The Nature Of Language For Worship

The language of worship is responsive both to the scriptural tradition in which Christians worship and to the cultural context in which the worship event takes place. The interplay between these forces is dynamic and formative, challenging the church to examine the language it uses in worship. This article was written in the early 1980s in response to many of the changes in language in worship in the 1960s and 1970s. It discusses many issues pertaining to language for worship that remain important today. Someday church historians will sift the ashes of the 1960s and 70s and happen on the fact of liturgical renewal. During a twenty-year time span almost every branch of Christian community rewrote liturgy. Prayer books were published, draft services through to finished volumes. In addition, collections of prayers were put out (e. g. , Huub Oosterhuis, Your Word Is Near: Contemporary Christian Prayers [Westminster, Md. : Newman Press, 1968]; Michael Quoist, Prayers [New York: Sheed and …