Since the rise of agriculture humans have made sense of time through the rhythms of the agricultural and pastoral year. These rhythms are reflected in the liturgical year and given a new context in terms of the history of Israel and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Christian’s experience the passage of time through the filter of a distinct structure – from Advent to All Saints. The liturgical year can be a school for understanding our own time, human history, and even cosmic time. All these are placed within the framework of the sense of “God” we find in Scripture. As our planet hangs on the brink of climate catastrophe such an understanding becomes more vital than ever. It teaches us to act in urgency and hope.
Keeping Time begins by examining the basic units of time – days, hours, weeks, months, years – and looks briefly at how they have been reflected on. This leads on to an account of the liturgical year. Reforming the liturgy is an ongoing process, and Timothy Gorringe makes some suggestions for change – especially with regard to Creation Season, which has not yet been properly integrated into the lectionary. It ends by considering the “sanctoral cycle”, the calendar of those whose example has been found particularly inspiring, asking who is remembered, how, and why.
