Some think that liturgy is formal, public, and for ordinary people, while mysticism is uncontrollable, private, and for extraordinary saints. Is there a connection between the two? In this volume, David Fagerberg proposes that mysticism is the normal crowning of the Christian life, and the Christian life is liturgical.
We intuitively sense that liturgy and theology and mysticism have an affinity. Liturgical theology should reveal liturgy’s mystical heart. Liturgical theology asks “What happens in liturgy?” and liturgical mysticism asks “What happens to us in liturgy?”, and perfects our interior liturgy.
In Liturgical Mysticism, Fagerberg directs the reader to look fixedly at Christ, who is the Mystery present in liturgy, and who bestows his resurrection power upon his adopted children.
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David W. Fagerberg is Professor Emeritus of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He holds an M.Div. from Luther Northwestern Seminary; an M.A. from St. John’s University, Collegeville; an S.T.M. from Yale Divinity School; and a Ph.D. from Yale University. His work first explored how lex orandi is the foundation for lex credendi (Theologia Prima, 2003). To this he integrated the Orthodox understanding of asceticism as capacitating the liturgical person (On Liturgical Asceticism, 2013). He applied this to our liturgical life in the world (Consecrating the World, 2016) and then to our interior liturgical life (Liturgical Mysticism, 2019).
