I had the privilege this week of attending Beeson Divinity School’s inaugural Reformation Anglicanism lecture. The speaker this year was none other than Prof. Simeon Zahl, who spoke on the prayer books of Thomas Cranmer.
While previous scholarship on Cranmer (notably, Ashley Null) has more focused on his theology, his belief in justification by faith, the distinction between law and gospel, and his view of the eucharist, Zahl turned his attention to the emotional effect Cranmer’s prayer books were intended to have for those who recited them week in and week out. The prayer book is, in Zahl’s words, an “affective technology” designed to stir up emotional responses: remorse and grief, joy and comfort.
The Reformation was not simply a revolution in Christian thought and practice; it was also a reformation of the heart and emotions.
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