Eternity Today, Vol. 1: On the Liturgical Year: On God and Time, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Candlemas

by Martin Connell

According to Dom Gregory Dix, the basic shape of the Christian liturgy has remained the same "ever since thirteen men met for supper in an upper room at Jerusalem" some two thousand years ago. According to Martin Connell, the same cannot be said for the liturgical year. The Triduum, or three days of Easter, only emerged in the fourth century. So, too, did Christmas. Earlier, Epiphany was the birthday of the Savior. Although a pre-Easter fast of variable length was observed since earliest times, the precise Forty Day span only appeared, once again, in the fourth century. And that foundational fourth century also saw the beginnings of the observance of Advent, which actually took centuries to catch on. As Connell demonstrates in this fascinating book, the varieties of Christian observance emerged in local communities stretching from Gaul to India and were often born in the struggles that were define orthodoxy and heresy.


Eternity Today is a vade mecum for anyone who wishes to observe the liturgical year with intelligent devotion. Throughout, Connell aims to recover the theology and spirituality of the Christian year. As an aid to reflection, he incorporates numerous selections of contemporary poetry, thereby demonstrating how secular poets can often hit upon a point that finds its echo in Christian life and ritual.


Eternity The Liturgical Year, Volume 1 covers Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Candlemas, and Ordinary Time.

Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[Michael Poteet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Connell's comprehensive history of the liturgical year is just the kind of book I've long been wanting. He not only explains how and why the shape of the Christian calendar came to be as it is (he is Roman Catholic, but the trajectory of the year will be familiar to any liturgical Christian church), but also offers lovely expositions of what it all means and why it all matters.

I've been "reading along" since Advent, and have been very impressed. For example, his examination of how Christians have allowed Christmas to be basically domesticated as only a festival of the family, losing much of the social reversal character it once had, he lends a lot of support to those who've argued that we should keep Christ, not in, but out of "Christmas" as our culture knows it.

There are also brief passages that you could spend days contemplating -- for example, this brief word about third-century patristic reflection on why Jesus was baptized: "The fathers of the church will explain the enigma they faced in explaining why the Savior underwent baptism [i.e., of repentance, for forgiveness], and they did so by offering the event as a chance for the Savior to sanctify the waters of the world: not that he needed anything from the rite performed at the hand of [John] the Baptist, but that the world itself needed the sanctification occasioned as his body touched the waters of the Jordan River." (p. 154)

As mentioned, Connell writes as a Catholic; but he is ready to draw from other Christian traditions when he finds things of value. I was especially pleased to see the Advent wreath liturgy from the current PC(USA) Book of Common Worship commended to the reader. He also lifts up the Salvation Army as perhaps the one branch of the Christian family that still "gets" the social face of a really Christian Christmas.

Connell's two volume work is meant as a seminary text, but it isn't dry or inaccessible. He illustrates his points throughout with lively illustrations from literature and even cinema; and his history would help many Christians, including many Protestants, appreciate the church year, not as an end in itself -- which it must never be, lest it become an idol -- but as a means by which we may more fully enter into the life of Christ, year by year, day by day, season by season, until he comes again. Very recommended.