On Table Manners and Worship, 1

Warning: the moralizations and gross speculations of a shade tree theologian follow (unfortunately we don’t get much sun in the UK, and thus we don’t get a whole lot tree shade either… what this means for what follows I’ll leave for the reader to figure out)

I want to suggest that table manners, can become genuine instances of and opportunities for Christian worship.

One argument that I’ve dreamed up roughly runs this way

1. Table manners are ascriptions to the worthiness of mankind (another way of saying this is that they are expressions of human dignity)

2. To ascribe worth to something is to say, in whatever measure, that it is beautiful or good or both.

3. Christians believe that beauty and goodness are qualities rooted in the character of God. They are not free-floating concepts with an existence all their own nor are they merely linguistic tags identifying human feelings about things. It is possible to speak of a thing’s beauty and be more or less right or wrong in saying so. ya ya… a controversial statement but read C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man.

4. Christians believe that God’s goodness and beauty are expressed in his creation. Beauty and goodness in creation are derivative of God’s beauty and goodness.

5. To express the worth of something (its beauty and/or goodness) in creation is to express appreciation of God’s worth – even if indirectly, or unintentionally – who has made it so.

6. Worship is essentially proclaiming the worth or worthiness of something. The word ‘worship’ is a shortened form of the word ‘worthship.’

THUS!> The practicing of table manners can be a means to worship God. HA!

I’ll try and unpack this a little more in my next installment.