{"id":18993,"date":"2017-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=716"},"modified":"2017-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T00:00:00","slug":"calvin-liturgy-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/08\/calvin-liturgy-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Calvin, Liturgy, Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

J<\/span>ohn Calvin isn\u2019t the first theologian who comes to mind when thinking about either liturgy or art, much less the combination of the two. W.\u00a0David O. Taylor thinks that\u2019s unfortunate, and his recent Theater of God\u2019s Glory<\/em><\/a> is an effort to rehabilitate Calvin as a resource for liturgical theology. By attending to Calvin\u2019s Trinitarian theology of material creation, Taylor hopes to show that Calvin has something to contribute to contemporary discussions. At points, Taylor knows that he has to pit Calvin against Calvin, using what is best in Calvin to respond to Calvin\u2019s tendency toward suspicion of matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being a long-time admirer of Calvin, I\u2019m sympathetic with the general project, but I suspect that \u201cmaterial creation\u201d is too broad a theme. Calvin clearly believed that Christ can feed Himself to us through the material elements of bread and wine by the power of the Spirit. For Calvin, matter can<\/em> mediate the invisible Christ by the Spirit.<\/p>\n

The question for Calvin is one of authorization: Which<\/em> material elements has God promised to use to communicate Himself to us? I\u2019ve long thought that Calvin\u2019s treatise on relics is more central to his sacramental theology than has been credited, and the crux of that treatise isn\u2019t\u00a0a theology of matter but the question of where God has promised to be found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This point also raises questions about the category of \u201cliturgical arts.\u201d I found Taylor\u2019s use of the phrase rather vague, and I suspect that for Calvin the issue isn\u2019t only (perhaps not mainly) whether or not things are physical objects but whether or not God authorizes them for our use in worship.<\/p>\n

At various points in the book, Taylor highlights the question of the use of musical instruments, contrasting Bucer and Calvin:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whereas Bucer\u2019s typological reading of Israel\u2019s worship made room for instruments in Christian worship, Calvin\u2019s reading excluded them altogether. Where Bucer, appealing to the principle of simplicity, saw how they might provoke the believer to a \u201cmore fulsome praise of God,\u201d Calvin, likewise appealing to the need for simplicity, saw them as real distractions. His commendation of \u201crestrained\u201d singing appears to be at odds, we might add, to the kind of singing that the Psalter itself commends\u2014with its exhortations to shout, burst, revel, clap, and cry unto the Lord. And the fact that angels in heaven repeatedly blow trumpets fails to factor in Calvin\u2019s understanding of the eschatological dimension of worship. This view is in contrast, on the one hand, to Bucer, who believed that instrumental praise anticipated \u201cthe blessed festivities of the life to come,\u201d and, on the other, to Luther, who believed that music of heaven directly influenced the music of the church (31\u20132).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On this as on many other things, count me with Bucer.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Calvin isn\u2019t the first theologian who comes to mind when thinking about either liturgy or art, much less the combination of the two. W.\u00a0David O. Taylor thinks that\u2019s unfortunate, and his recent Theater of God\u2019s Glory is an effort to rehabilitate Calvin as a resource for liturgical theology. By attending to Calvin\u2019s Trinitarian theology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,104,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-calvin","category-liturgy","category-music"],"yoast_head":"\nCalvin, Liturgy, Art<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Calvin isn't the first theologian who comes to mind when thinking about either liturgy or art, much less the combination of the two. 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