Reformed Churchmen: Reformation Churchmanship: Roundup of J.S. Bach's St. John's Passion

Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Reformation Churchmanship: Roundup of J.S. Bach's St. John's Passion

For those seeking, as we must, as hungry people in a dry and weary land, furthered literacy in the Reformation classics, here is Bach's St. John's Passion. Of course, this means a good Reformed, Lutheran and Anglican bibliography. It means intellectual and cultural resistance to the Anabaptifications of our surroundings. Most "evangelicals" are Anabaptists of sorts, e.g. Piper, Mohler, Ligonier Ministries (Baptyerians), Mahaney (Baptacostal), Christianity Today, Dever (Baptyerian) and others. The mainline is now theologically irrelevant. New lines must be cut. We surely recommend Dr. Scott Clark's Recovering the Reformed Confessions although he's weak on the BCP. Yet, RA is pulling in Scott's direction. Maturity means memory and catechetical work for children also: the Westminster Shorter Catechism and Heidelberg Catechism. Also, a good Anglican Prayer Book. And, the musical heritage, such as Johannes Sebastian Bach. This work, St. John's Passion, is appropriate for review as Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter are here. Of course, it takes work to be informed, reformed and increasingly renewed (Rom.12.1-2, 4th commandment re: Sabbath and six days of hard work). Planting seeds. Watching the harvest. Tending to the harvest, including chasing off the "buzzards" of modernity. And, inheriting the fruit. Churchmanship takes work. It's not the American way of "McDonald's Churchmanship" with fries and burgers, but it--work, learning, thinking, and praying--is the way of the Fathers and Mothers of faith in the ages.

Bach St John Passion Johannespassion John Eliot Gardiner

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42uaXQndr0g&feature=related

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0RZ6NQifQg&feature=related

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV7lSckTjUg&feature=related

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzy9ehn7oZg&feature=related

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXtf1PYDQ_k&feature=related

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoBaex-OFTk

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu5AqWEjqpQ&feature=related

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=XYFNj1dLxXw&feature=endscreen

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zums9U4Euwc&feature=related