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Beyond Smells & Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Galli
Publisher: Paraclete Press (MA)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 159113
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 142
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.4
ISBN: 1557255210
Dewey Decimal Number: 264
EAN: 9781557255211
ASIN: 1557255210
Publication Date: April 30, 2008
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Liturgy lures us through our senses, grounds us in a great tradition, and plants us in the midst of a diverse community, present and past. From our beginnings, Americans have tried on various religions, rituals, and philosophies in the quest for a unique and personal spirituality. But recently, we have seen a quiet and steadily growing fascination with orthodoxy, tradition, and the lasting rituals of the Christian faith. Are you attracted to liturgy but don't know why? Are you wondering about committing yourselves to a liturgical tradition? Are you immersed in liturgy and want to grasp its deeper significance? Beyond Smells and Bells answers these questions and more: It explains how liturgy not only broadens our understanding but also shapes our very lives. In today's individualistic culture, we need liturgy to establish us in community. In a culture that values spontaneity, liturgy grounds us in something enduring. In a culture that assumes truth is a product of the mind, liturgy helps us experience truth in both mind and body. In a world demanding instant gratification and immediate relevance, liturgy gives us patience to perceive a deeper relevance and joy that the larger culture can hardly perceive. In Mark Galli's able telling, liturgy is an intriguing story, full of mystery, that transforms us in body, mind, and spirit.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Putting your toe in the church again June 30, 2008
This is a good book for new or returning Christians to a liturgical tradition. Despite the title, it isn't about what happens in church, the liturgy, rather it invites the reader to reflect on the true meaning of worship.
 Liturgy Impresses, the Personality of Christ Upon Us June 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mark Galli goes beyond the externals of liturgy, which in themselves are impressive, to the heart of the reason for liturgy. In the continued worship style debates contemporary worship is seen as being a genuine expression of "our" feelings toward God, however Galli brings out that the primary purpose of the church's heritage of 2000 years of worship was to impress the Personality of Christ upon us. And secondly, through the liturgy, the Holy Spirit brings us not only communion with Christ, but forms us into a body with others. Whereas, contemporary worship's focus is on self expression, the "I" is center, and frames the picture in modern faddish terms and music that are here today and maybe gone tomorrow. Liturgy frames our picture in biblical and early Christian Church forms of expression. In liturgy we join the communion of saints of all ages in the eternal song of God's love for mankind. A good book for those that find themselves attracted to the liturgical route of the Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodoxy and don't know why. This book takes us beyond the ponderous and the repetitious first impression of the liturgical service to the Spirit that animates it.
Outstanding June 2, 2008
Beyond Bells and Smells is a breath of fresh air. As pastor of a very liturgical Presbyterian congregation I welcomed this book with much enthusiasm. Indeed, when a person leaves a liturgical service they are never, ever the same.
I am sharing this book with a number of my friends.Mark Galli has done us all a great favor.
Old is New Again May 31, 2008
In this well-crafted and insightful book, Mark Galli likens the Liturgy to the Garden of Eden -- it was a place where Adam and Eve could enjoy remarkable intimacy and beauty with God, but it was also a place where they could hide from him -- so to the Liturgy.
Thanks to Galli's passion for unpacking the ancient movement of the Liturgy, I know that my own worship experience will be enriched. Galli blows the dust off of prayers and rituals that could easily become dull rote recitations. By exposing the way that the Liturgy offers us incarnational moments with Christ, inviting us into holy time (where past, present and future are united), Galli invites the reader to engage with the deep mysteries of the liturgical experience.
I recommend this book to people who are unfamiliar with liturgical churches, those who are experiencing a desire to return to the Liturgy, or those who have been faithful church goers but don't understand much about why they stand, sit, kneel, and pray the way they do.
 How the liturgy transforms us May 21, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am a recent convert to the liturgy (from Bible churches to an Anglican church) and found this book insightful and provocative. Rather than a practical guide to the liturgy (there are plenty of those out there, with titles like "Why do Catholics do what they do?"), Galli explores ways that God uses the liturgy to transform our minds, bodies, and spirits, as we participate in it with other believers over time.
The subject matter is deep and philosophical by nature, but Galli presents it in an engaging style that is easy to follow and leaves room for one's own continued reflection on the ideas. I have found myself thinking about things he wrote even weeks after finishing the book, as I read, pray, think, and worship. It has helped me enjoy the liturgy more as well, as I think about the ways it is counter-cultural, counter-intuitive, and transformative each week.
One of my favorite things about the book is Galli's willingness to be honest about himself - from spiritual struggles ("To be honest, I do not want to love God perfectly . . . I need a break from God every now and then") to his relationship with his wife ("I was infatuated with this woman because I was fascinated with me. I imagined [my wife] was a version of me with whom I could have guilt-free sex"). In a book whose subject matter could become purely academic, he makes it clear that the liturgy is, for him, a very real and deeply personal matter. I found this encouraging, not only because I saw myself in many of his examples, but also because it demonstrated how the liturgy can also be so deeply personal for me, helping me encounter God with such honesty myself.
My favorite chapter was 12, "Living in the Trinity: How the Liturgy Changes Us at the Very Core of Our Being." Galli explores how the liturgy draws us into the union of the Trinity and community with others. The liturgy helps make real for us the truth that we are "partakers of the divine nature." I found this chapter to be the most thought-provoking. He also explores the issue of "relevance" that is often so prized by churches, in a way that is compelling and gracious. Overall, a quick read that leaves a lot to chew on.
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