Engraved Upon the Heart: Children the Cognitively Challenged and Liturgy's Influence on Faith Formation

How does liturgy impact the formation of faith? The Protestant Church has traditionally emphasized human reason and doctrinal knowledge. But there is another method with great formative power--participation in liturgy. Human beings gain important knowledge not only through traditional cognitively focused learning but also through practice and participation. And because knowledge is wholistic an inability to express an idea in language does not necessarily signify an absence of knowledge. This book shows how liturgy transmits knowledge that transcends human reason. We repeat the liturgy in weekly public worship and its contents are inscribed on our minds and bodies. Contrary to common belief this is also true for children and cognitively challenged individuals. They may be unable to verbally express the contents of their faith in a way that satisfies normal adult expectations but these two groups of people are capable of rich religious experiences. This book explores how welcoming them into experience and practice of worship and sacrament can benefit children cognitively challenged church members their families and the church community as a whole and makes us all a more inclusive community in Christ. Moon ably demonstrates that we all come to Christian faith as children in Christ and as members of a covenant community. This theological foundation enables him to not only challenge the continuing separation of persons by age or cognitive ability into the separate worshiping communities so prominent in Korean and Korean-American congregations but also and more importantly to demonstrate the formative importance of the churchs worship and sacramental life as intergenerational events. --E. Byron Anderson Styberg Professor of Worship Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Evanston IL Pastors religious educators and scholars will appreciate Moons theological and practical reflections on how and why liturgical participation is beneficial for the faith formation of children and those with developmental challenges. Writing from a Reformed perspective he clearly ties Calvins teachings to contemporary theories of ritual performance and human development offering a clear and cogent argument for the full inclusion of all in the sacraments of the Church. --Karen-Marie Yust The Josiah P. and Anne Wilson Rowe Professor of Christian Education Union Presbyterian Seminary In Engraved Upon the Heart Moon advocates fuller participation in Christian worship of children and people who are cognitively challenged. Churches often underestimate how much worshiping helps people of all ages and abilities grow in faith not just cognitively but also through singing praying loving and sharing [in] baptisms and . . . communion. Moon offers not only critique but good practices of making participation more possible. I highly recommend this book. --Ruth Duck Professor of Worship Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Drawing upon liturgical theology ritual studies Calvins use of the liturgy in faith formation and new research into how children learn through participatory experience Moon has built up a powerful argument for fully including children and the cognitively challenged in worship and especially in the Lords Supper. . . . This book should be widely read by pastors and other religious professionals. It will challenge much current practice in Protestant congregations. --Frank C. Senn Retired Lutheran pastor and Adjunct Professor of Liturgy Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Evanston IL Hwarang Moon is a lecturer of worship at Kosin University and Korea Theological Seminary. He holds a PhD in Liturgical Studies from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and a ThM in Worship from Calvin Theological Seminary. He has published several articles in Doxology Christian Education Journal and Worship.