Acting as One

Abstract

AbstractChapter 6 offers an account of participation in the life of the Church through the liturgies of gathered worship. The discussion is framed around Evelyn Underhill’s three modes of liturgical participation: joint action, representative action, and corporate silence. Expanding these three accounts of liturgical action, the chapter draws from recent work in analytic philosophy. On joint action, it considers how discussions of shared agency can help explain what it is to act jointly with another person in liturgy, say, in reading a liturgical script at the same time. The chapter proposes that one limitation of such accounts is that they cannot offer inclusive accounts of Church action which explain how all the Church’s members (including those with cognitive impairments and young children) contribute to the actions of the Church as a wider body. The chapter then considers how the application of the literature on group agency can explain the notion of representative action. Finally, it considers the nature of corporate silence in liturgy. Drawing from work in the philosophy of perception, the chapter argues that liturgical silence is not the same as absolute silence, but instead stands as a contrast to the other aspects of the liturgy. In the space which silence allows, our individual actions are united by the work of the Holy Spirit to form group actions, thus emphasizing the need for both liturgical action and leaving space for the uniting work of the Spirit in worship.