The Problem Of Form And Language

If worship is to impact the entire person, its forms and language must transcend words, engaging not only the worshiper's body but also his or her emotions and imagination. These forms should be appropriate to the majesty of God, not so familiar as to be mundane nor so unfamiliar as to be irrelevant to the worshiper. Worship needs to go beyond the verbal and engage the whole person in the praise of God. It is not commonly understood that we function as a multisensory and multiphasic creature, and that worship must therefore be multisensory and multiphasic-that its forms must engage the body, the imagination, and the emotions as well as the reason, and at the same time take into account something of the dynamics of the human subconscious as well as conscious life. The grip on our being which liturgical forms are entitled to exert, the evocative power they should convey, and the intensity of meaning they should embody-although always within the limits of theological purpose-are often m…