Liturgical Attraction

Bob Webber is our "Twilight Convergence" hero! Robert Eugene Webber (November 27, 1933 – April 27, 2007) was an American theologian known for his work on worship and the early church. He played a key role in the Convergence Movement, a move among evangelical and charismatic churches in the United States to blend charismatic worship with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer and other liturgical sources.

Webber began teaching theology at Wheaton College in 1968. Existentialism was the primary focus of Webber's research and lectures during his first years at Wheaton. However, he soon shifted his focus to the early church. In 1985 Webber wrote Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church, in which he described the reasons behind his own gradual shift away from his fundamentalist/evangelical background toward the Anglican tradition. Webber faced an enormous amount of criticism from evangelicals in response to this book. Nevertheless, his work was highly influential, and his ideas grew in popularity in evangelical circles.

During the latter half of his life, Webber took a special interest in Christian worship practices. He wrote more than 40 books on the topic of worship, focusing on how the worship practices of the ancient church have value for the church in the 21st century postmodern era. Among his books are Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, Ancient-Future Evangelism, The Younger Evangelicals, and The Divine Embrace.  Webber founded The Robert E. Webber Institute of Worship Studies in Orange Park, Florida in 1998. He remained president of the institute until his death. In 2006, he organized and edited the "Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future", a document intended "to restore the priority of the divinely inspired biblical story of God's acts in history".

Today young people think that "Ancient-Future Faith" is something out of a Twilight movie. We've put together a Christianity vs. Vampire wordview quiz. How do you score?

1. Believes that the body will never die and the will be reborn as immortals:
A. Vampires
B. Christians
C. Both

2. Leadership likes to wear black cassocks and capes:
A. Vampires
B. Christians
C. Both

3. Ancient-Future Worship is:
A. Convergence worship with depth and participation
B. The Vampire Counsel of 1513
C. Not Entertainment worship, but God-directed worship
D. Evangelicalism through the lens of the early church
E. All of the above, except B.

4. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day"
A. quote from Ann Rice
B. quote from the Bible
C. quote from Twilight
D. quote from Wes Cravens
E. quote from from Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer

5. "Keep your secrets, Keep your silence, It is a better gift than truth"
A. quote from Ann Rice
B. quote from the Bible
C. quote from Twilight
D. quote from Wes Cravens
E. quote from from Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer

6. At death has a historical tradition of being "staked" with wood.
A. Vampires
B. Christians
C. Both

7. The Ancient Evangelical future is:
A. Primacy of the Biblical narrative
B. The Church is the continuation of God's narrative
C. The Church's worship as enacting God's narrative
D. Spiritual formation in the Church as embodiment of God's Narrative
E. All of the Above

8. "He is, quite simply, beyond the reach of death. "
A. quote from Ann Rice
B. quote from the Bible
C. quote from Twilight
D. quote from Wes Cravens
E. quote from Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer

9. "The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest."
A. quote from Ann Rice
B. quote from the Bible
C. quote from Twilight
D. quote from Wes Cravens
E. quote from from Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer

10. "You were right, all along, about everything.... Well, no, you weren't right about your mother coming back as a pekinese."
A. quote from Ann Rice
B. quote from the Bible
C. quote from Twilight
D. quote from Wes Cravens
E. quote from from Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer

11. "There is a generation, whose teeth are swords and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor off the earth."
A. quote from Ann Rice
B. quote from the Bible
C. quote from Twilight
D. quote from Wes Cravens
E. quote from from Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer



Answers:
1. C,  2. C,  3. E,  4. B,  5. A,  6. B, 7. E, 8. D,  9. B&C, 10. E, 11. B.

(H.T. Nomination C.T.)