The Wonder of Worship: Why We Worship the Way We Do

by Keith Drury

The author was bothered that so many of his students viewed worship as simply 'a contemporary experience largely cut off from its roots.' So he set out to link present worship practices with their historical roots in a way that would deepen faith and inspire wonder. He successfully creates that historical bridge while addressing the primary elements of worship, outlining their development through successive historical periods, and then closing each chapter with a series of incisive 'to think about' questions.

Genres: Nonfiction

313 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

Reviews

[Greg Reimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. A quick read that covers a wide variety of worship practices and elements within many evangelical churches. This is not an academic book (very few footnotes) and so is easily accessible. However, I do worry about the validity of some of the historic assumptions made in the book (i.e. that the early church had to determine where to lay their scroll of scriptures; writing was an expensive process at the time and I don't think the average house church would generally have access to a written copy of the Bible). Drury might be relying on some dated scholarship, but it is still a helpful overview and a good launching point for the topic of worship, albiet from the limited perspective of contemporary evangelicalism. 3/5

[Marcus Grant · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book frustrated me mainly because there were hardly any footnotes, and Drury writes primarily about various aspects of worship throughout Judaism and Christianity. Every chapter and section within the book was basic and gave an overview. In my opinion, this resulted in some book topics not being treated fairly or grossly overstated. However, there were some topics that made me think about things differently, historically speaking.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes a topic approach to various elements of Christian worship, tracing each through the flow of history. It's not the best Christian history book I have read, but it offers some useful information on the subject of worship confronting the idea that "we've always done it this way."

[Billie White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t finish, but I did enjoy reading bits and pieces of it

[Matt B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book covering the history of many of the elements of worship in the Christian church. It serves as a great primer on the history without being stale or boring.

[Jt]

read for school

[Michael Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot more interesting and thoughtful than I'd expected! Even the review questions pose interesting ideas.