|
|
|
>
The 20th century presented Lutheran church musicians with substantial challenges. Worldwide political and social upheaval, along with Romanticism’s collapse, forced people and institutions, including the church, to reassess basic questions of identity and purpose. Was the church simply a gathering of individuals generally committed to humanitarian principles not always clearly connected to the specific will and purpose of God? Was the life of faith primarily a private issue that had no place or anything to say in the public arena? Lutheranism began an intensive investigation of its theological, liturgical, and musical roots. The Enlightenment and Rationalism–along with North American frontier pragmatism–left the liturgy a pale imitation of its rugged, lively expression of 16th-century evangelical catholicism. In Europe and in North America, various scholars plumbed the rich depths of the tradition. Once again they affirmed the liturgy as the "holy conversation" in proclaimed and sacramental Word as Luther described in his "Sermon at the Dedication of the Castle Church in Torgau" and in the Confessions. The various "folk churches" of Lutheranism began to reclaim their cultural, liturgical, and musical heritage. "Returning to the roots" spawned a host of liturgical and musical studies that served to recover much of the tradition and to chart new and fresh directions in liturgy and music. Every aspect of the church’s life came under scrutiny, including architecture, liturgical forms, hymns, and music. The landmark "Common Service" of 1888––formed from the rich liturgical heritage of the Reformation era––provided the foundation for 20th-century revisions of worship books and for the recovery of a still virile tradition. Various liturgical and musical societies, congresses, and commissions, such as the Lutheran Liturgical Association, were established in the process. They provided forums for inter-Lutheran, ecumenical, and international discussion. Eventually, these commissions published documents and statements of practices that continue to guide and shape the liturgical and musical life of the Lutheran Church.
|
||||||||||
