Maag, Karin. Worshiping with the Reformers. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2021. 229 pp. $25.99.
The practice of corporate worship changed significantly during the sixteenth- and early-seventeenth century Reformation. Karin Maag’s Worshiping with the Reformers offers an overview of various aspects of worship during this period. Maag explores what it was like for people to attend church and what they experienced through preaching, prayer, baptism, music, art, and communion. She emphasizes the worship practices of five main confessional groups from the Reformation era—Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, and Anabaptist—to help “current-day clergy and laypeople think more deeply about various aspects of worship practice” (5).
Each chapter of Worshiping with the Reformers focuses on a different aspect of worship. Within each chapter, Maag shares several vignettes from various sources during the Reformation. Through these vignettes, she illustrates what specific worship practices might have been like.
Chapter 1 explores the practice of “going to church” and highlights its importance for individuals and communities during the Reformation. Most church leaders of the time period agreed that everyone should attend church services on Sunday, with some recommending additional services. In Zurich and Geneva, fines were levied on absentees. Extra worship times provided more opportunities for compliance. Practices related to feast days varied by tradition and location.
As church attendance was expected everywhere, chapter 2 offers insight into the local church experience. Maag highlights challenges faced by church leaders in keeping attendees engaged and well-behaved during worship. She notes how confessional groups built worship spaces to reflect their priorities and meet particular needs—like warmth during cold weather. Worship spaces were often considered sacred places. For example, Luther believed Word-centered worship made a church building sacred.
Chapter 3 begins by discussing the role of preaching in Catholic worship. During the Reformation, preaching became even more prominent in Protestant worship. Sermons aimed to teach and change lives. Some Protestant groups followed a lectionary for Scripture readings, with sermons connected to those passages. The practice of preaching through books of the Bible was begun by Zwingli and became widely adopted. As preaching grew central to worship, training programs appeared in Zurich and Geneva and later spread to France, the Netherlands, Scotland, and England.
As addressed in chapter 4, approaches to prayer in worship were debated, with all groups seeing it as important but disagreeing on best practices. Catholics learned the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary to petition God and feel his closeness. Luther viewed prayer as a response to God, rejecting the idea that it contributed to salvation. He used the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Creed to teach people to pray. Calvin saw prayer as part of a believer’s sanctification, stressing the necessity of Scripture’s words and heartfelt sincerity in prayers that led to an increase in devotion and faith.
Catholic priest John Christopherson believed praying in the vernacular distracted people from their own prayer, while most Protestants insisted prayers should be in the language of the people so they may pray in agreement. Many Reformers rejected public prayers for the dead, though some did not condemn private practice. The Church of England and others strictly prohibited directing prayers to any beings other than God the Father, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit. Proponents of set prayers cited the Lord’s Prayer as a model to follow, while some Reformed leaders argued that it could quickly become ritualistic if overused. Still, other Protestant groups found extemporaneous prayers to be more heartfelt, sincere, and meaningful. There were others, particularly among the Puritans in England, who found a middle ground by allowing pastors to write their own prayers to be read during worship.
Chapter 5 deals with baptism. While water baptism is consistent across Christian denominations, methods and reasons for baptism have been points of contention since the time of the Reformation. Catholics believe baptism removes original sin and grants salvation, a view shared by Luther. Reformed believers see baptism as a sign—like circumcision in the Old Testament—of a child’s inclusion in God’s covenant. Between 1549 and 1559, Anglican views shifted from a Lutheran perspective to embrace Reformed baptismal theology. All these groups practiced infant baptism. Conversely, Anabaptists believe baptism should follow personal faith and conversion; hence only adults were baptized. Only clergy could administer baptism in Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed churches, but Anabaptists allowed any believer to perform the rite.
In chapter 6, Maag writes that communion was both a holy encounter and a sacred meal fostering reconciliation and community, but it could also create divisions. Theological views on communion varied among confessional groups. Catholics believed in transubstantiation, in which the bread and wine transform into Christ’s body and blood during consecration. Luther rejected this, emphasizing Christ’s presence in the elements and that communion’s main effect comes through proclaiming the Word. Zwingli saw communion as a memorial, based on Christ’s command to remember him, and believed its power relies upon faith, bringing believers closer to God and each other. This view was also held by the Anabaptists. Calvin and the Reformed tradition viewed the Holy Spirit’s presence as essential to communion’s power.
Chapter 7 covers the visual arts and music. Most confessional groups used music in worship, except Zwingli, who warned that music could lead to pride that prevented sincere worship. Disagreements arose over musical style and practice. Generally, Lutherans and Anabaptists embraced hymn singing, while many Reformed groups sang only the Psalms. Luther advocated hymn singing for biblical and practical reasons, believing music could effectively share and teach the Gospel. Lutheran services included congregational hymns, chanting by the priest, and trained choirs.
Calvin valued music in worship but was cautious about the type of singing allowed. He only permitted Scripture, mainly the Psalms, to be sung a cappella in unison, ensuring the focus was on the words, not the music. His followers removed organs from churches that had used them. Reformed groups also created metrical Psalms—rhyming paraphrases of psalms—used mainly in worship. Anglican archbishop Thomas Cranmer advocated for clear, simple musical worship over polyphony to emphasize the intelligibility of the words.
The use of visual art was controversial. Luther did not fully reject religious images, arguing that they were not banned by the Bible and could serve as reminders or witnesses, provided they were not venerated. He feared that iconoclasm, the removal of images, would cause chaos. The Swiss Reformed believed images in worship violated the Ten Commandments’ ban on idol worship. The Church of England shared a similar view. However, the use of art varied widely within groups.
While Worshiping with the Reformers mainly discusses worship in the church, the last chapter covers worship outside it. Church leaders encouraged daily family and private devotions, offering resources to deepen worship. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Catholics revived pilgrimages, but Protestants saw this as superstitious. In Protestant areas, some feast days became social gatherings rather than worship. Schools focused on teaching tenets of the faith to benefit both students and families. Overall, people sought to integrate faith into all aspects of life and community.In conclusion, Worshiping with the Reformers effectively highlights the many changes during the Reformation. Maag writes, “It is my hope that the accounts and words of those who lived through this period of change and continuity has shed some light on the experience of worshiping in the Reformation era and contributes to fruitful ongoing conversations about the practice of worship today” (229). She indeed sheds light on those experiences and helps foster an understanding of the varied worship practices of that time.
