| Summary: | Rereading the opening question of the Westminster Catechism, "What is the chief end of man?", I contend in this essay that the act of invocation - giving God thanks, praise, and petitions - is the act in and through which human being itself is founded, constituted and achieved. I take important cues from Karl Barth's<E1>Church Dogmatics</E1>and<E1>The Christian Life</E1>, and from sociologist Erving Goffman's work on the shifting "footings" involved in everyday interactions. I argue for an account of the human being as a being-with-God, human acting as acting-with-God, and human salvation as a restoration to the genuine human partner's work - indeed, the true<E1>leitourgia</E1>- of thanks, praise and petition to God.
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