Why the Reformed Need to Look to Our Own Roots for the Seeds of Anti-Liturgical Worship

Zac HicksWorship Theology & Thought3 Comments

The history of the Reformed tradition of Christianity is beautiful and bizarre. When I was an outsider looking in (I didn’t grow up in the Reformed tradition), I thought the tradition’s historical map was a lot more straight-lined than it was. I did not realize that within a generation or two after John Calvin, Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger, and Thomas Cranmer (I consider all these names, in varying ways, influencers in the Reformed reformation), there would be such a divergence of expressions of Reformed Christianity.

A Broad Landscape

When it comes to worship, the landscape is broader many people think. Certain Reformed thinkers will sometimes claim that a specific expression (e.g. Psalms-only singing, highly liturgical, practicing weekly Communion, more low/free church expression) is the one true way of Reformed worship. I think this perspective lacks both generosity and honesty. Perhaps there’s still more of Calvin’s understanding of the Bible to unlock when it comes to worship, but the truth is that Calvin (the beachhead of the Reformed reformation) was either purposefully ambiguous or irretrievably silent on some issues. And it’s my perspective (not all will agree) that this ambiguity in Calvin is why we’ve got so many tributaries of worship practices streaming from sixteenth century Geneva.

The “Heart” in Puritan Christianity

One of those tributaries is the Puritan stream, whose headwaters sprung from England but certainly spilled over the Atlantic into the emerging United States. Some evangelicals don’t realize just how much Puritanism runs through our veins, whether we’re Reformed or not.

One of the Puritan distinctives was a strong spirituality of the heart. In reaction to what they perceived to be the heartless religious ritualism of the established church, they strove to shake off all unnecessary pomp and circumstance. Simplicity and sincerity, for them, were marks of true worship–heart-borne and heartfelt. When these sensibilities commingled with the newness and looseness of the American frontier’s westward religious expansion, we can see the seeds being sown for evangelicalism’s deep-seated suspicion of formalized liturgy and ritual in worship. This all comes together in worship historian Paul Westermeyer’s summation:

Heart religion, the part of the Puritan strain that did not want religion mediated by set forms, and the American frontier with no structured church life all pointed toward a future that would presumably avoid the marks of the church’s history, liturgy, and music.*

“Aha”

When I read this, I had an “aha” moment about my own Reformed tradition. For those of us in the Reformed tradition who value historic liturgy, we can sometimes get little cranky about other traditions that write it off or don’t take it very seriously. But the reality is, whether we appreciate it or not, we have our own tradition to thank (or blame). And, we need to be honest that at least some impulses of Calvin himself were the very seedlings that sprouted an anti-liturgical branch in the Reformed tree. Calvin was, after all, a theologian of the heart very much in the spirit of Augustine. You read in his Institutes an ongoing concern for empty religious practices that not only lack heart but almost deceive the practitioner as a kind of heart-substitute. You hear this, for instance, in his explanation of the cautions and joys of singing (Institutes 3.20.31).

The fact of the matter is that any liturgy (either the formal or the informal kind) will always carry in its DNA a kind of entropy. That means, left unchecked, our rituals will have the latent potential to downgrade into heartlessness because we are people who are always fighting the flesh. The Puritan strain of my Reformed heritage reminds me of this, and it also gives me a greater appreciation for and understanding of my fellow brothers and sisters who look at me funny when I get all excited talking about liturgy.

I am also reminded that liturgy must always be injected with heart and meaning by its liturgical leaders. Yes, even a rote liturgy has the power to shape, as James K. A. Smith has proven (even going through the motions is still formative), but do we really want to get there? Do we really want to get to a place where liturgy’s detractors observe so very little heart in liturgical practice that they feel forced to jettison the project altogether? The challenge of our Puritan forefathers and mothers stands before us.

*Paul Westermeyer, Te Deum: (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1998), 245.

3 Comments on “Why the Reformed Need to Look to Our Own Roots for the Seeds of Anti-Liturgical Worship”

  1. I love reading what you write and can't wait for the book. While I haven't studied this topic nearly as much as you have, I have some experience. I grew up in a heavily liturgical Protestant church. In my teens, I became a little disenchanted with the prayers and such. But then, when I was a little older and had been through some 'stuff' in life, that previously dry liturgy came to life for me. When I didn't know how to talk to God, I used those prayers and He showed me their meaning. That experience of saying old words but meaning them with a newly broken heart was invaluable to my Christian development. I am still deeply touched by God's unconditional love for me when I speak those old words.
    So long as the liturgy connects us to, rather than distancing us from, the Lord, do you think it's still worth it for us to keep some? Just a question from the lay child of a pastor.

  2. I think any well formed liturgy allows the worshiper/us to focus on the object of and content of our worship (the gospel, God's nature and trinitarian character…etc.). In other words, it gets out of the way of itself so people can be more impressed with Jesus than with the worship leader/s or the creativity of the liturgy (sometimes creativity can be a distractor). Whether that is with a highly ritualized or incredibly low and informal form, it us up to the worship leader to keep pointing to and be captivated by the Gospel. Great and thoughtful post, Mr. Hicks. Thank you!

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