Summary

Performing a Counter World: the Alternative Reality Offered by the Psalms for the Worlds We Inhabit is a plenary address presented by Walter Brueggemann at the 2012 Calvin Symposium on Worship.

Listen Online

Details

Walter Brueggemann's plenary address, Performing a Counter World: the Alternative Reality Offered by the Psalms for the Worlds We Inhabit explores the theme of the Psalms in Christian worship from an Old Testament perspective. In 2014, he published a book about the Psalms called From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms.

At the same Symposium, Tom (N.T.) Wright presented a plenary address called Praying the Psalms: Personal, Pastoral, Theological and Liturgical Reflections. Listen to his address about the New Testament perspective on the use of Psalms in Christian worship.

Recent Media Resources

Public Worship, Wealth, and Poverty in Early Christianity 

Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity engaged topics related to wealth and poverty in their preaching, public prayers, offerings, celebrations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the shaping of buildings and spaces for Christian worship. 

August 27, 2025 | 1 min video
A Snapshot of Illness, Pain, and Healing in Early Christianity

How did early Christians understand their illness and pain in their Greco-Roman context?

August 27, 2025 | 1 min video
Contextual Stories from Hispanic Worshiping Communities

Pastors of three Hispanic churches will share what they learned from experiences implementing congregational projects related to the development of new understandings and practices of worship and preaching.

August 27, 2025 | 1 min video