Changed from Glory into Glory: The Liturgical Story of the Christian Faith
Through tracing the liturgical history of the Christian faith from its foundation in Old Testament
Israel through the early church, middle ages, Reformation, to the present, this book demonstrates
that liturgy forms religion and religion forms liturgy.
One of the best ways to truly understand what lies at the core of the Christian faith is by studying
its worship, for corporate worship does something far more significant than many Christians
recognize—public worship both reveals belief and forms belief. How a community
worships—its content, its liturgy, and its forms of expression—reveals the underlying religious
commitments of those who plan and lead the worship. Conversely, corporate worship forms the
beliefs of the worshipers. Public worship is not simply about authentic expression of the
worshipers; rather, how a church worships week after week progressively shapes their beliefs
since those worship practices were cultivated by and embody certain beliefs.
This is why it is so important for church leaders, and indeed all Christians, to carefully identify
what kinds of beliefs have shaped their various worship practices so that they will choose to
worship in ways that best form their minds and hearts consistent with their theological
convictions. That is the goal of this book: studying worship in the Old and New Testaments will
reveal how God deliberately prescribed worship that would form his people as he desires, and
tracing the evolution of Christian worship from after the close of the New Testament to the
present day will help elucidate how theological beliefs affected the worship practices Christians
have inherited.
Publisher: Joshua Press
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781774840498
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Scott Aniol, PhD, is Executive Vice President and Editor-in-chief of G3 Ministries and Professor of Pastoral Theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary. He also serves as an elder of Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, GA. He is a teacher of culture, worship, aesthetics, and church ministry philosophy, he lectures around the country in churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries, and he has authored several books and dozens of articles. Scott holds a masters degree in Theological Studies (SWBTS), a masters degree in Aesthetics (NIU), and a PhD in Worship Ministry (SWBTS).
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“The reasons that I am enthusiastic about this book are many, but I will condense them to these five. One, it gives a narrative and doctrinal interaction with the history of Christian worship from Adam to the present. Two, it shows the revealed manner of worship from Genesis to Revelation isolating the principles that govern God’s message of how he is to be approached. Three, it shows how these principles were implemented and followed in large part throughout the history of the church while indicating how culture and populism began to reshape the cultus and even pollute this biblical pattern. Four, the author unashamedly, and in harmony with the necessity of Christian witness and conviction, encourages sound biblical thinking about the preeminent element of human life, worship. Five, he sets forth a specific manner of ordering worship that he believes is in accord with biblical principles and the best elements of liturgical development in the church—Gospel-shaped worship. This book is a work of Christian scholarship, thoroughly engaging to the mind, challenging to the heart, and is aimed at edification in a way equivalent to its information.” Tom J. Nettles, Senior Professor of Historical Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary