Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

Append i x

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A Theology of the Christian Year, continued

Scripture, although there is a danger that the Old Testament in particular will be used for snippets to match the New. On the other hand, the individual books of the Bible have a greater chance of communicating their characteristic message when they are read more continuously. Mixed cases are found in, say, the semicontinuous reading of Isaiah in Advent, or of St. John, the Acts, and the Revelation in Eastertide. The many coincidences of lectionary patterns over time, space, and confessional boundaries bear witness to a remarkably common sense among Christians as to what Scriptures belong when, if the full range of redemptive history is to be commemorated, celebrated, and anticipated over a regularly recurring period (hitherto usually a year). In recent decades, various ecumenical efforts have been made to bring the various confessional practices into even greater harmony. In Britain, The Calendar and Lectionary (1967) of the semi-official Joint Liturgical Group, which spreads the readings over a two-year period, has exercised great influence on the official revisions of Anglican and Protestant churches. Unfortunately, this pioneering work has tended to isolate the British, since churches in other areas, particularly of the English-speaking world, have preferred to base themselves on the three-year Sunday and festive lectionary of the postconciliar Roman Catholic church (Lectionary for Mass, 1969). In particular, the pattern of “naming” the three years after the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke has proved popular. In some respects, however, the Roman lectionary has undergone adaptation in its reception by others. Thus the American Consultation on Common Texts, in order to avoid the sometimes strained typologies of the Roman Old Testament snippets, has attempted a more continuous reading of the Old Testament in each of the three years in the Sundays after Pentecost, with only a rough typological correspondence between the Penta teuch and Matthew, the Davidic narrative and Mark, and the prophets and Luke. Protestant preachers in many regions and denominations are increasingly finding it a boon to have the scriptural matter of their sermons “provided” for them through the use of a lectionary. If, as Karl Barth almost implied on a couple of occasions, one should