A new approach to studying worship Worship in the network culture: Liturgical ritual studies. Fields and methods, concepts and metaphors, Marcel Barnard, Johan Cilliers, Cas Wepener : book review

Firstly, I give my personal experience regarding the changing liturgical scene in our country. After the political change to a full democracy with a new constitution in South Africa in 1994, Prof Cas Vos and I decided to write a book on worship in the new situation of change on all fronts - Hoe lieflik is U woning, published in 1997. One of the chapters I wrote was Chapter 4 in which I expressed my anticipation concerning the direction that future study in worship will take. I addressed the need for symbols in a situation where little attention is given to it in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) (pp. 122-126), a new focus on ritual (pp. 120-122) and a focus on embodiment in liturgy (pp. 126-130). I wrote on the role of ritual in the new liminal situation in our country, quoting Turner (pp. 131-133), and how a new vision of worship could help in the uniting process of the Dutch Reformed Church family. These ideas were all a surmising and guessing game - I had no idea at that time how it would work and how to study it.