Fortress Press

"Frank C. Senn has been a leading contributor to the field of liturgical studies, with significant contributions to both liturgical theology and history. Here, he challenges any approach to embodied worship that is itself abstract, drawing on his wide knowledge of the full sweep of liturgical history and his synthetic vision of ecumenical liturgical theology. This book is an invitation not only to think about worship more precisely, but also to engage in worship more deeply. Readers from several Christian traditions will be encouraged, challenged, and provoked by the wide range of examples and insights conveyed here."

"No pun intended, but Frank C. Senn's latest book, Embodied Liturgy will get you in touch with your body—your body as part of the body of Christ, and your body as an integral part of the worshipping assembly. From the breath that came into the first created bodies, bodies that were formed from the earth, to our very bodies that are marked with the promise of the resurrection, Senn takes us on an incarnate journey by which we come to know the One in whom 'we live and move and have our very being.' Through movement and sound, through beauty and play, through myriad cultures and the sweep of liturgical history, and finally through death and into eternal life, Embodied Liturgy will open its readers to worship the one God with heart, soul, mind, and a new strength that only comes from honoring these given bodies that God has made, as part of a life of honoring God."

"The eminent liturgical scholar Frank C. Senn has helped us to see the obvious: we worship with and through our bodies. The whole person responds to the liturgical encounter with God in Jesus Christ. Thus, the liturgy affirms both the doctrine of the Incarnation and the goodness of our own bodies."

"Frank C. Senn's command of interdisciplinary studies in liturgy is unparalleled. Like vinyasa yoga, his academic and practical discourse flows gracefully from sacramental and incarnational theology to ritual studies, from embodied cognition to the arts, masterfully revealing the interpenetration of the various dimensions of human life. This book will shatter the illusion that one can be a homo religiosus without the body."

"While many liturgiologists have highlighted the importance of the body in worship, none has done so to the same extent as Frank C. Senn. Drawing on insights ranging from postmodern philosophers such as Merleau-Ponty to ancient sages of the East, the different aspects of the liturgy are interpreted here through the lens of humans as embodied beings. Senn shows how practically every lofty act of worship engages the most ordinary bodily movement. Its comprehensiveness, practical insights, and lucidity make it an ideal introduction to the study of liturgics."