In this reflection, I respond to Anthony Reddie's reflections and assertions about the sacramentality of black flesh in a world shaped by white supremacy. I locate myself as Korean American and refer to my experience of ministering to university students during the rise of Black Lives Matter in the US. Instead of offering cognate claims for the sacramentality of Asian flesh, I ask what theological repentance should look like in light of the historical profaning of the black body. Using the (...) work of two black American artists, jazz musician Robert Glasper and painter Titus Kaphar, I offer beginning reflections on how our liturgies and practices need to change as part of theological repentance—including lament. (shrink)

Liturgy has been the forum for the enactment of a diverse range of theologies, at times stressing the human, at times the divine. Following Emmanuel Levinas, this article understands the meaning of liturgy as ‘a movement of the Same towards the Other which never returns to the Same.’ Whether directed towards God, or expressive of human longing, the structure of liturgy is essentially ‘for‐the‐Other.’ This movement out of self is seen when one considers liturgy as the (...) ‘work of the people,’ where ‘work’ is understood as Œuvre rather than travail. To say that liturgy is œuvre is to situate its significance not in the activity of the subject who has a concern to achieve or realise something through his own effort, but in the Other who inspires the work. The activism of travail finds its counter in the essential passivity of œuvre. By recognising this the horizontal and vertical elements within divine liturgy can be brought together in a mutually indispensable way. As essentially ‘for‐the‐Other,’ responsible service, which is at one and the same time divine service and human service, is at the heart of the liturgy. In liturgy we are drawn out of ourselves in a ‘movement of the Same towards the Other which never returns to the Same’ and which is positively experienced as responsibility. It is not that we first worship and then are called unto service in a movement out of self towards the Otherness of God and thereafter towards the Otherness of the other person. The movement out of self – liturgy – is at one and the same time worship and ethics, an ethical worship, in which justice is rendered both to God and to the other person. (shrink)

How do the arts inform and cultivate our service to God? In this addition to an award-winning series, distinguished philosopher Bruce Ellis Benson rethinks what it means to be artistic. Rather than viewing art as practiced by the few, he recovers the ancient Christian idea of presenting ourselves to God as works of art, reenvisioning art as the very core of our being: God calls us to improvise as living works of art. Benson also examines the nature of liturgy (...) and connects art and liturgy in a new way. This book will appeal to philosophy, worship/liturgy, art, music, and theology students as well as readers interested in engaging issues of worship and aesthetics in a postmodern context, including Christian artists and worship leaders. (shrink)

The Orthodox liturgy is a religious phenomenon that can be analyzed phenomenologically and theologically alike, given the emphasis that both phenomenology and Orthodox theology place on experience. By proposing the Kingdom of God instead of the natural world without being able to annihilate the latter in the name of the former, the liturgy seeks divine-human communion. Through the dialogue of prayer, through symbolic and iconic openings, as well as through apophatic theology, the liturgy emphasizes the horizon of (...) mystery as a horizon essential to the way man positions himself before God. The present text attempts to demonstrate that apophaticism, understood as an experience of the mysterious presence of God, is one of the crucial dimensions of the Orthodox liturgy; and that this apophatic presence of God reveals a way of thinking which does not become onto-theology, not even when using concepts borrowed from metaphysics. The overcoming of onto-theology is achieved here not by abandoning concepts such as “being” and “cause” but by placing the language game in the field of prayer and apophatic theology. (shrink)

Ritual atonement for Cohen aims exclusively at ethical repentance. Sins, or ethical failures, are regarded as unwitting misdeeds, corrigible once recognized. As individuals continue to vacillate, their need for repentance remains life-long. Rosenzweig, however, considers redemption from sin impossible without recourse to miracles. Individual failures are failures in wish, Rosenzweig implies, rather than failures in deed, as Cohen maintains; hence atonement requires above all the ongoing regulating of wishes through liturgical prayer. "Repentance" (t'shuvah), which for Cohen is the "return" to (...) ethical integrity, is for Rosenzweig the "return" to the daily, weekly, and yearly prayers of the Jewish liturgy. (shrink)

It has been argued that most countries that had been exposed to European colonialism have inherited a Western Christianity thanks to the mission societies from Europe and North America. In such colonial and post-colonial (countries where the political administration is no longer in European hands, but the effects of colonialism are still in place) contexts, together with Western contexts facing the ever-growing impact of migrants coming from the previous colonies, there is a need to reflect on the possibility of what (...) a non-colonial liturgy, rather than a decolonial or postcolonial liturgy, would look like. For many, postcolonial or decolonial liturgies are those that specifically create spaces for the voice of a particular identified other. The other is identified and categorised as a particular voice from the margins, or a specific voice from the borders, or the voices of particular identified previously silenced voices from, for example, the indigenous backyards. A question that this context raises is as follows: Is consciously creating such social justice spaces – that is determined spaces by identifying particular voices that someone or a specific group decides to need to be heard and even making these particular voiceless (previously voiceless) voices central to any worship experience – really that different to the colonial liturgies of the past? To give voice to another voice, is maybe only a change of voice, which certainly has tremendous historical value, but is it truly a transformation? Such a determined ethical space is certainly a step towards greater multiculturalism and can therefore be interpreted as a celebration of greater diversity and inclusivity in the dominant ontology. Yet, this ontology remains policed, either by the state-maintaining police or by the moral (social justice) police. Contribution: In this article, a non-colonial liturgy will be sought that goes beyond the binary of the dominant voice and the voice of the other, as the voice of the other too often becomes the voice of a particular identified and thus determined victim – in other words, beyond the binary of master and slave, perpetrator and victim, good and evil, and justice and injustice, as these binaries hardly ever bring about transformation, but only a change in the face of master and the face of the slave, yet remaining in the same policed ontology. (shrink)

Drawing in part on recent work by Eleonore Stump and Sarah Coakley, I shall argue that even if NO HUMAN GOOD is true, divine hiddenness does not cast doubt on DIVINE CONCERN. My argument will turn on three central claims: (a) that ABSENCE OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE and INCONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE are better thought of as constituting divine silence rather than divine hiddenness, (b) that even if NO HUMAN GOOD is true, divine silence is compatible with DIVINE CONCERN so long as God (...) has provided a way for rational creatures to find him and to experience his presence despite the silence, and (c) that there is some reason to think that Biblical narratives and liturgical acts are vehicles by which we might find and experience the presence of God. Each of these claims will be defended, in turn, in the three sections that follow. (shrink)

The Qing dynasty scholar Liu Yuan (1768-1856) developed a unique system of thought, merging Confucian learning with ideas and practices from Daoism and Buddhism, and was eventually venerated as the founding patriarch of an influential movement combining the characteristics of a scholarly circle and a religious society. Liu Yuan, a native of Sichuan, was an outstanding Confucian scholar whose teachings were commonly referred to as Liumen (Liu School). Assisted by his close disciples, Liu edited a Daoist ritual canon titled Fayan (...) huizuan (Compendium of Ritual Words). Daoist priests affiliated with the Liumen community and using the Fayan huizuan canon in their rituals constituted an independent liturgical branch of Daoism, which is still extant and known under the name of "Fayan tan" (Altar of Ritual Words). Following a comprehensive description of the Liumen tradition, the volume by Volker Olles discusses the compilation history of the Fayan huizuan canon, the lineage of the Fayan tan priests, as well as the temporal framework of their liturgy. The main part of the volume consists of a detailed study of the ritual canon, identifying its textual sources and describing its pantheon, the influence of the Liumen ideology on its texts, as well as the function and performance of its rituals in contemporary religious practice. Furthermore concluding thoughts about the Fayan tan tradition's role in present-day Sichuan constitute the epilogue. By showing how members of the Confucian elite were involved in the evolution of modern Daoism, this study sheds light on hitherto obscure or poorly understood aspects of the intellectual and spiritual culture of Southwest China. (shrink)

More than an introduction to Levinas's philosophical itinerary and the position where it matures, Liturgy of the Neighbor is also a critical discussion and original response to an acknowledged master of the twentieth century. The Levinas who appears in this dialogue is a thinker not only determined to get free of Western tradition, but also one whose project and claims shed new and penetrating light on the major figures whose work stood in his way. By moving to this level, (...) where Levinas's teachers and opponents speak for themselves and not only in the voices Levinas has assigned to them, Bloechl presses the discussion beyond an evaluation of Levinas's readings of his interlocutors, and beyond the question of his success in getting free of them, to the more urgent task of weighing the stakes of reestablishing religion, and the ethics where it has meaning, after Nietzche and, above all, Heidegger. (shrink)

The role of religion in the public space is a matter of debate. The public sphere understood as a space oriented to achieving interests of common concern, reaching social and political consensus by means of deliberation has relegated religion to the private sphere. The last decades have attested a revival of the public role of religion, a “de-privatization” of religion. This paper explores the contemporary influence of religious beliefs and liturgical practice on issues of public concern focusing on the statements (...) and liturgical gestures of Pope Francis, notably regarding the disenfranchised and the refugees, as well as his engagement for the environment. The statements and liturgical gestures of Pope Francis have challenged the dissociation between religious practice and social ethics, and have returned religion to the forefront of public debates. A symbolic example is his unconventional practice of a traditional rite, that of the washing of the feet during liturgical celebrations on Holy Thursday. This classical liturgical rite, brought to public attention through the media, has become the vehicle of Francis’ social ethical views, and due to his involvement in the refugee-debate, a powerful political statement. Such statements are not limited to Catholics or individuals of other denominations, but contribute to the agenda of public discussions. (shrink)

Both liturgy and morality are "formed references" to Divine events to which faith also testifies. So there is parity among the orandi, the bene operandi, and the credendi of the Christian church, and multi-directional, shaping influences among them. An ethicist's understanding of morality is diminished without the context of liturgy and the rule of faith. An impoverished or distorted, shapeless liturgy influences the morality we credit. If today the church struggled for itself against itself over a proper (...) understanding of the Christian moral life, this would be both reflected in and aided by certain liturgical innovations. (shrink)

This paper consolidates some evidence on the impact of the liturgy on the epigraphic formulary.Without being an exhaustive study, it pinpoints several prominent examples of this development in the late antique Peloponnese. Textological parallels between inscriptions and extant liturgical texts indicate that liturgical formulae were adopted in epigraphic prayers of individuals as well as in the inscriptions adorning churches, and that authors of epitaphs often drew on the formulae of the eucharistic and funerary rites. The analysis makes it clear (...) that the institutionalised forms of piety were perceived as authoritative and shaped the formation of the distinctively Christian epigraphic habit. (shrink)

The connection between liturgy and ethics has been an explicit subject of interest among Christian theologians since the second half of the twentieth century. However, most calls for a substantive integration of worship and Christian morality have proceeded in a single direction. Liturgy provides the foundations of an ecclesial ethic that is directed primarily outward as a witness to the world. A troubling consequence of this general approach to linking liturgy and ethics is that the church, situated (...) in an iconic or kerygmatic role, rarely turns its ethical attention inward. In this essay, I offer a reading of the relationship between liturgy and ethics that may begin to overcome these limitations. In dialogue with Orthodox theologians Alexander Schmemann and Vigen Guroian, I propose a renewed emphasis on the eschatological dimension of eucharistic liturgy that, when theorized through the lens of virtue ethics, can yield a more dynamic, inward-facing ecclesial ethic. (shrink)

Review of: Liturgy in the twenty-first century: Contemporary issues and perspectives, by Alcuin Reid, ed., pp. xxvi + 367, paperback, GBP17.99.

Experience of the sublime is most often discussed as a facet of the aesthetic experience of nature. In this paper, I argue that religious liturgy can be a source of sublimity and that experiences of the liturgically sublime are analogous to aesthetic experiences of nature and natural sublimity. Experiences of the liturgically sublime are not religious experiences, since the aesthetic experience of liturgy is not dependent upon any particular belief, such as belief in a deity, does not communicate (...) specific information, and is fundamentally physical in its experience, since it is based upon sensory experiences of the physical environment. I conclude that, as aesthetic experiences of liturgy are similar in important ways to experiences of natural sublimity and can be fully appreciated by any attendant of a liturgy, so can anyone, regardless of belief set or religious background, experience and appreciate liturgical sublimity to the fullest degree. (shrink)

THE CONCEPT OF LITURGICAL ASCETICISM SERVES TO RELATE LITURGY and ethics as seen in the case of energy conservation. Disciplined practices undertaken to limit energy consumption can deepen contemplative awareness of God's creative energy as work in the world and the moral significance of human cooperation with it as an expression of one's baptismal commitment rooted within a particular faith community. The liturgical location of the moral agent who engages in such askesis implies a sacramentally informed epistemology as a (...) way of knowing oneself in relation to God and all of created reality that imbues conservation practices with eschatological meaning. (shrink)

Ângelo Cardita La pandémie de la COVID-19 n’a pas interrompu que l’existence quotidienne et le déroulement régulier du fonctionnement de l’Église catholique. Bien au-delà de cette interruption, mais appuyée sur elle, la pandémie a fini par mettre en lumière des faiblesses inouïes dans le processus de redécouverte de la dimension rituelle de la foi. Cette étude développe cette ligne de pensée en lui donnant un contenu concret comme contribution au débat sur la valeur et la non-valeur des rites religieux pour (...) l’existence humaine ainsi que des rites profanes pour la vie de foi. L’étude s’organise en deux parties. Dans la première partie — la pandémie rituelle —, on commence par les termes du problème rituel en général, tout en nous concentrant sur les aspects de la pandémie qui peuvent être interprétés à partir de catégories rituelles. Dans la deuxième partie — la kénose de la liturgie —, on explore un chemin de fondation négative de la liturgie chrétienne. (shrink)

This study is inspired by the thirst for a living theater by Antonin Artaud. We begin by looking for points of contact between the theater of cruelty and the Christian liturgy in the perspective of the call for active participation. Next, we question the philosophical transcription of Artaud’s gesture made by Derrida and, in particular, the liturgical significance of the theological criticism of the theater, that is, the criticism of the theological content of any representational theater. We conclude by (...) revisiting the question of the status of sensitive mediations, with the aim of consolidating the intuition of a wider cultural change within which we can situate the interest for the symbolic and ritual immediacy that characterizes the proposals of Artaud as well as those of the emerging liturgical theology. (shrink)

In this paper, the possibility of considering liturgy as a work of laziness is developed from one essay of radicalization of the ritual notions of “counterstructure” and “liminality” (V. Turner). We begin by highlighting the fundamental aspect of François Nault’s theological reflection on laziness : the investigation of a new modality of action. We immediately turn to the paradox represented by the daily invitation to enter within the “today” of the divine rest that nourishes the Christian ritual work. Then (...) we reconsider the issue of liturgy as work to question both the thesis that liturgy is the true paradigm of modern work and duty (Agamben) and the perspective that makes it the core of leisure and culture (Pieper). We finally return to the issue of laziness to offer a ritual rereading of the dialectic that connects it to work. (shrink)

Bird, Paul The past couple of years have seen a number of golden jubilees in connection with the Second Vatican Council. I would mention two in particular. October 2012 saw the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the council, when Pope John XXIII gave his opening address to the great gathering of bishops in St Peter's Basilica. December last year saw the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the council's first major document, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

L’intérêt croissant des théologiens moralistes pour la liturgie comme ressource pour la formation éthique des sujets est aujourd’hui soupçonné au nom de distinctions tenues pour acquises en théologie morale fondamentale : entre Église et monde, entre morale de la foi et morale autonome, entre éthique communautaire et morale universelle. Ces distinctions sont bien sûr essentielles à la réflexion éthique.L’attention pour la liturgie qui se manifeste aux Etats-Unis dans les années soixante-dix correspond à un changement de problématique en théologie morale fondamentale. (...) En marge d’un vif débat catholique, le courant communautarien protestant désigne une autre question : celle de la formation des sujets éthiques par leurs communautés d’appartenance. Pourtant, les accents sont contrastés au sein de ce courant communautarien, qui revalorise les vertus en les rapportant à leur contexte confessant. Dans la première partie de son article, Ph. Bordeyne montre que les deux sensibilités qui traversent le courant communautarien permettent de dégager des différences significatives au sein de l’intérêt actuel pour la liturgie. En deuxième partie, il examine l’expérience pastorale de l’Église, autour de l’initiation chrétienne des adultes notamment, en tant qu’elle aide à trouver une posture plus équilibrée pour rendre compte des rapports entre l’éthique et la liturgie. Une troisième partie dégage quelques critères, tant en direction des sujets que des communautés, pour mieux tirer parti du potentiel de formation éthique contenu dans la liturgie.The growing interest of moral theologians in the liturgy as a resource for the ethical education of subjects is under suspicion today in the name of distinctions considered established in fundamental moral theology: between the Church and the world, between Christian morality and autonomous morality, between communitarian ethics and universal morality. These distinctions are, of course, essential to ethical reflection.The interest in the liturgy that appeared in the United States during the 1970s corresponds to a change of the field of inquiry in fundamental moral theology. On the fringe of lively Catholic debate, the Protestant communitarian current points to another question: that of the formation of ethical subjects by the communities to which they belong. However, there are contrasting strains within this communitarian current, which reasserts the value of virtues by relating them to their confessional context. In the first part of his article, P. Bordeyne shows that these two tendencies, which run through the communitarian current, bring out significant differences within the present interest in liturgy. In the second part, he examines the pastoral experience of the Church, notably in the Christian initiation of adults, insofar as it helps to find a more balanced position in explaining the relationship between ethics and liturgy. The third part points out a few criteria allowing subjects and communities to take better advantage of the potential of ethical training contained in the liturgy. (shrink)

In this article a case is made for considering the liturgy as theological norm par excellence. The case is built up by relying on an emphatic current of thought within the field of liturgical studies, namely the ‘liturgical theology’ as it was developed by Alexander Schmemann, Aidan Kavanagh, and David W. Fagerberg. After presenting the concept of ‘liturgical theology’ and the context out of which it emerged, its major characteristics are discussed. Particular attention is devoted to the radicalness of (...) their position. It can be called radical because the reversal of the relation between doctrine and liturgy is by no means evident for the vast majority of modern believers and theologians. However, ‘liturgical theology’ claims that it is not doctrine which determines liturgy but liturgy which determines doctrine. According to liturgical theologians, the liturgy is not simply the ritual expression of the content of faith, but itself theology, even theologia prima . Correspondingly, liturgical theologians point to the original wording of the famous adage lex orandi lex credendi , which is the following: ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi . Whereas the usual formulation suggests equality and mutual dependence, the original context lays bare a clear priority of the rule of prayer over the rule of faith. In the final part of the article I explore some avenues to the evaluation of ‘liturgical theology’. I argue that there is need for a more profound philosophical underpinning and historical adequacy. But nevertheless the idea that the liturgy constitutes a theological norm stands firmly and should be considered far more broadly and seriously among contemporary systematic theologians. (shrink)

For two millennia Christians have assembled on the “day of the sun” to celebrate the liturgy together. But why do it? Why structure one's life in such a way that participation in ritualized religious activity is a fixed point in the weekly rhythm of one's comings and goings? The project of this essay is to identify reasons to engage in such activity that emanate from the Christian ethical vision. Fundamental to this vision is a contrast between an ethic of (...) proximity, which enjoins us to attend to the needs of those near and dear, and an ethic of outwardness, which enjoins us to both attend to and open ourselves up to the needs of those who belong to various out-groups. The Christian ethical vision enjoins an ethic of outwardness. A close look at the liturgies of the Eastern Christian tradition reveals the ways in which they express this ethic. (shrink)

Central to the lives of the religiously committed are not simply religious convictions but also religious practices. The religiously committed, for example, regularly assemble to engage in religious rites, including corporate liturgical worship. Although the participation in liturgy is central to the religious lives of many, few philosophers have given it attention. In this collection of essays, Terence Cuneo turns his attention to liturgy, contending that the topic proves itself to be philosophically rich and rewarding. Taking the liturgical (...) practices of Eastern Christianity as its focal point, Ritualized Faith examines issues such as what the ethical importance of ritualized religious activities might be, what it is to immerse oneself in such activities, and what the significance of liturgical singing and iconography are. In doing so, Cuneo makes sense of these liturgical practices and indicates why they deserve a place in the religiously committed life. (shrink)