“Inviting his readers on an intellectually and prayerfully disciplined inquiry into the nature and purpose of liturgical theology, David Fagerberg boldly offers an answer to the widespread contemporary question about the relationship between liturgy and life that, while most likely to be lost on those celebrating a culture of immediate feelings, will appear as a deep pool of wisdom to those who have been grasped by tradition as a vital exercise of faith. The author’s gift for infusing generative metaphors and analogies into rigorous analysis draws the reader into [i]doing[/i] theology with not only him but a company of patristic and contemporary luminaries and, in the process, coming to a meditative discovery of what practicing liturgical theology is about.”

—Bruce T. Morrill, SJ,
Associate Professor, Department of Theology,
Boston College

“Amid the manifold and complex interaction between liturgy and theology David Fagerberg stresses the way in which the worshiping congregation intellectually, spiritually, and practically processes its encounters with the living God, and this he calls ‘primary theology.’ Familiar with the classic texts and the surrounding literature, the author here makes a thoughtful and vigorous contribution to an ancient topic but also to a discussion that has been taking place since the Second Vatican Council, and not only in the Roman Catholic Church.”

—Geoffrey Wainwright,
Cushman Professor of Christian Theology, Duke University

“Those searching for the deeper meaning of the Liturgy will be well served by this excellent book. The author’s penetrating analysis of what it means to be engaged in the liturgical act is explored in compelling and challenging prose. Fagerberg’s consistent theme is that in ‘doing Liturgy’ in fact the ‘Liturgy does us’ as it shapes and molds our worldview and our experience of God. Liturgy is nothing less that allowing God to be God and to refashion the pilgrim church in the divine image and likeness. Fagerberg makes judicious use of the writings of Aidan Kavanagh, Jean Corbon and Alexander Schmemann as he weaves theological tapestry rich in content and challenge about what the Liturgy is and does. No one who wants to take the Liturgy seriously as a divine act in which humans become more and more like God can afford to ignore this important voice among those who engage in the important craft of doing liturgical theology. This book will make you stop and think—repeatedly and continuously—about why Liturgy is the ‘summit and source’ of the Church’s very life.”

—Kevin W. Irwin,
Director of the Liturgical Studies Program,
Walter J. Schmitz Chair in Liturgical Studies
Catholic University of America

“We can be grateful for this new edition of a book which during the last decade has exercised increasing influence on answering with precision a fundamental question; namely, What is liturgical theology? Two new chapters achieve with even greater force what Fagerberg insists on throughout and from many different angles. He continually exhorts his reader to come to the most fundamental level of the question: liturgical theology is more basic than something which happens in the academy. Its roots lie in what God accomplishes in the liturgy for us, and theology is already underway in the action of prayer by which we seek to respond. Theology in the academy must proceed from here.”

—Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, OSB,
Mount Angel Seminary and Pontificio Ateneo Sant’ Anselmo, Rome

“Liturgical theology is not the task only of the clergy or of ‘professional’ theologians. It is the calling of all God’s people by virtue of their baptismal identity as members of Christ’s body, the Church. In this new edition, Fagerberg draws widely on eastern and western sources, both ancient and modern, to demonstrate that liturgy is theologia prima, the locus where Christians come to meet and to know God, where they are grafted onto the Tree of Life. Christians of all traditions will discover themselves in this book.”

—Paul Meyendorff,
Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology
St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

“Theologia Prima … is much more of an accessible and engaging read. It has a good many things to say about the fundamental relationship between liturgy and theology and indeed, between liturgy and life itself. Happily, the author bridges the gap very well between East and West in enabling both Eastern and Western liturgical theology to be in dialogue with one another to their mutual benefit. This is one of the book’s strongest recommendations.… This book is recommended to students in all disciplines of theology precisely because of the questions it raises both for worship and the pursuit of academic theology in an increasingly complex society.”

—Keith F. Pecklers, SJ,
Gregorianum

This supplement will be available soon.