To Lent or not to Lent

Jim West has composed some anti-Lent screeds that sound like they've been preserved in amber since 1525 and contain all the snark of the contemporary blogosphere. Quite a rhetorical feat.

A question about Lent is really a question about how Christians sanctify time. A big difference between early Christians and pagans (both Romans and barbarians) was how each marked time. Pagans believed that time was cyclical, and religion's task was to appease the gods in order to make the endless cycle of death and rebirth run as smooth as possible. But Christians believed that time was linear. History is hurtling toward an End, a final judgment, and the judge has already appeared in history.

As pagans converted, the pagan way of reckoning time got Christianized. The liturgical year repeated itself in cyclical fashion, but the holidays within it commemorated the once-and-for-all events of Jesus's life, death and resurrection that were driving history toward its conclusion.

One way to think about the Reformers' abolition of the liturgical year (including Lent) is to say that they were completing the Christianization of Europe by adopting a completely linear liturgy. Think Puritan worship in particular: no recurring liturgical seasons (not even Christmas!) and preaching straight through books of the Bible.

(This is not an original idea; I owe it to Scott Hendrix's book Recultivating the Vineyard. It maintains that the Reformation was not about dividing the Church into Confessional bodies based on doctrinal differences; it was an across the board push to extirpate the remnants of paganism in Europe, and the splintering of Christendom was an unintended consequence).

Besides, the Puritans reasoned, life itself was penitential enough: the untimely death of a spouse or a child, a drought, shipwreck, religious persecution, war, old age. Under the sign of the cross, they rode the peaks and troughs of time toward eternity, without saddling themselves with extra ritualized penitential seasons.

Now that worked in a thoroughly Christianized milieu. But does it work so well in a secular society? Today's "low" liturgical churches often observe a crypto-pagan liturgical year. I say crypto-pagan because their high holy days include Mother's Day (fertility), Independence Day (war) and Thanksgiving (fecundity). And nothing says pagan like sacred fertility, killing and feasting. Michael Westmoreland-White makes a good point in the comment thread at West's blog: Today Lent is a useful tool for maintaining a Christian identity in a post-Christian context.

West's post is proof that theologians need historians. It's also a poster child for Paul Tillich's complaint that scholastic Protestants mistake the past for the eternal.

Now if West can mark time in a Christian way without the use of Lent, then more power to him. I think that to Lent or not to Lent is what the Lutherans deemed adiophora, a matter of indifference. But if West wants to mock those who observe the discipline, he needs thicker skin. West's complaints about hate mail after penning such a snarky post really beg for somebody to say to him, "Don't dish it out if you can't take it."

One last point: West saying that Lent is a way to compartmentalize repentance is really a distortion of what the season is about. After all, Benedict's advice to the monks under his Rule was to make their lives a perpetual Lent. I believe that most who observe the discipline accept Lent in a similar spirit. Even if there are those who don't, the occasional abuse doesn't rule out proper use.

Comments

[Michael Westmoreland-White]

I had been one of those from low church backgrounds who blogged on the goodness of Lent on my blog, Pilgrim Pathways. (http://pilgrimpathways.wordpress.com ), so I was probably one of those that Jim called "lentians" and pretended were legalists, ritualists, and crypto-idolaters.

[Lee]

As usual, Lutherans get it about right. ;)

[David Henson]

That is just terrific, particularly this part:

Now that worked in a thoroughly Christianized milieu. But does it work so well in a secular society? Today's "low" liturgical churches often observe a crypto-pagan liturgical year. I say crypto-pagan because their high holy days include Mother's Day (fertility), Independence Day (war) and Thanksgiving (fecundity). And nothing says pagan like sacred fertility, killing and feasting.

Loved, loved it.

[Steve Hayes]

Don't forget Valentine's Day! It just happened to fall on Forgiveness Sunday this year, the start of Lent.

[straight]

The best response to this controversy (and one of my favorite things about Lent is that it makes this intelligible) is this fantastic Easter sermon of John Chrysostom which invites those who keep Lent and those who do not to rejoice together that Christ is Risen:

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Is there anyone who is a grateful servant?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!
If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.
To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!
Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.

He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.