In the midst of this blog’s focus on Advent, properly I might say, and the liturgical year in general, which is the focus of the Catholic Church’s activities the year round, an interesting challenge of sorts comes from the blog  Inhabitatio Dei in the post “The Impotence of the Liturgical Year.” Halden Doerge is asking broad questions in the midst of Advent regarding the purpose and function of the liturgical year and calendar. Here is an excerpt:

“My point is simply this: liturgical enthusiasts claim that practicing liturgy (and the Christian year in particular) effects an empirical change on the faithfulness of the church in the world. It does something, we are told. And yet it doesn’t. And when asked about this inconsistency such enthusiasts give very scant answers. The fact is that, as far as I can see, the correlation between Christian faithfulness and liturgical observance doesn’t really exist in any meaningful way. There is rampant unfaithfulness in churches with the best and most uncorrupted liturgy and there is remarkable faithfulness and vitality in churches who have the most compromised and immaterial worship forms around. And vice versa. As such I see no reason to be persuaded that liturgy does what its enthusiasts claim.”

Read the entire post and the comments below, which represent a number of ecclesial traditions, and let me know what you think. As someone who entered the Catholic Church from a “low” liturgical tradition, the Mennonite Church, I have always found the liturgical year both comforting and spiritually grounding. I have relatives who complain of Easter and Christmas services in evangelical churches that focus neither on the biblical accounts of these great events or on issues related to them, who wait in vain for an Advent or Christmas hymn in December. Does not the Church become unmoored from its foundations without a liturgical tradition and its regular celebration? I think of the “O Antiphons” that Fr. Kilgallen has been blogging on during Advent. Each day we are brought closer to Christ’s arrival through these ancient traditions. Or is the argument of Doerge simply not to expect more from the liturgical year than this (re)orientation throughout the calandar year, that the liturgical year is not a magical formula for the Christian life?

Hat Tip to Ry Siggelkow who linked to this on Facebook. You can follow Ry at his blog Rain and the Rhinoceros.

John W. Martens

Follow me on Twitter @johnwmartens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.