This work would not have been possible without the support I received from the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University and the Theology and Practice Fellowship Program. I am extremely grateful for the mentorship and advice I received from Professors John McClure and Dale Andrews.
Affect Theory
Donovan Schaefer's book, Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power, introduced me to affect theory.2 I found Schaefer's suggestion that religion might not be based on it. Historian Ruth Leys's recent book, The Ascent of Affect, offers one look at the emergence of modern affect theory and the general factions into which it is divided.
Historical Background: The Two Camps of Affect Theory
This anti-intentionality falls into the non-cognitivist camp of affect theory and can be traced back to the 1960s and the work of Silvan Tomkins. In her final chapter, Leys addresses contemporary interest in the study of affect.
Contemporary Affect Theory
Distinguishing between emotion and affect is like separating an egg white from an egg yolk. Emotion theorists who avoid the distinction between emotion and affect tend to do better at avoiding this trap).
Affect Theory and the Study of Religion
- Methods
The use of “energy” in the above definition and the exploration of the non-representational drew me to affect theory as a framework for studying preaching and worship. 37 Leon Anderson, “Analytic Autoethnography,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 35, no. in the group before I decided to study and analyze the group.
CMR and Reflexivity
- Limitations and Future Research
- Turning Toward Liturgy
Most members of the church rank in the upper class, with some in the top 1%. The experience of being "in the mainstream" is the concrete sensory experience of being literally aligned with a.
How Worship Feels: Mind and Body
By saying, "I'm not an emotional person," the man can convey that, as opposed to "emotional," he is a "reasonable" person. The statement "I'm not an emotional person, but that anthem made me cry," may imply this anthem and his behavioral response as unusual.
A Theory of Embodied Meaning
The first part of Johnson's thesis is relatively clear: mind and body are part of a whole system. Lakoff and Johnson's work, which predates Johnson's understanding of the body by many years, describes many metaphors by which we conceive of our bodily existence.
Juxtaposed and Beside
- How Worship Feels: Learning the Liturgy
Liturgical scholar Rebecca Spurrier also uses this concept to illuminate what happens in the liturgy of the church. Spurrier uses "next" to write about the art of the liturgy because she is interested in the possibilities that come about when we create space for people to come together in the liturgy. Throughout the book she talks about what can emerge when we make room for difference.
Subjects and Performances
We know by our actions and feelings whether, as Johnson theorizes, we give meaning to the body. Mark's because non-emotional worshiping communities that participate in highly programmed rituals tend to take the body for granted. We come to know ourselves as part of the whole Body of Christ.
Vibrant Matter
The table is not just a place and a moment that is isolated in the rubrics or practice of the church. Lutheran theologian Craig Nessan makes a similar argument for the reality of Christ's body. Finally, Nessan describes what he believes to be the character of the church as the body of Christ: the church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
How Worship Feels: Objects and Impressions
We sing the first verse of the hymn towards the altar (away from the congregation). In our judgment or evaluation of the object and emotion, we are drawn towards or away from the other. These criteria for belonging create a concrete boundary for who is in the community and who is on the outside of the community.
Emotional Display: Attachment and Detachment
I assume that the circulation of solemnity is entangled in the hierarchical structures of the church and the value of authority. Withholding an outward expression of emotion may be the result of wanting to suppress the emotion itself or another version of the disconnect between a felt emotion and the displayed emotion. Within the boundary, the way emotions are expressed or suppressed affects the feeling of the gathering, the felt relationship between members.
Actions and Reactions
According to Volf, worship is constituted by a "rhythm of both worship and action."131 This emotional response of worship comes as a result of meeting God who created people to be in communion with God and with others. In deep feelings of worship and gratitude, the worship meeting identifies with God and as the body of God. First, by aligning with God's character and purposes in worship one also aligns oneself with God's projects in the world.
Objects and Emotions
- How Worship Feels: Sensing Sound and Silence
At various points in the liturgy, individuals mark themselves with the sign of the cross. Christians in the early centuries would not have marked anyone with the sign of the cross. Because values shape behavior and behavior influences our encounters with others, emotions that circulate and attach to the cross influence felt relationships in community.
Liturgical Units and Deep Structures
Over time, liturgical science would recognize the importance of context and action in the study of liturgical communities. 143. I am doing an analysis of one unit of the set, a unit marked by ritual silence. I chose silence as an example of monitoring the felt atmosphere, because I think that ritual silence depends on the community.
Finding Meaning in the Silence
As words emerged from the depths of her body and her pain became visible, other women gathered around her and sat with her – in silence. Muers not only suggests that God be silent, she also suggests that humanity be invited to participate in keeping God's silence. In the silence we meet each other and are moved to respond to this meeting.
Finding Intimacy, Vulnerability, Expectancy, and Encounter
I suggest that what makes silence a rich (and sometimes disturbing) element of worship is that in silence, we allow space for feeling. She claims that leading worship is an act of pastoral care and that ritual plays an important role in caring for the needs of the worshiping community. In this chapter I have explored some of the key dynamics through which the group makes sense of itself socially, describing the ways in which emotions circulate within some of the sentiments.
How Worship Feels: Energy
When the procession begins, most people look at their bulletins, but as the song continues they seem to have lost interest in singing along. I wonder what impact the sermon or content has on the congregation and why and how they seem to be listening so intently.) Once again I sense a disconnect between the energy of the congregation and the clergy; the congregation does not respond with the enthusiasm or confidence that the leaders present.
What Does “Us” Feel Like?
And yet, if people do not actively participate in the liturgy (either because they do not want to or because they do not know how to do so), the flow of energy can become blocked or stuck. The lack of coherence makes it easy to dissipate energy both in space and when moving the assembly into the world. While Ahmed uses emotion and affect interchangeably, when I write about energy I lean more towards Massumi, who argues that affect lies entirely outside the realm of representation.
Worship as an Energized Sensate “Form”
Worship is one of the "thickly textured, magnetized worlds," which we occupy and through which we move. Our love, dislike or other affective response can be influenced by language, books and beliefs, but how do we know we are opposed to such representations, except for a feeling. Finally, there is a continuity to worship that extends beyond the measure constituted by the One, Holy, Apostolic Church.
A Liturgical Process Theology?
- How Worship Feels: Power
Suchocki compares the study of God – the nature of God – to the experience of looking through one. And power is also “a matter of the senses.”179 Worship, power, and affect have a circuitous and complex relationship. In all these cases, “power” means the harnessing of energy – the effective ability to attach (my) emotions to certain liturgical objects, silences, pieces of music, etc.
Eschatological Power
To participate in God is to know judgment and eternity in solidarity with all creation in God's justice.”185 If the Kingdom is social, and sociality is a central element in affect theory, then the Kingdom of God must have an affective dimension. Worship is repetition when the whole church is changed and prepared to take its part in God's drama of transforming life in this world.... Worship as repetition is an act of participation in the kingdom of God."188 This means that in worship we experience God and God's liberating power. The resumption of God's kingdom here on earth does not mean that we do not recognize our suffering and our challenges.
Liturgy as Eschatological Art
To speak and sing in such a language as to mean much more than can be said; Breaking bread together and feasting on more than we can imagine; To wash and be washed, body and feet, and thus belong to much more than the living empirical world; To sing and sound more than the ear can fully take in the majesty of creation; To bring all life to a place where it is held in the light of the One who knows us; To bring joy and heartbeat to the place of the commanded Word and sacramental action only to receive healing and greater hope than we can imagine: This is the transformative art of the choir.193. The Spirit flows through worship and enables the rituals to be "more than." God is always with us in the Spirit. God reveals himself to us "many times" when we are not involved in ritual behavior.
Good Worship
The first is the notion that good worship is about spirit and truth. In the words of Heidi Miller, “Good worship is a response to God's work in the world. Monro says, “The nature of good worship is determined neither by the value of the emotional experience produced nor by the experience of the production produced.
For Better or For Worse: Affect Influencing Worship Practices
Good worship avoids mind-body dualism and recognizes the important role the body
Taking time to notice, express, and respond to our bodily experiences in worship creates meaning in ways that help us behave and speak more like the body of Christ so that we can impact the world around us in ways that reflect the Kingdom of God by behaving in a way that results in the inclusion and well-being of all people. In this method of learning, children play church - they engage with miniature replicas of things found in the sanctuary - and through this game, they learn something about God in their bodies. If the attitude is penitential, kneeling could signal or communicate our unworthiness in the presence of God or priestly authority.
Good worship considers “things” as actants
Or, how can affect be used to connect the two objects, so that we see the sacrificial image of the cross in light of the abundance and love of the table. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:1-5; . NRSV). The people who need light in the dark feel the warmth of the nostalgia.
Good worship pays attention to the relationships between things, one “beside” another
Good worship gives people the opportunity to practice relating to others, a skill that can be used outside the walls of the church building - the body of Christ in the world. Good worship takes care of the relationships in the body and the relationship of the whole body to the world. Their energy will interact with the energy of the music, other people and the liturgy.
Good worship understands that affect is powerful and persuasive
In harmony with God, we seek to create something new and to be responsive to the human condition. When we use affect to persuade, we do so in the creative service of God. In the study of emotion, rhetoric and preaching, Frank says she began to take an interest in what it means to feel Christian.
Good worship is continuous and eschatological
In the same way He also took the cup after the meal and said: This cup is the new testament in my blood. In the same way he also took the cup after the meal and said: This cup is the new testament in my blood; If you drink it together, remember me." The presence of his body and the energy in his veins lives on in the relationships of those who share bread and cup together.
Good worship is experiential
- Imagining post-pandemic, good worship
Before the sound of the organ disappears into the rafters, the people stand for the opening hymn. People get carried away in experiences, so much so that when the priest says, “Alleluia, Christ is risen,” the people respond with appropriate energy and tone, “The Lord is indeed risen. This contrasts with the Gospel reading in which a single voice tells us that Jesus came and stood among his disciples and said, “Peace be with you.” The sermon helps unravel the experience and contrast and serves as a bridge between the Word and the table.
