Changed from Glory into Glory: The Liturgical Story of the Christian Faith

by Scott Aniol

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 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.

Genres: Church History

362 pages, Paperback

Published February 22, 2022

Reviews

[Maxwill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a lot of mixed thoughts on this book. It is a good summarization of the history of Christian practices and has lots of good insights into developing a rich biblical theology of Worship, Liturgy, and Discipleship. He clearly knows his stuff. I have found sections of this massively helpful.
Which only makes the rest of the book so frustrating. This is a really good draft of the book he wanted to write. Countless grammatical errors, misformatting, weirdly placed sections, weirdly emphasize sections, times that it feels like he pasted text from a different book. There were threads that he started discussing (particularly the relationship between cultus and worldview) and then didn’t pick up again until the end despite talking about how he had consistently talked about those ideas throughout. It needs an editor and cutting some of the weeds he gets into that distract from his thesis. Revise this bad boy and I think you have a star text on liturgy and worship.

[Kim Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aniol’s text provides a broad understanding of the function and purpose of music in church services. He includes a chapter on the influence of popular culture on church music and a helpful and needed discussion on the importance of beauty in worship. His dialogue on the use of affections in worship helps distinguish between the engagement of emotions in worship and the over-emphasis upon emotionalism in many church contexts today. At the end of each chapter, there are discussion questions, which make this an ideal text to use with any group that helps lead weekly worship services.


“Our goal should be that our theology drives our methodology. Personal preference or taste is not the primary criterion. Our methodology of congregational worship should come from our understanding of the Word of God” (Aniol 235).