At the Heart of the Liturgy

Maxwell E. Johnson is emeritus professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and a retired presbyter in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His numerous publications are on the origins and development of early Christian liturgy, contemporary rites, and current ecumenical and theological questions in both East and West. He is the author and/or editor of more than twenty-five books and over one hundred essays and articles. He is also a former president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, a member of the Society of Oriental Liturgy, a member of Societas Liturgica, and a member of the scientific advisory board for the journal Ecclesia Orans. He has received the Berakah Award from the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Christus Rex Award from the Liturgical Studies Institute at Valparaiso University.Timothy O'Malley, PhD, is director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy in the Institute for Church Life and a concurrent assistant professional specialist in the Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Liturgy and the New Evangelization: Practicing the Art of Self-Giving Love published by Liturgical Press.

"Readers of Worship have regularly told me that Mitchell's column has been the first thing they read when they receive Worship. He has brought to his writing not only a deep and broad understanding of liturgical theology and ecumenical history but also a well-crafted interdisciplinary method by which he has called all of us to live more justly and to see beauty and goodness where we have often been blind—above all in poetry and painting, in the social sciences, in music, and in ritual studies."R. Kevin Seasoltz, OSB (+April 27, 2013), Former Editor of Worship

• ContentsForeword by Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP   ixAcknowledgments   xiiiIntroduction by Maxwell E. Johnson   xvChapter 1: Body“Can a Mother Forget Her Nursing Child?: Flesh, Recognition, and the Eucharist”   1Kimberly Hope BelcherThe Amen Corner: “The Poetics of Space”   13The Amen Corner: “Present in the Sacraments”   22Chapter 2: Word“   ‘There Is a Christ Who Is to Be Made:’ Paradoxes in the Sacramentality of Preaching”   36Joél SchmidtThe Amen Corner: “The Art of Preaching”   48Chapter 3: Spirit“Inspired Bodies in Action: Tracing the Spirit through Metaphor, Materiality, and Motion”   63Anne McGowanThe Amen Corner: “Croodling”   75Chapter 4: Beauty“Portals to Transcendence”   87Clare V. JohnsonThe Amen Corner: “God at Every Gate”   99The Amen Corner: “A Meditation on Eucharistic Praying”   108Chapter 5: Justice“Linking Cult to Care: Social Transformation and the Liturgical Movement”   122Katharine E. HarmonThe Amen Corner: “A Mansion for the Rat”   135The Amen Corner: “Making the Connections”   146Chapter 6: Unity“Church of the Second Chance: Reconciliation Among the Saint Maybes”   160Melanie RossThe Amen Corner: “Gathering as an Act of Reconciliation”   173Conclusion   186List of Contributors   189