In the course of my undergraduate studies I was introduced to the very refreshing New Testament scholar, C. H. Dodd. Since then I’ve collected and read most of his works. In fact, searching his name at Rekindle turns up—a little to my surprise even—over 10 hits, most of them interactions with Dodd’s Founder of Christianity. While many of those articles could be categorised under New Testament studies, this article is more concerned with ecclesiology, particularly corporate Christian worship.

In his introduction The Founder of Christianity, Dodd puts “the time-machine into reverse” in an “attempt to trace” both “the place which the church has held in history” together with the epicentre of its continued significance. As Dodd says, any serious consideration of the church in our own time must examine how it arose. In order to accomplish this, he works backwards through time, stopping at the Reformation and Rome, before finally arriving at the first century believers. “If we want to get an inside view of the Christian movement,” Dodd notes, “the natural course is to go into the church—any church. What are these people doing?” How do they worship?

Dodd’s reasoning is that worship reveals much about one’s beliefs and theology. If worship of God is the church’s “special business,” as Dodd writes, unless we understand it “we are not likely to grasp the nature or the history of the church.” This isn’t a remarkable or particularly novel observation. However, what I did find remarkable is just how much contemporary worship is unlike Dodd’s historical sketch of Christian worship.

The Historical Riches of Corporate Worship

Dodd begins with a caveat. “Their ways of worship vary a good deal.” However, he’s quick to add, “in any church you may enter you will find that certain things always form part of it,” some of which will be familiar to contemporary churchgoers. “They all make use of some form of words, spoken or sung, which express belief in God. They praise God for his goodness and power, and thank him for all good things of life, because they believe him to be the Maker of all things, visible and invisible.” This includes things like a call to worship, singing, and reciting the creeds together—among other things. Sadly, as I’ve said on many occasions, the extent to which a lot of contemporary worship uses words can be boiled down to a professional worship set and Bible talk. Historically, as Dodd notes, corporate worship was far richer.

“Thinking of his goodness,” Dodd goes on, “and of all that seems to deny that goodness, [Christians] confess their own misdeeds, follies and weaknesses, ask for and accept forgiveness and offer themselves to his service.” Historically, the church has committed itself to confessing sin together, to public repentance, which should always entail the wonderful reassurance of God’s grace. Again, I reckon it’s fair to say corporate confession has fallen on hard times, something we have the seeker-sensitive church movement to thank for—in part. Today the priority in worship is making it more palatable, exciting and ‘expressive.’

Next Dodd considers corporate prayer, or what we might call prayers of petition and to which I’d add the pastoral prayer. Turning from God’s incomparable goodness he adds, “since God is the source of all good, they ask him for things desirable and necessary for themselves and for other people.” Fortunately, prayer still finds a place in most contemporary worship. Regrettably, it’s often relegated to before/after the worship set/Bible talk.

Only then does Dodd arrive at Bible reading. Yet he doesn’t hurriedly add preaching, as many would. Instead he pauses on the public reading of Scripture, which however curious to the outsider Dodd says is a characteristic feature of Christian worship; a fitting element in worship among those who believe “the being and attributes of God are set forth in many different aspects and the moral law is declared,” when the Bible is read. The Scriptures recount how “God was at work among men” in the past—and most would insist it’s how he continues to work in his church today. If the Bible doesn’t make a considerable appearance in your corporate worship, it could hardly be called Christian. Throughout the ages, the church has been committed to listening to God’s words, the inspired Scriptures.

Dodd’s sketch undoubtedly makes uncomfortable reading for some—perhaps many. For corporate worship in many corners of the contemporary church could be summed up as singing and sermon, with a smattering of prayer. Long gone are many of the elements that made it distinctly, as well as historically, Christian. But Dodd’s final observation concerning corporate worship historically is arguably the most damning. It’s that we’ll now turn.

The Historical Centre of Christian Worship

Dodd writes, “Among the services of the church there is one element in particular which in different forms is observed by all kinds of Christian societies. It is variously known as the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, or the Mass. Under all its different forms we can recognise features of the Sunday assembly of Christians” dating back to the first century. “As then, so now,” he continues, “the assembly of Christians is centred on a communal meal—reduced now to its simplest elements of bread and wine. About that central act cluster most of the elements of Christian worship which we have briefly noted.”

Though I can’t speak for Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox worship services, experience tells me that swathes of my own Protestant tradition is worlds apart from Dodd—as well as the universal Church—at this point. Worship used to centre “on a communal meal,” an act around which all the other elements clustered. And before you throw a copy of Calvin’s Institutes at me, take note that the magisterial Reformer used markedly similar language (see 4.17.2-3, for example). Sadly communion among self-professed Reformed churches in the 21st century receives short thrift, probably because it’s inconvenient and possibly because it’s too boring. Whatever the reason, it’s no exaggeration to say the contemporary worship has relegated communion from the centre to the margins, from a place of honour and esteem to an infrequent supplement.

Let’s come back to Dodd and conclude this far too lengthy reflection. “When these words are spoken,” what are called the Words of Institution (1 Corinthians 11:24-25), “it is understood that the whole service is placed within the context of what Jesus said, did, and suffered on the occasion referred to, and is to be understood on that basis.” This act, Dodd goes on, isn’t only the “central act of Christian worship” but also “expresses all that Christianity is” more than any other element in wortship. So “the church—every gathering of the church, everywhere, under every form—remembers” in this way. Well, it used to.

“For nineteen centuries there has not been one single week in which this act of remembrance was not made, one generation reminding another.” In retrospect, Dodd’s words at this point are somewhat prophetic, if we adjust them only slightly: for nineteen centuries there had not been one single week in which this act of remembrance was not made. I just hope we have good reasons for doing otherwise.