Open church and closed worship? : a practical theology study of the dialectic relationship between fear and hospitality in worship

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the rites of Christian worship, various aspects are operated, and some of them seem to haveopposite attributes that cannot exist at the same place and be performed at the same time. Since all theaspects are so important to worship, we cannot over-stress or exclude either one of them. Therelationships between the aspects being confronted with cause tensions in worship. The aim of thisthesis is to synthesize these tensions, esp. concerning fear and hospitality in worship.Fear and hospitality cannot be expressed with one perspective, because they in themselves havevarious aspects. Fear of God has a dimension of Mysterium Tremendum but, at the same time, it has adimension of Fascinosum. Hospitality also has two dimensions: of God and of human beings. Thus,what is significant is to relieve the tension between fear and hospitality and the tension implied inthemselves. To accomplish this goal, we endeavour to find the agent for the synthesizing the twoaspects in worship so that they can stand in a dialectical relationship. We apply a Christologicalapproach and pneumatological insights for this task. In Jesus a negative dimension of fear of God canbe altered to hospitality of God while still grabbing a positive sense of fear of God in worship.Therefore, In Jesus fear and hospitality is synthesized. This synthesizing is different from blending orbalancing fear and hospitality in worship just in quantity and quality for they cannot relieve thetensions.Lastly, we deal with a matter of opening and closing as a pragmatic task. The church and worshipcan be open for God's hospitality, but at the same time they are closed to some for fear of God.Opening or closing in itself cannot be the solution for this contradiction. The answer for the matter ofopening and closing lies in a dialectical relationship between fear and hospitality in Jesus Christ,because in Him all the tensions are relieved.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University