gathering of the Church.
Chapter 8 ("The book of Hebrews and the worship of Jesus") is an excellent read, and I would commend it as required reading for anyone preparing to teach the book of Hebrews.
