Ours is a time of unprecedented pessimism regarding the possibility of achieving consensus around moral issues. Christian liturgical practices, which are grounded in a communicative economy of love and mercy, contain wisdom that might be of significant help. What difference might it make if we confessed sin (learned epistemic humility, worked at overcoming self-deception), interceded for others (learned to go beyond empathy to compassion and advocacy for the well-being of all persons, became willing to look beyond the possible for solutions, etc.), and learned from the best homiletical practices how to justify and apply moral positions within an ethic of hospitality and care? Speaking Together focuses on the roles that liturgical practices play in promoting genuinely communicative (understanding-oriented) forms of action and explores how liturgical practices contribute to sincere, multi-perspectival, empathetic, and truth-seeking conversations regarding moral norms in an increasingly pluralistic world. What this means is that our liturgical practices are a way of speaking together and this shapes how we organize and inhabit a shared social life.

About the Author
John S. McClure is Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Reviews
A timely argument that our liturgical practices are redemptive only insofar as they are communicative, meaning: justice-making and productive of mutual understanding between different bodies. McClure's resultant vision of confession, intercession and preaching disrupts their habitually subjective descriptions, and invites much-needed critical questions about power, inside and outside the Church. -- Siobhan Garrigan, Trinity College Dublin
John McClure does it again: revisiting traditional concepts in such a way that it becomes new and indeed inspiring. In this book, he takes liturgy back to where it belongs: life. The old saying: as you pray, so you believe (lex orandi, lex credendi), is given flesh and blood: as you pray, so you believe, so you live, so you live together (lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi, lex convivendi). Liturgy becomes other-wise, i.e. street-wise! -- Johan Cilliers, University of Stellenbosch
Speaking Together and with God breaks new ground by creating an intersection between liturgical practices and communicative ethics. In this book, McClure draws upon his internationally acknowledged reservoir of knowledge in order to uncover how the practices of confession, intercession, and preaching bear the potential of creating redemptive forms of communication and a genuine openness to the other. -- Marlene Ringgaard Lorensen, University of Copenhagen
John McClure makes a ground-breaking practical-theological contribution to public theology in these pages. He traces carefully the cross-migration of liturgical/homiletical and discursive practices that impacts today's pluralistic public square. McClure's work here is both discerning and engaging. -- David Schnasa Jacobsen, Boston University School of Theology



Book Information
ISBN 9781978701298
Author John S. McClure
Format Hardback
Page Count 252
Imprint Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 522g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 163mm * 24mm