Teach Us to Pray

The Lord’s Prayer, Catechesis, and Ritual Reform in the Sixteenth Century

Katharine Mahon

The study of liturgical reform is usually undertaken through a close examination of liturgical texts. In order to consider the impact of reform on the worship life of Christians, Katharine Mahon takes a wider view of liturgy by considering the worship practices of Christian churches beyond what appears in the rites themselves. Looking at how Christians were taught how to pray and instructed in liturgical and sacramental participation, Mahon explores the late medieval patterns of Christian ritual formation and the transformation of these patterns in the sixteenth-century reforms of Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer, and Roman Catholic leaders. She uses the Lord’s Prayer—the backbone of medieval lay catechesis, liturgical participation, and private prayer—to paint a panorama of medieval ritual formation integrated into the life of the church in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. She then follows the disintegration and reconstruction of that system of formation through the changing functions of the Lord’s Prayer in the official reforms of catechesis, liturgy, and prayer in the sixteenth-century.

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 180 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9

978-1-9787-0684-2 • Hardback • April 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-9787-0685-9 • eBook • April 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christian Rituals & Practice / Worship & Liturgy, Religion / Christian Theology / General, Religion / Prayer, History / Europe / Medieval

Teach Us to Pray

The Lord’s Prayer, Catechesis, and Ritual Reform in the Sixteenth Century

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The study of liturgical reform is usually undertaken through a close examination of liturgical texts. In order to consider the impact of reform on the worship life of Christians, Katharine Mahon takes a wider view of liturgy by considering the worship practices of Christian churches beyond what appears in the rites themselves. Looking at how Christians were taught how to pray and instructed in liturgical and sacramental participation, Mahon explores the late medieval patterns of Christian ritual formation and the transformation of these patterns in the sixteenth-century reforms of Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer, and Roman Catholic leaders. She uses the Lord’s Prayer—the backbone of medieval lay catechesis, liturgical participation, and private prayer—to paint a panorama of medieval ritual formation integrated into the life of the church in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. She then follows the disintegration and reconstruction of that system of formation through the changing functions of the Lord’s Prayer in the official reforms of catechesis, liturgy, and prayer in the sixteenth-century.

Details

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 180 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9

978-1-9787-0684-2 • Hardback • April 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-9787-0685-9 • eBook • April 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christian Rituals & Practice / Worship & Liturgy, Religion / Christian Theology / General, Religion / Prayer, History / Europe / Medieval

Author

Katharine Mahon is academic advisor and Burke, Hofman, Kolman Postdoctoral Fellow in the First Year of Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Lord’s Prayer: A Lens into a Ritual System

Chapter 2 The Ritual Functions of the Lord’s Prayer in Medieval Patterns of Christian Formation

Chapter 3 Reritualizing Catechesis: The Lord’s Prayer in Reformation Catechisms

Chapter 4 Reritualizing Liturgical Participation: The Lord’s Prayer in Reformation Liturgy

Chapter 5 Teaching How to Pray: Reritualizing Lay Private Prayer

Conclusion: Reforming Ritual and Reritualizing Christian Formation

Reviews

This study of the Lord’s Prayer is a suitable reminder (if one was needed) that this is a foundational liturgical prayer for all Christians, and as such has played a key role in catechesis. ... Mahon’s study will prove invaluable to those looking at sixteenth-century treatment of this foundational prayer.

— Journal of Ecclesiastical History

In this significant book, Katharine Mahon opens up new angles for the study of liturgical history through a unique approach to the Lord’s Prayer and its embeddedness and influence on broader liturgical reforms and devotional practices. Mahon engages an exciting cross-confessional approach to the reform of devotional practice and how prayer is re-ritualized into life. Liturgical and devotional life are intricately interwoven with doctrinal issues in a fascinating study.
— Dirk G. Lange

In Teach Us to Pray, Mahon has traced the profound re-ritualization of the Lord’s Prayer that occurred during the sixteenth-century shift from pervasive use in medieval liturgy and private prayer as a ritual text, to its more selective use primarily as a catechetical text in both Protestant and Roman Catholic reforms. This shift paralleled a change in religious formation, from an emphasis on ritual competence to doctrinal comprehension, that accompanied a change in the Western cultural backdrop from an oral to a literate society. In this solid piece of research and clear writing, readers will be impressed by the similarities Mahon shows between Protestant (Lutheran, English) and Roman Catholic reformations in matters of Christian education and piety (praying knowledgeably and sincerely). This comprehensive historical and ecumenical study leaves us with the question of what Jesus intended when he answered his disciples’ request, ‘Teach us to pray,’ by saying, ‘When you pray, say “Our Father…"
— Frank C. Senn, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary

Mahon has provided us with a truly delightful and compelling study of ritual formation through catechesis, liturgy, and private prayer in sixteenth-century Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism, and Anglicanism via the lens of the Lord’s Prayer. This multi-disciplinary gem merits wide reading by liturgical scholars, catechists, and teachers of spirituality—in short, by all who are engaged with the process of forming Christians through ritual and forming Christians for ritual. Highly recommended!
— Maxwell E. Johnson, University of Notre Dame

The Lord’s Prayer has always been a microcosm of Christian prayer. In Teach Us to Pray, Mahon uses this first Christian prayer as a lens for the liturgical, catechetical, and devotional life of the late medieval and early modern periods. This exciting historical study reveals the unexpected common ground between Lutheran, Catholic, and Anglican challenges in lay liturgical participation and opens new pathways for thinking about ritual belonging and catechesis today.
— Kimberly Hope Belcher, University of Notre Dame

Mahon has written a clear and compelling book. Through the lens of the Lord's Prayer she sheds new light on the medieval ritual system of Christian formation while offering at the same time an insightful and wider view of Christian ritual systems and their reform. Both learned and accessible, this lovely book will serve as valuable reading to experts and novices alike.
— Nathan D. Mitchell, University of Notre Dame, emeritus