Jesus Creed: Courtly Love in the Courts of God Scot McKnight
... Friends of mine are speaking of the consumerization or commodification in the church. I offer a slightly different analysis of what might be the same thing: for many, Sunday services have become the experience of courtly love. These folks love church, and what they mean by loving church is that they love the experience they get when they go to church. They prefer to attend the churches that foster the titillation of courtly-love worship.
They love worship, and by this they mean they love the courtly-love-like songs that extol the experience of loving Jesus or the experience of adoring God or the experience of singing long enough until their feelings are evoked or the experience of a concert-like praise team that can generate the sound of worship intensely enough to vibrate the very soul of the worshiper. Such folks might like sermons that create powerful contrasts between God's wrath and their sinfulness or stories told so well to usher them into the depths of human loves and hates and tragedies and comedies. What they like is the freshness of discovery or the flush of shame or the intoxicating sense of learning something new. They may create such a stir of silence in expectation of some great preacher or some great leader that the sheer presence of that person swoons their soul.
This is not worship.
My contention is rather simple: the shaping of a Sunday service or a worship event or a concert in order to generate a profound experience might emerge from a courtly love sense of worship. The expectation of such an experience on the part of the worshiper might also emerge from a courtly sense of worship. The opening of the Bible to read in search of an experience, or the entrance into a prayer time in order to rediscover some powerful emotion may also emerge from the intrusion of courtly love into how many today understand spirituality.
Let's call this was it is: spiritual eroticism and those who are good at it can be called spiritual erotics. ...
They love worship, and by this they mean they love the courtly-love-like songs that extol the experience of loving Jesus or the experience of adoring God or the experience of singing long enough until their feelings are evoked or the experience of a concert-like praise team that can generate the sound of worship intensely enough to vibrate the very soul of the worshiper. Such folks might like sermons that create powerful contrasts between God's wrath and their sinfulness or stories told so well to usher them into the depths of human loves and hates and tragedies and comedies. What they like is the freshness of discovery or the flush of shame or the intoxicating sense of learning something new. They may create such a stir of silence in expectation of some great preacher or some great leader that the sheer presence of that person swoons their soul.
This is not worship.
My contention is rather simple: the shaping of a Sunday service or a worship event or a concert in order to generate a profound experience might emerge from a courtly love sense of worship. The expectation of such an experience on the part of the worshiper might also emerge from a courtly sense of worship. The opening of the Bible to read in search of an experience, or the entrance into a prayer time in order to rediscover some powerful emotion may also emerge from the intrusion of courtly love into how many today understand spirituality.
Let's call this was it is: spiritual eroticism and those who are good at it can be called spiritual erotics. ...
Ouch! But right on target.
From the sacred to the mundane: each time I see the title of this piece, I read it as "Courtney Love in the Courts of God."
;)
Posted by: Victor Claar | May 11, 2009 at 09:32 PM
LOL
I know! When I first saw the headline in Google Reader I thought "What the heck is McKnight doing writing about Courtney Love?" Then I clicked on the story I realized my error.
Oh well!
Posted by: Michael W. Kruse | May 11, 2009 at 09:37 PM