Consecrating the World: On Mundane Liturgical Theology

by David W. Fagerberg

What has liturgy to do with life? The sacred with the secular? This study proposes that the liturgy calls us, in the words of Aidan Kavanagh, “to do the world as the world was meant to be done.” The sacramental liturgy of the Church and the personal liturgy of our lives should be as a seamless garment. Consecrating the World continues David Fagerberg’s exploration of the Church’s lex orandi (law of prayer) by expanding two major themes. The first considers liturgy as the matrix wherein our encounter with God becomes an experience of primary theology. The second illustrates how a believer is made ready for this liturgy through asceticism in both its faces—the one negative (dealing with sin), the other positive (dealing with sanctification). This book turns these two themes outward to a liturgical theology of the cosmos—a mundane liturgical theology of the consecration of the world and the sanctification of our daily life. “David Fagerberg invites us, with the urgency of the gospel, to see God the Trinity in every created thing, and to offer to God as a joyful sacrifice of praise the good things He has made, rather than cleaving egocentrically to these good things. When, through the Dove (the Spirit), Christ frees us to do the world in this way, we become the liturgical priest-kings we were meant to be; we learn how to live and die on the ascending path of Christ. Steeped in the spirituality of the Orthodox East and the Anglican West, enriched by the Catholic masters of Ressourcement, Fagerberg shares his vision in everyday language for all to hear. Just when it seemed that spiritual masters no longer roamed university hallways, God has raised up a true spiritual guide for our time. Open this book, awaken from spiritual slumber, read and rejoice.”—MATTHEW LEVERING, Mundelein Seminary “Consecrating the World takes up where David Fagerberg’s masterful On Liturgical Asceticism left off, providing a key to living the liturgy in every moment and aspect of human life. That this is indeed an everyday task takes nothing away from its divine content and sublime finality. Fagerberg is rightly regarded as one of the foremost liturgical theologians of our day. His engagement with the tradition is both fresh and fruitful.”—DOM ALCUIN REID, Monastère Saint-Benoît “Consecrating the World is no ordinary book. It is a course in re-training the mind and the senses to perceive the world in a new way. Like the ancient Fathers, David Fagerberg sees all material things as sensible signs leading us to heavenly realities. Like Maximus and Dionysius, he shows us that the cosmos is itself a liturgy, calling us to consecrate ourselves and our work, our passions and the world to God—to sanctify the temporal order. This is a theology most visionary, joyful, and passionate.”—SCOTT HAHN, Franciscan University of Steubenville “In David Fagerberg’s new book, his trademark genius for integrating liturgical theology, ascetical theology, and the theology of creation is on full display, but here developed in a new, pneumatological direction that seems to lift it all up on the wings of the Holy Spirit. This book fully corroborates Fagerberg’s reputation as one of the most creative and inspiring liturgical theologians of our time.”—JOHN C. CAVADINI, University of Notre Dame “This book succeeds as an imaginative, at times provocative paean to the total integration of liturgy and life, by carrying to the utmost the logic of the Incarnation and the radical challenge of the Ascension. Can God become flesh, as it were, in all the aspects of life? And can the whole of creation really be raised up on high, as a sign, even a foretaste, of the heavenly liturgy? Fagerberg’s arguments lead us to see the urgency of rediscovering the full symbolic richness, the ‘splendid beauty,’ of traditional liturgy as the means by which we must glorify God and divinize our lives in this world.”—PETER KWASNIEWSKI, Wyoming Catholic College

Genres: Theology, Christianity, Nonfiction, Religion

158 pages, Paperback

Published March 12, 2016

About the author

David Fagerberg holds a B.A. from Augsburg College (1972), M.Div. from Luther Northwestern Seminary (1977), M.A. from St. John’s University, Collegeville (1982), S.T.M. from Yale Divinity School (1983), and M.A., M.Phil., and PhD. from Yale University (1991). He taught in the Religion Department of Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, from 1988-2001; the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary 2002-03; he has been at Notre Dame since 2003. His area of study is liturgical theology – its definition and methodology – and how the Church’s lex orandi (law of prayer) is the foundation for her lex credendi (law of belief). He also has interests in sacramental theology, Eastern Orthodoxy, linguistic philosophy, scholasticism, G. K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis.

Reviews

[PJ Whittington · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is difficult to capture what Fagerberg does so masterfully in this work. I will say two things; first, this might be the best piece of theology that captures the necessity of liturgical life for the world. It is clear that Fagerberg is invested in the same project as the master Fr. Alexander Schmemann. Second, the appendix on monasticism and marriage must not be looked over. In fact, I read the appendix first because it piqued my interest and having read it again upon completing the book, new life was breathed into the beauty of these two ascetic calls. David Fagerberg is a poet, and I can think of no other proper means to communicate the mystery of our heavenly worship.

[Greg Santa Croce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to study this book with David Fagerberg at Notre Dame. A revelation and a challenge. Fagerberg has a knack for picking just the right image or metaphor to describe his concepts, rendering the invisible visible.

[Othy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An example of an okay book that would make a fantastic article. Fagerberg does a lot of redefining of terms (liturgy as the complete Christian act, sacrifice as glorifying God, profane as ordinary (not impure) activity, the narthex as a membrane), and this is all great stuff. I am not with him on seeing all Creation as good, but that's fine. His idea of worship and inside-the-church liturgy connected to the lifting up of all Creation to God, by means of Christ's sacrifice - that's amazing. The problem is that, even with only 115 pages, Fagerberg repeats himself often and this waters down his main point. I think a speed reader would get more out of this than someone like me, who reads each and every word.

[DW · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a (Evangelical Anglican) protestant, I learned from and enjoyed this book immensely, dispite predictable disagreements. Conversant with Schmemann, Lewis and even Charles Williams (a first for me in a book that was not directly connected to the Inklings), it was a pleasure to read from start to finish.

[Fr Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book until the final chapter (appendix). The author speaks well of how it is up to all Christians because of their baptismal priesthood to consecrate the world, not by setting things apart for God, but by bringing the 'profane' back into its proper place in God's created order. This is how the Kingdom of God gains territory, through the sons of Adam performing to the priesthood Adam was meant to perform in his stewardship over God's creation. The liturgy of the sanctuary spills over into this 'mundane' liturgy.

The appendix is a bit of a tangent on the asceticism of marriage, which is true as far as it goes. But Fagerberg presents it in a way that takes the legs out from under celibacy, arguing that marital chastity is a way of undividedly belonging to the Lord. St. Paul in 1 Cor 7 begs to differ.