Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:53:05.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thanksgiving in Seventeenth-Century Poetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Ronald E. McFarland
Get access

Extract

The background of Christian thanksgiving in prayer and liturgy is in the Jewish berakah, a term which refers to thank-offerings made prior to meals, at the annual harvests or in-gatherings, and upon such special occasions as a military success against the Philistines. David's song of deliverance in 2 Samuel 22 is an exmple of the latter, and numerous examples of other subjects of thanksgiving are recorded in the Psalms. Psalms 66, for example, represents the sort of thanksgiving offered at the annual “Feast of Weeks” or “Feast of Ingathering” (specifically of grain), the Jewish harvest celebration of Pentecost (see also Exodus 34:22). The New Testament records several occasions upon which Jesus celebrated the berakah at meals, the most notable being at the feeding of the multitude in Matthew 15:36 and at the Last Supper (Luke 22:17); and on his way to Rome Paul offers thanks at the breaking of bread during a storm at sea (Acts 27:35). In the Greek of the New Testament the berakah is translated as eucharistia (“thanksgiving”), and it is the Eucharist that becomes the central rite of Christian worship. In his “Treatise on Good Works” Martin Luther observes that “praise and thanksgiving will follow with a pure heart, from which the mass is called eucharistia in Greek, that is, thanksgiving.” Friedrich Heiler affirms that “The Thanksgiving Prayer in public worship, the direct expression of the living consciousness of salvation, is always a calling to mind of the history of redemption.” In effect, the Jewish offering of thanks for deliverance from generally immediate, tangible enemies (the Philistines, the Moabites, unfavorable crop conditions) becomes the Christian offering of thanks for deliverance from sin and death through the redemption of Christ. The sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament becomes Christ the lamb in the New Testament, and for the Christian “the Eucharistic action is first and foremost a sacrifice of thanksgiving.” Any study of Christian thanksgivings, however, will demonstrate that the occasional and specific nature of the Jewish thank-offering remains in Christian practice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , Winter 1974 , pp. 294 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Richardson, Alan, A Theological Word Book of the Bible (New York, 1952), pp. 254–257Google Scholar. See also Norton, J. G., Worship in Heaven and on Earth (London, 1881), p. 451Google Scholar; Drijvers, Pius, The Psalms: Their Structure and Meaning, 5th rev. ed. (New York, 1967).Google Scholar

2 Dix, Dom Gregory, The Shape of the Liturgy, 2nd ed. (London, 1964), p. 79.Google Scholar

3 Atkinson, James, ed., Luther's Works, Vol. 44 (Philadelphia, 1966), p. 56.Google Scholar

4 Heiler, Friedrich, Prayer (New York, 1958), p. 321.Google Scholar

5 Underhill, Evelyn, Worship (New York, 1937), p. 57.Google Scholar

6 Heiler, pp. 87, 250.

7 Schaff, Philip, ed., The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. IX (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1956), p. 412.Google Scholar

8 Potter, George R. and Simpson, Evelyn M., eds., The Sermons of John Donne, Vol. V, #14 (Berkeley, 1959), p. 272.Google Scholar

9 Andrewes, Lancelot, Works, Vol. VI (Oxford, 1854, New York, 1967), p. 104.Google Scholar

10 Taylor, Jeremy, “Christian Consolations,” The Whole Works, Vol. I (London, 1828), p. 131.Google Scholar

11 McNeill, John T., ed., Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. I (Philadelphia, 1960). pp. xlii–xlvGoogle Scholar. A two-volume edition of the Institutes.

12 Ibid., II, viii, 16, p. 382.

13 Ibid., III, xix, 8, p. 840.

14 Andrewes, pp. 103-104.

15 Baxter, Richard, A Christian Directory (London, 1673), p. 167.Google Scholar

16 Calvin, III, iv, 37, p. 667.

17 Mather, Cotton, “The Christian Thank-Offering” (Boston, 1696), p. 14Google Scholar. #752 in Charles Evans' Early American Bibliography.

18 Keynes, Geoffrey, ed., “Religio Medici,” The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Vol. I, i, 35 (London, 1928), p. 44.Google Scholar

19 Taylor, p. 131.

20 Calvin, Vol. II, III, xx, 28, p. 888. See also Lancelot Andrewes' Private Devotions.

21 Hooker, Richard, Works, Vol. 1 (Oxford, 1890), p. 571Google Scholar. Hooker insists that Thomas Cartwright's request for more occasional thanksgivings is not justified, but Lancelot Andrewes appears to have been sympathetic (see Works, VI: 163Google Scholar).

22 Calvin, Co. II, III, xx, 28, p. 889.

23 Cardwell, Edward, History of Conferences, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1849), p. 257.Google Scholar

24 The Book of Common Prayer (New York, 1944), p. 19.Google Scholar

25 Baxter, p. 167.

26 Mather, Cotton, “The Thankful Christian” (Boston, 1717), pp. 8–9Google Scholar. #1907 in Charles Evans' Early American Bibliography.

27 Thanksgiving Sermons (London, 1645), p. 259Google Scholar. This is a collection of fifteen sermons delivered before Parliament between 1642 and 1645. and subsequently released as pamphlets.

28 Mather, p. 10.

29 Luther, p. 24.

30 Calvin, Vol. I, III, xv, 3 p. 790.

31 Margoliouth, H. M., ed., The Poems and Letters of Andrew Marvell, Vol. I (Oxford, 1952), pp. 17–18Google Scholar; “Commentary,” p. 220.

32 Baxter, p. 167.

33 Martin, L. C., ed., The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick (Oxford, 1956), pp. 348–351Google Scholar; “Commentary,” p. 569.

34 Andrewes, p. 103.

35 Hutchinson, F. E., ed., The Works of George Herbert (Oxford, 1953), pp. 35–36Google Scholar “Commentary,” p. 487.

36 Ibid., pp. 124, 146.

37 Ibid., p. 189.