Worship in Communion with Creation

Recognizing a Broader Participation

Edited by Melanie C. Ross and Karen B. Westerfield Tucker; Foreword by Martin Jean

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ISBN: 9780814689042, 8904

Details: 357 pgs, 6 x 9
Publication Date: 03/15/2026

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In honor of Teresa Berger, we are invited to consider the heights and the depths of worship in communion with creation.

What if at the heart of the created universe lives the worship and praise of the Creator? And what if everything created finds it fulfillment in turning to this Creator God in worship? In a time of environmental crisis, Psalm 148 is a bold reminder that all of creation—heavenly beings, stars and planets, earth’s landforms and water bodies, flora and fauna, humans young and old—have a capacity for worship, to join in praise to and of their Maker.

Written in honor of the prolific liturgical theologian Teresa Berger, the essays included in this collection affirm this biblical witness in studies theological, liturgical, and artistic by offering perspectives and examples from Christian antiquity to the present and by identifying ritual and musical expressions from both the Christian East and West. The contributors also consider the cosmic and the earthly, to recognize the heights and the depths of worship in communion with creation. Berger’s 2025 Berakah Award address to the members of the North American Academy of Liturgy is also included.

Contributors include:

Antonio Eduardo Alonso — Kimberly Hope Belcher — Teresa Berger — Harald Buchinger — Nathan P. Chase
Nina Glibetić — Phoenix Gonzalez — Willie James Jennings — Andrew B. McGowan
Gabriel Radle — Markus Rathey — Mark Roosien — Melanie C. Ross
Bryan D. Spinks — Benjamin M. Stewart — Kathryn Tanner — Karen Westerfield Tucker

Melanie C. Ross is an associate professor of liturgical studies at Yale Divinity School and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, Connecticut. Her research examines ecumenical liturgical theology, North American evangelicalism, and the worship of contemporary congregations, which resulted in the publication of Evangelical versus Liturgical? Defying a Dichotomy (Eerdmans, 2014) and Evangelical Worship: An American Mosaic (Oxford University Press, 2021). She is the editor of On Earth as in Heaven? Liturgy, Materiality, and Economics (Liturgical Press, 2025).

Karen Westerfield Tucker is professor of worship at Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts. A former editor-in-chief of Studia Liturgica (2005–2013), she is the 2023 recipient of the Berakah Award from the North American Academy of Liturgy. She coedited (with Geoffrey Wainwright) The Oxford History of Christian Worship (Oxford University Press, 2006), authored American Methodist Worship (Oxford University Press, 2001), and has published numerous essays in the areas of Methodist/Wesleyan liturgical history and theology, hymnology, and ecumenism.

ISBN: 9780814689042, 8904

Details: 357 pgs, 6 x 9
Publication Date: 03/15/2026

Reviews

“This outstanding edited volume is a fitting tribute to one of the most creative scholars in the academy working at the intersection of a theology of creation and liturgy. The themes running through this work reflect Teresa Berger’s ongoing concerns to develop both theological and liturgical arguments relevant for pressing contemporary investigations at the intersection of ecology, gender and art. Written in the spirit of ecumenical openness and generosity, this book is a vitally important contribution to a growing body of ecotheological literature at the intersection of theory and practice. Both established and emerging scholars offer novel insights, creating a rich kaleidoscope of different ways of seeing the way creation intersects with and interprets liturgical practice. The reader will inevitably respond to the book’s fresh and hopeful message, making this an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and ministers alike.”

Celia Deane-Drummond, Director, Laudato Si’ Research Institute and Senior Research Fellow, Campion Hall, University of Oxford

“The global ecological crisis also raises questions about how liturgy addresses the environment and creation in prayer and ritual. Teresa Berger, to whom the book is dedicated, repeatedly points out that liturgy and the cosmos must be considered together. The essays by high-ranking theologians set new accents in this regard. Anyone who wants to participate in today's relevant academic, social, and ecclesiastical debates with regard to liturgy must take note of this book.”

Benedikt Kranemann, faculty of Catholic theology, University of Erfurt

“It is a splendid idea, especially at this moment in time, to publish a collection of scholarly essays on the relationship between creation and liturgy. More than ever, the world is in dire need of sharp insights into the intrinsic connection between the worship of the Most High and the fortunes and misfortunes of His creation. The Christian tradition has a whole lot to say about this, but it is either not well understood or grossly underappreciated. Without a doubt, it is particularly meaningful that the contributions to this volume are dedicated to Teresa Berger, who has done truly trailblazing work not only in this area, but in so many others as well. Only a broad, or why not universal, reception of this book is the only proper response to its appearance.”

Joris Geldhof, University of Notre Dame

“From palpable expressions of grief to the connection between biphasic sleep patterns and midnight prayer, from explorations of the gendered cosmos to analysis of the churches’ liturgical responses to drought and flood, from celebration of the churches’ song to consideration of left-over bread: each chapter in this collection serves as an example and celebration of the ways Teresa Berger’s theological, historical, liturgical, and aesthetic work has influenced a community of liturgical scholarship. Perhaps most importantly, these chapters demonstrate that worshiping ‘in communion with all creation’ requires not only new ways of praying but also a transformation of how we humans understand our place in creation.”

E. Byron Anderson, Styberg Professor of Worship, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

“With scholarly seriousness and pastoral depth, the chorus of voices in this volume offers sharp theological, liturgical, and artistic reflections on worship, in honor of pioneering liturgical scholar Teresa Berger. Heeding Berger’s call for liturgical studies to attend to all of creation, in its groaning as well as its praise of God, the contributors name clearly the planetary crisis we face, and the limits of what liturgy can do. Together, they boldly forge liturgical scholarship that is ‘emplaced’ in the material world, investigating how all created things from heavenly luminaries to the human microbiome have something to teach us about worship.”

Martha Moore-Keish, Columbia Theological Seminary

“This volume, like Teresa Berger’s scholarship, invites readers into the breadth and depth of Christian liturgical engagement with the more-than-human world. From the early church to contemporary innovation—and from the cosmos to the most intimate kin-relations in one’s own place—the Christian tradition opens in surprising new ways through the essays gathered here, a brilliant collection.”

Lisa E. Dahill, PhD, Director, Center for Transformative Spirituality, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace

“Teresa Berger is one of the most creative minds working in liturgical studies today. A harbinger of things to come, her work opens up new lines of enquiry, domains of exploration, and modes of engagement. In this collection, editors Ross and Westerfield-Tucker have brought together a collectively brilliant Berger-inspired response to what is arguably the peril of our time. Read with interest; read with urgency.”

Jason J. McFarland, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology, Australian Catholic University