Today in chapel there was what people like to call "liturgical dancing." By this I mean 4 people wearing white went on stage and danced to a song with the intention of conveying theological meaning.
As we were gearing up for chapel my friend Chad and I were wondering about the development of dance in the liturgy. I confess that I haven't really researched it but it seems to me that this must (save for probably some isolated instances) be a very very late development in the worshiping life of the Church.
As Chad and i pondered this we thought that maybe there was some use of dance, though not in the liturgy proper, in some of the early Christian meetings as sort of a hold-over from Judaism. But we figured that the current form of dancing probably comes from late, post-reformation roots - maybe around German pietism or later Celtic Christianity. If this is a correct assertion (which has yet to be proven) I wonder if this use of interpretive dance comes from syncretism with Druidic (which is was today's dance looked like) and other folk groups in those areas.
All wondering about development aside, what purpose does "liturgical" dance serve? First off the name is a complete misnomer. Sure it may be technically part of the "work of the people" and whatnot, but it seems to me that it really doesn't fit with the liturgical history of the Church as a whole.
It almost seems that the Protestant church is trying to harness dance and the other arts but that they really have no foundation for how to use art and/or convey theology through art because when they reacted against Rome they stripped the church of art, thus throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath-water.
I'm not really sure what point I'm making here. In fact, I find this post to be very scattered and incoherent. My excuse is that I'm tired and that I'm trying to read through David Bradshaw's book Aristotle East and West: Metaphysics and the Division of Christendom today.
All that to say that I struggled with liturgical dance when I first encountered it in high school, I mildly accepted it out of a generous attitude in college and now that I understand the development and purpose of liturgy and the church service I find that it doesn't really fit. I would appreciate some thoughts and some suggestions on this issue. Maybe I'm narrow-minded, or maybe I'm just overlooking something. Shoot, maybe I'm right and you can help me articulate why.
- Ben
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This has nothing to do with your post (although, you can imagine what my thoughts are on the topic), but HERE is a link to some recipes that I posted on my blog last Lent. I'll send you some more soon- some easy ones.
lol... for some reason this post made me laugh. Well, at least it's not as bad as pentecostal-extreme-banner-waving. I was at this pentecostal conference one time and almost got taken out by an overzealous banner-waver during worship. That would have made for a funny story in the ER. Hey I'm gonna be in Wilmore from the 22nd to the 26th, hopefully I'll see you around bro.
Sorry, I just couldn't follow your post. I was too preoccupied by all the vomiting occasioned by the title.
Ahem.
We should hang out. After Easter. When is that for you people? ;0)
I'm afraid I find liturgical dance to be extremely distracting. It just doesn't seem to fall in line with what I think of when I read that we are to maintain order in worship. But, then again, I find a lot of Charismatic practices highly distracting in worship, so maybe I am the problem. *shrug*
But when you say it, I'm pretty sure its just because you are trying to find some twisted way to show that Protestants are bad little Christians. Why don't you just grow a beard, buy some incense, and start chanting ;)
Peace brotha!
Matt - hopefully I'll get a chance to see you when you come to town.
Kyle -Pascha is April 27th. You should come on over and celebrate the resurrection again, it'll be great.
Isaac - I'm not saying that protestants are bad little christians, I'm just saying that sometimes their practices aren't really Christian. But can I help it if I'm right? (You know I'm just messing with you.)
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