Liturgia Dei: Worshiping the Worshiping God

What does it mean to worship? More often than not, we understand worship to be something that we perform for God. If that's the case, then worship is ultimately a human action that flows from human effort. How would our understanding of worship change, though, if we took as our starting point that Jesus is a fully human and fully divine worshiper? Does it then mean that God is worshiping? In responding to these questions Liturgia Dei suggests that worship is not primarily something we do for God, but something God is eternally performing. Worship is the eternal glorification of God that extends from, and returns to, the eternal relations of Father, Son, and Mother Spirit. The church joins in this worship to, through, and with Jesus Christ.

About the Author :
Adam Couchman is Academic Dean and Lecturer in Theology and Liturgy at St Francis College, in Brisbane, Australia. He is the author of In the image of the Image: Gregory of Nyssa's Opposition to Slavery (2023).

Review :
"In this absorbing and well-argued book, Adam Couchman relocates worship from something we do to something fundamentally going on beyond us, in the Son's communion with the Father, in which we participate by the Spirit. In this he subtly critiques a widespread assumption that worship is an anthropological category and defines it squarely as a theological process. Furthermore, he shows the significant consequences of this apparently recondite argument, leaving the whole church greatly in his debt." --Samuel Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields "Liturgia Dei offers an original and thought-provoking contribution both to Christology and liturgical studies alike by pushing to its logical conclusion the claim that Jesus is both fully human and divine. If the human and divine natures are not to be pitted against each other, then Jesus worships as a human being and also as God. The concept of God as a worshiper is a fresh and challenging insight that takes us into the theo-drama enacted within God and within the life and witness of the church. I highly recommend this book, richly creative, even daring, in its theological claims and in the wisdom of its insights." --Glen O'Brien, Professor of Christian Thought and History, University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia "This book presents an argument that is as compelling as it is pertinent today. Relying on a wide variety of both classical and contemporary sources, Couchman makes a radical yet subtle case for God-centeredness in understanding liturgy. For indeed, all too often, worship is approached with the help of mere anthropological categories, the risk of which is that the divine agency is no longer theorized. Christian liturgy, however, is all about a sharing in the life of the Trinity and the encompassing work of God's redemption. Couchman's work is a very welcome voice in the growing choir of theologians of the liturgy who seek a proper balance between what the humanities can offer and the theological tradition." --Joris Geldhof, Vice Dean for Research, KU Leuven "Adam Couchman articulates the consequences of conceiving of the liturgy as formative theological practice. Worshippers--in, through, and with the high priestly work of the vicarious humanity of Christ--are given to participate within the infiniteness of the self-communicative mystery of the God whose life is life-giving. Human beings, therefore, are irreducibly grounded within the beneficence of divine creativity, and are materially incorporated into relations of mutual responsibility." --John McDowell, Professor of Philosophy, Systematic Theology, and Moral Theology, University of Divinity