Phenomenology of Low Liturgy: A Liturgical Theology of Information Worship Practices

Abstract

Phenomenology of Low Liturgy: A Liturgical Theology of Informal Worship Practices

Jesse D. Hill McMaster Divinity College Hamilton, Ontario Doctor of Philosophy (Christian Theology), 2026

This dissertation brings together liturgical theology, phenomenology, and low liturgy to argue that low liturgy is a form of worship with a profound depth of meaning for the individual and for the worshipping community in its experiential enactment of an embodied, intersubjective, and revelatory theology of encounter with God.

Across a wide range of denominations, many North American congregations choose to use contemporary music, informal language, and unscripted rites in their worship services. For many congregants, this way of worshipping holds a deep theological meaning, expressing the depth of their faith before God and before the church. Despite this depth of meaning, academic theology has generally struggled to make sense of this kind of low liturgy, due in part to its personal, subjective tendencies, its resistance to prescriptive rubrics, and its preference for pragmatism over tradition.

To address this oversight, this dissertation makes as case for low liturgy as a theological tradition and as a subjective experience. The first part of this dissertation deals with the historical development of low liturgy in relation to the historical development of the Liturgical Movement and liturgical theology, arguing that liturgical theology and low-liturgical practice are not as distant as they might seem. On the contrary, liturgical theology can help us to understand the meaning of low liturgy, and low liturgy can make new contributions to liturgical theology. The second part of the dissertation relates phenomenology to the study of low liturgy, arguing that the experience of low liturgy is itself meaningful. This involves developing methodological insights and perspectives from a range of notable phenomenologists and applying them to elements of low liturgy. This phenomenological analysis suggests that worship is a deeply personal and communal experience in which the worshipper is positioned as one among the congregation in the presence of God.

This dissertation makes three original contributions to the field of liturgical theology. The first is in the use of low liturgy as the topic of liturgical theological research. The second contribution is in the development of a phenomenological, experiential method for the study of liturgy. The third contribution is in the theology of liturgical encounter that results from this method when it is applied to low liturgy.