Liturgy of the Ordinary

Starred review from November 7, 2016
In her debut, Anglican priest Warren shows readers how to turn the mundane and often frustrating aspects of daily life into a reflection on the sacred. Working her way through a typical day—her morning routine, busywork such as checking email, fights with her spouse—Warren seamlessly blends together lived realities with theological reflections. Her writing is lyrical and often humorous, and she has a gift for making theological concepts seem easy to understand and (perhaps most importantly) easy to live. Her struggles with coming to terms with the banality of daily life are instantly relatable; for example, she frets that she spends most days doing dishes instead of leading a revolution, or changing diapers instead of ministering to the poor in some far-off region of the world. But she reminds readers that while they “can get drunk on talk of justification, ecclesiology, pneumatology, Christology, and eschatology... these big ideas are borne out—lived, believed, and enfleshed—in the small moments of our day, in the places, seasons, homes, and communities that compose our lives.” Accompanying questions for reflection or discussion will help readers further flesh out how to incorporate the sacred into their own daily lives.