Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

Ses s i on 3: Keep i ng the Rhy thm of the Sp i r i t 71

and to resort to their prayers, aid and help for obtaining benefits from God.”

b. They rejected as “irreligious and superstitious” many of the popular practices associated with many of the festivals of the Christian calendar.

c. Note: These objections were rooted in reaction to historical abuses, exaggerations, superstitions associated in the medieval practice of the calendar. This was totally unrelated to the ancient Church’s Christ-centered focus on celebrating the victory of Christ in real time!

5. Given their emphasis on purity of religion they sought to establish over against Catholic medieval practice, some Reformers rejected its use entirely.

6. Historical explanations for their rejection

a. Uncharitable, reactive posture over against Catholicism

b. No sense of common ground: Either/or dogmatism raged, leading in some cases to violence and war.

c. Inability to parse medieval extremism from early Church devotion

d. Complex intermixture of faith and political position

e. Extreme expression of Christian freedom that led to wholesale disconnect among Christians in spirituality and devotion