Msgr. Gamber on the Enlightenment's Effects on Liturgy

The Enlightenment introduced the utilitarian and pragmatic assessments that we hold dear today (Reform of the Roman Liturgy 18). It was asked of the Baroque liturgy (as it is asked of beautiful churches today): what is its use in solving the real problems of today? Many bishops even adopted this attitude (ibid.). Finally, the modern State began to enforce its own liturgical norms, especially in Germany and France, which totally erased the traditional liturgical forms.

Msgr. Gamber writes, "During the Age of Enlightenment, the purpose of worship was seen primarily as that of instilling moral behavior in the people --which helps to explain why Latin as the language of liturgy was rejected" (19). Isn't this view solidified by Kant's philosophy of religion? Dr. Wayne Pomerleau, a noted neo-Kantian philosopher, admits that religion as a totality cannot be reduced to ethics or a moral code, yet nevertheless, he agrees with Kant that the other necessary components of a religion (which, aside from moral "code," are community, creed, and ceremonies) are simply meaningful and valuable means to the ultimate end of religion, namely, "moral conduct and virtuous character" (cf. "Comment on Reducing Christianity to Ethics 1). Dr. Pomerleau notes that the English analytic philosopher Richard Braithwaite asserts that religions combine moral code with a distinguishing "propositional element," namely, a story that establishes context to distinguish the religion from any other. Under utilitarianism, one can "regard Jesus of Nazareth as a role-model" without accepting its "story" (2).

To return, however, the State also established that the Church fell under the State's power and authority and in some places forced priests to "explain and admonish people to obey civil laws." This time is marked especially by liturgical experimentation, "disturbingly similar to today's experiments, and they, too, were very much concerned with man and his (social) problems" (Gamber 19).

Msgr. Gamber even says that the "preeminent root cause of today's liturgical distress is to be found in the Age of Enlightenment. Many of the ideas of that period did not come to maturity until today, when we are living through a new period of the Enlightenment" (20).

Society in general reacted to the Enlightenment with Romanticism, while the Church looked to restore aspects of Medieval Christian culture, such as Neo-Romanesque/Gothic/Renaissance/Baroque architecture and art. At this time the Benedictines of Solesmes came into being. Latin liturgy and chant were restored in a liturgical movement that especially took off in the 1920s. Pius Parsch, writing in the 1930s, also sought to popularize people's participation in the liturgy during this renewal although Msgr. Gamber also claims that the beginnings of the vernacular in the liturgy can be traced back to Parsch's influence (21).

By the time 1965 arrived, the bishops had no idea of the "avalanche they had started, crushing under it all traditional forms of liturgical worship, even the new liturgy they themselves had created" (ibid.). For example, the Austrian bishops wrote: "In order to achieve that noble goal, i.e., the spiritual renewal of our parishes, we are sure that all pastors will strive to celebrate the liturgy as beautifully as possible."

But, as Msgr. Gamber concludes, "even the few positive results that have come out of the liturgical reform, which clearly include a greater involvement of the faithful in the liturgy, cannot possibly outweigh the damage that has been done" (22).

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Sources:  Klaus Gamber, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy, trans. Klaus D. Grimm (San Juan Capistrano, CA: Una Voce Press, 1993), 18-22.

Wayne P. Pomerleau, "Comment on Reducing Christianity to Ethics," http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/calhoun/socratic/Pomerleau_ComDiMaria.pdf