On Earth as in Heaven?

"Liturgy is where religion becomes a matter of seeing, touching, and tasting. It is the divine in the tangible creation—with all its messiness and practical demands on us—witnessing to the centrality of our understanding of being the creation within Christian faith. What these fourteen contributions offer us are glimpses into just how material our worship has been, is, and, indeed, must be. This collection is an important antidote to the siren voices of many in our culture who want to imagine worship as some perfect 'otherness' and in doing so only promote a disembodied gnosticism."

"This volume offers food for thought on a crucial though often neglected aspect of the celebration of the faith of Christians, namely its connection with the world of money and commerce. As such, it situates itself in the growth of interdisciplinary conversations that scholars of liturgy hold, embrace, and ought to cherish. A lineup of excellent specialists guarantees the fine quality of the essays, which are organized chronologically. What one can learn from the history of interactions between the economy and the life of worship is that the economy of salvation, as much as it is a mystery, is worth a lot also in monetary terms. I very much hope that the insights from this book will generate much more reflection and that it will equally stimulate critical discussions, not only about how business and trade interrogate liturgy but also about the reverse, how Christian worship questions fundamental assumptions of neoliberal economics."