Karin Maag’s Worshiping with the Reformers has the ambitious and laudable task of seeking to explain how the Reformers and their followers worshiped on Sunday. A companion volume to InterVarsity Press’ Reformation Commentary on Scripture, Maag aims to provide an understanding of the worship practices of the early-modern era and to give the background to their present-day churches.
Maag’s work is an introductory guide to the theology surrounding church attendance for the major groups of the Reformation. In seeking to understand the worship lives of the Reformers, Maag narrows her study to five groups: Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Reformed, and Anabaptists. The book covers the range of experiences of going to church: the service, the music, the sermon, and the sacraments/ordinances of Baptism and Communion. Worshiping with the Reformers serves as an excellent primer for those interested generally in the Reformation, providing a list of works for further reading at the end of each chapter. The book also provides historical context to the world of Reformation worship, supplementing the overview with vignettes from church experiences and evidence from liturgical books for the rationale behind certain practices. Such examples range from the reasoning and debates behind the liturgical versus extemporaneous prayer language of The Book of Common Prayer to the meaning of communion and how often it should be taken.
The potential audience for Maag’s text is broad. It will help both the clergy and laity think deeply about the worship practices of their own tradition, as well as introduce those less familiar with their faith to the origins and history of its long-standing practices. Maag’s work is a testament to achieving the proper balance between the audience of knowledgeable readers and those merely interested in the topic. The chapters often begin with a vignette or outline of why the contents of the chapter were a divisive topic during the Reformation. Throughout the book, Maag asks questions of interest to parishioners in the past and present such as what happened to those who did not attend church on Sunday, how did pastors chose the text of their sermons, and what role should the average-church goer have in singing or participating in the service (9, 58, 172). Through asking these questions, Maag brings the early modern world closer to home, showing people’s staunch readiness to defend what they saw as the right and proper worship of God.
Worshiping with the Reformers provides a solid background to the theological debates surrounding the services and functions of the church, particularly baptism and communion. Of particular note is the layout of chapter 5, on baptism. The author asks guiding questions in the subheadings, such as “Why Baptize”and “Who Could Baptize,” and also highlights concerns about the practice, such as “Where were their mothers?” Chapter 5 best exemplifies the book’s ability to reach both lay and academic audiences, answering concerns, and providing clarification on the often-disparate understandings of the theological Reformation landscape from each tradition’s history (and according to their own justifications for their worship practice). Given the diverse audience of the text, the reviewer wishes the rest of the chapters were set up in this accessible format.
Worshiping with the Reformers is a worthwhile introduction to the world of the Reformation organized around what many of the Reformation debates were about: the Sunday church experience. Having a masterful grasp of the nuances of each tradition, Worshiping with the Reformers also serves as an exceptional primer for those interested in the theology of the Reformation. The work is not an exhaustive overview of the beliefs of the traditions, nor does it claim to be. What it does it does very well: provide a foundational framework for understanding the worship life of the church through the experiences and explanations of five traditions. The text is as well suited to serve as a textbook for an undergraduate classroom as it is to serve as a resource for the clergy or reader who wants to learn about the history and context of what it was like sitting, standing, kneeling, worshiping, and praying in a 16th-century Reformation church.
Tanner Moore is a visiting assistant professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College.
Tanner J. Moore
Date Of Review:
September 26, 2023
