Joan Chittister, The Liturgical Year: the spiraling adventure of the spiritual life
I chose to review this book because being a Protestant I am uninformed about the liturgical year, feast, cycles, etc. Every year I focus in on the Advent Season and Easter but have yet to get into the liturgical cycle. To begin with, the outline of the book is great in that each chapter is short enough but informative enough to get a picture of things such as advent, liturgical time, and calendars. Secondly, the chapters written by Dr. Chittister are succinct and yet many times spiritually profound. At one point in the book she is talking about heroes and models when she says, “No theological treatise is any kind of substitute for the sight of a life well lived” (193). In my reading, this is an exact reflection of what Francis Schaeffer once said. It is these kind of reflections that are worth the reading of this book. Another great thing about reading this book is that Joan lays a historical foundation surrounding issues regarding the reason why Sunday is the day of worship for Christians (relating the Greco-Roman and Jewish cultures in which Christianity grew up in).
I found Ms. Chittister’s discussion of the three comings of Advent very stimulating. Generally, I think I’ve been taught to think of advent as the coming of Jesus, God sending his Son to be born by a virgin. This is certainly true and yet there is another aspect of Advent that I have not focused in upon. This coming is the second coming of the Son of God. Joan writes, “Then the reign of God for which we strive with every breath will come in all its fullness” (65). Bringing to bear an eschatological dimension to Advent allows us to appreciate the work that God has done in our midst and the work he still has to do.
Overall, I found this book to be stimulating to the mind and spiritually profound. I don’t agree with all her conclusions theologically, but I appreciate her winsome style and grounding of things in the Scripture and tradition. If you want to find out more about the liturgical year, the history of things like Advent, or are just interested in liturgical cycles, this would be a great start.
I chose to review this book because being a Protestant I am uninformed about the liturgical year, feast, cycles, etc. Every year I focus in on the Advent Season and Easter but have yet to get into the liturgical cycle. To begin with, the outline of the book is great in that each chapter is short enough but informative enough to get a picture of things such as advent, liturgical time, and calendars. Secondly, the chapters written by Dr. Chittister are succinct and yet many times spiritually profound. At one point in the book she is talking about heroes and models when she says, “No theological treatise is any kind of substitute for the sight of a life well lived” (193). In my reading, this is an exact reflection of what Francis Schaeffer once said. It is these kind of reflections that are worth the reading of this book. Another great thing about reading this book is that Joan lays a historical foundation surrounding issues regarding the reason why Sunday is the day of worship for Christians (relating the Greco-Roman and Jewish cultures in which Christianity grew up in).
I found Ms. Chittister’s discussion of the three comings of Advent very stimulating. Generally, I think I’ve been taught to think of advent as the coming of Jesus, God sending his Son to be born by a virgin. This is certainly true and yet there is another aspect of Advent that I have not focused in upon. This coming is the second coming of the Son of God. Joan writes, “Then the reign of God for which we strive with every breath will come in all its fullness” (65). Bringing to bear an eschatological dimension to Advent allows us to appreciate the work that God has done in our midst and the work he still has to do.
Overall, I found this book to be stimulating to the mind and spiritually profound. I don’t agree with all her conclusions theologically, but I appreciate her winsome style and grounding of things in the Scripture and tradition. If you want to find out more about the liturgical year, the history of things like Advent, or are just interested in liturgical cycles, this would be a great start.
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