Kyrkbänksteologi : En studie av gudstjänstfirares liturgiska praktikers teologi

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to explore the theology of worshippers’ liturgical practices and to answer how theology appears in and through the worshippers’ liturgical practices. The studied phenomenon is theology in the liturgical life. This is researched through a case study where the unit of analysis is the theology of the worshippers’ liturgical practices. The empirical material is generated through methods inspired by ethnography: a field study with participant observations, and interviews. The abductive analysis is carried out in four steps with two types of theoretical resources: practice theories, and theological theories. With a strong concept of practice, I identify eleven liturgical practices: to sit, to listen, to receive, to give, to create community, to gather, to pray, to sing hymns, to read the Bible, and to confess. By using Natalie Wigg-Stevenson ́s and Christian Scharen ́s theological interpretation of practice theory, I show how theology appears as bodily knowledge that is incarnated by the worshippers and passed on to other worshippers. By showing what it is to be habituated as a worshipper, I reveal how agency varies and affects the worshippers. I show through the analysis how the worshippers conceive God as an agent whom they direct their practices toward. In that way it is possible to understand the liturgical practices as the worshippers’ ways of relating to God, whom they have gotten to know through those same practices. Therefore, I argue that theology is both embedded in and expressed through the liturgical practices. Using the “four voices of theology”, inspired by the ARCS-team’s (Helen Cameron, Deborah Bhatti, Catherine Duce, James Sweeney, and Clare Watkins) methodological framework, I then study how the aspect of language in theology relates to the liturgical practices. Various theological voices are identified. The analysis shows how the articulation of theology is characterized by polyphony and that the worshippers can, at least in part, articulate the theology of the liturgical practices. I argue that it is possible for the theology of liturgical practices to be articulated into spoken language by the sayings of worshippers. With the help from theories about theological wisdom, borrowed from the theologian Paul S. Fiddes and others, I highlight how theology emerge when the worshippers articulate their experiences of liturgical practices. The analysis, using phronesis, sofia, and hokmah, shows how the worshippers know God through the liturgical practices. The worshippers experience theology in and through the liturgical practices and can, at least in part, articulate it. Hence, I argue that there is a dynamic relationship between the personal and communal concerning the body and language as aspects of theology. This relates to the theology in the liturgical life. Thus, I discuss how the theology of the worshippers’ liturgical practices is in motion wherever worshippers engage in practices. The theology is relational by being created in the common social field where the meaning of worship is shared. I also discuss how the theology is lived by the worshippers, in the liturgy and with a God whom they know as a living God.