Context and Text Method in Liturgical Theology

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Synopsis

Despite Sacrosanctum Concilium and the twenty-five years' worth of scholarship that followed, much still needs to be said and discovered about the relationship between liturgy and theology.

This work is situated within the present debate over liturgical theology in at least three ways: it concerns methods for the study of liturgy, it explores the meanings that the term liturgical theology can have, and it contributes to the evaluation and critique of present and possible future forms of liturgical rites. In addition, it articulates how the study of liturgy is essentially pastoral theology in that liturgical rites shape the faith and life of believing participants.

The historical, theological, and pastoral investigation of the liturgy required by the constitution on the Sacred Liturgy forms the background and part of the rationale for this work. It is both a proposal for and an example of an investigation of the Church's liturgical praxis from aliturgical-theological perspective. What the reader gains is principles for interpreting the various aspects of liturgy (texts, symbols, ritual gestures) in relation to each other in a theological way and for articulating some theological and spiritual implications derived from liturgy.

Content

Chapter 1 Historical Perspectives

  • The phrase ascribed to Prosper of Aquitaine ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi ("the law of prayer grounds the law of belief") has become something of a theme statement for many contemporary authors concerned with liturgical theology, often preferring original formulation to the shortened lex orandi, lex credendi ("the law of prayer [is] the law of belief").
  • The method here is historical
  • Precedents Preceding Prosper
  • Prosper of Aquitaine -
    • In the Indiculus, Prosper argues that the authority of the liturgy did not rest on a specified body of texts derived from the apostolic witness.13 h Here he simply indicates three things: (1) who should e prayed for, (2) what grace is needed for them, and (3) that theological weight is given to these prayers because the whole Church prays for these needs.
    • 14 Karl Federer maintains that the theological importance of the Good Friday intercessions referred to by Prosper derives from the fact that they are the Church's; chief evidence that the prayer for God's grace reflects the Churches belief that the needed grace comes from God.
    • He is referring to Good Friday intercessions
    • Hence Prosper's dictum ut legem credendi lex statuat supphcandi in its original setting means that the liturgy manifests the Church's faith
  • Patristic use of Liturgy for Theology

Chapter 2 Method

Liturgy and Theology: Definitions and distinctions.

  • Liturgy is an act of theology, an act whereby the believing Church addresses God, enters into a dialogue with God, makes statements about its belief in God and symbolizes this belief through a variety of means including creation, words, manufactured objects, ritual gestures and actions.

Understandings of Liturgical Theology

  • Theology of Liturgy
  • Theological principles underpin this understanding of liturgy
  1. Liturgy is essentially anamnetic, in the sense that it combines the past redemptive deeds of Jesus (obedient life, humiliation, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension) and draws on the contemporary Church into a unique and ever new experience of these redemptive deeds through the words and symbols of liturgy even as the church yearns for the redemption's eschatological fulfillment in the kingdom.
  2. Liturgy is epicletic in that it derives from and is dependent on the action and power of the Holy Spirit.
  • Theology drawn from the Liturgy - concerns how the means of communication and interaction in the liturgy, especially the words and symbols, can be utilized as a generative source for developing systematic theology.
  • Examples of this include how the reformed rites image the very being of God (literally "theology", speech about God) how they describe the being and redemptive work of Christ (Christology, soteriology), how they describe the being and work of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), and how they image the Church (ecclesiology) and how they describe and reflect on our need for grace (Christian anthroploogy) especially as grace is experienced and mediated through liturgy.
  • Methods in Liturgical Theology
  • Contemporary emphasis as liturgy as an event sets the framework for the framework for a new method in liturgical theology.

Chapter 3: Word

Chapter 4: Symbol

Chapter 5 Euchology

Chapter 6: Liturgical Arts

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Bibliographic info

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