God Against Religion: Rethinking Christian Theology through Worship

by Matthew Myer Boulton

Overview

This volume outlines a Christian theology that takes worship as its basic framework, as the occasion of not only an approach toward God in piety but also separation from God in sin. Drawing on Luther, Calvin, and especially Karl Barth, Matthew Myer Boulton builds a Reformed liturgical theology, maintaining that the God of Jesus Christ is a “God against religion,” one who saves human beings from religion by entering it, transforming it, and ultimately ending it.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802829726
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/29/2008
Series:	The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies (CICW)
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Matthew Myer Boulton is associate professor of ministry studies at Harvard Divinity School. An ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), he serves on the ministerial staff at Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts. His books incl

Table of Contents

Series Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xiii
Prelude: God Against Religion     xv
Introduction: Rethinking Theology through Worship in the Reformed Tradition     1
The Invention of God     21
Karl Barth on Worship as "Fall"     25
The Work of "Religion"     25
The Creation of Eve     35
Revelation and Idolatry     56
Rereading Genesis 2-4     63
Eden and Intimacy     64
Leitourgia and Separation     69
Religion and Murder     83
"We Pray by His Mouth"     95
Karl Barth on Worship as "Reconciliation"     101
The Work of Human Being     101
The Work of Gratitude     111
Conspiracy and Solidarity     122
Martin Luther and Christian Life     137
Martin Luther's Simul     138
Penitential Life     145
Baptismal Life     152
God Against Religion     161
A Theology of Invocation     161
The End of Christianity     172
The Play of Redemption     184
Postlude: Reforming Worship     195
"No Difference At All"     195
"All theDifference in the World"     201
Christian Baptism     209
Christian Communion     216
Bibliography     232
Index of Names and Subjects     237
Index of Scripture References     240

Editorial Reviews

Kathryn Tanner
— University of Chicago Divinity School
"Worship, with all its promise and peril, takes center stage in this beautifully written little systematic theology by one of the best young theologians in America today. Worth reading for its illuminating treatment of Barth alone, this is a must-read for anyone interested in how religious life is a weave of both sin and salvation. With its erudition wrapped in an entertaining, accessible style, Boulton's book is systematic theology at its finest: fresh, provocative, and compelling."

Robin A. Leaver
— Westminster Choir College, Rider University
"In the 1960s various theologians attempted to come to terms with Bonhoeffer's concept of ‘religionless Christianity' and concluded that ‘God' was dead. Here Matthew Myer Boulton, by a reexamination of Karl Barth's theology, shows that the concept was not new with Bonhoeffer but was known to such Reformers as Luther and Calvin. It is the rightness of righteousness rather than the religiosity of religion, the death of sin rather than the death of God, that lies at the heart of Christianity and is experienced in the reality of worship and is central to theology. A timely message in an age that tends to consign worship to the periphery of theological concerns."

Religious Studies Review
“A provocative, well-written Christian Theology of worship. . . . Deserves much consideration from leaders and scholars of Christian worship.”
 
Reviews in Religion & Theology
“In this superb and original book, Matthew Myer Boulton offers a theology of worship in which, boldly and provocatively, he argues for worship as simultaneously the problem within and the answer to humanity’s alienation from God. . . . This book really is a must-read.”
 
Theology
“Marvellously clear and engagingly written.”
 
Modern Theology
“In this book Boulton introduces himself to the academy as a probing theologian, a lively exegete, and a profound interlocutor with Barth, at home in the magisterial Protestant tradition and able to dialogue with scholars and liturgist practitioners with equal facility. It is a fine debut.”
 
Interpretation
“Broad and insightful. . . . This book is an important and useful contribution that will benefit pastors, teachers, and students alike.”
 

From the Publisher