Abstracts for Senior Scholars

Abstracts for Senior Scholars Pablo Argárate (University of Graz, Graz, Austria) "We experienced these things only in eikon and mimesis; but salvation...
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Abstracts for Senior Scholars Pablo Argárate (University of Graz, Graz, Austria) "We experienced these things only in eikon and mimesis; but salvation we experienced truly": The Understanding of Mysteries in the Mystagogical Catecheses of Jerusalem "What a strange (xenon) and paradoxical (paradoxon) thing! We did not truly (alethos) die, we were not literally buried, we did not truly rise again after being crucified. We experienced these things only in eikon and mimesis; but salvation we experienced truly Mystagogical Catecheses II.5) In my paper, I focus on the understanding of mystery and mysteries in the Mystagogical Catecheses of Jerusalem in the last part of the fourth century. There we experience the irruption of language of awe referring to Christian initiation. In addition, mysterion/mysteria come here in close connection to relevant concepts such as eikon, typos, symbolon, mimesis, homoioma, aletheia, among others. On the basis of Platonic notions the author undertakes the task of philosophically grounding religious experiences. In this vein, the Catecheses explore the symbolic relationship between sacramental actions and the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. In their view, it is through the celebration of rites that we imitate the history of salvation. Craig A. Baron (St. John’s University, New York City, NY, USA) “Liturgy and the Digital Age: A Rite Out of Place?” The internet has generated great changes in social life and has profoundly effected how the relationship between the “world and reality” is understood in post-modernity. All aspects of social life seem to be impacted by the advent of cyberspace and related interactive technology. For its part, the Christian liturgy has migrated into virtuality and other multimedia and digital corridors. Elements of the liturgy are now found in many new and different places and different spaces that are outside the embodied ecclesial community, such as, the Internet, video games and various forms of multimedia. These changes have profound effects on the “liturgical imagination” when it comes to thinking about prayer, worship, participation, real presence, community, and religious experience. Additionally, whether one still attends liturgy on Sundays with a concrete community and physical building or not, these shifts can still influence the experience of God and Christ during worship and the relational encounter between members. Therefore, this paper will explore what might be gained or lost when the liturgical rite or liturgical elements are moved “out of place:” outside the traditional practice of ritual in the church. What is the relationship between online and offline religion in a networked society? Can one really be a virtual member of a church? And if liturgy is to be the revelation of the Word of God and the human response of faith in the here and now, what challenges and opportunities come with being “out of place” in terms of time and space? Katerina Bauerova (Protestant Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) Free Creating: An Example of Liturgical Life in the Russian Diaspora in France Can free creativity become a starting point for the innovation of liturgical life? This question was current in the life of the Russian Orthodox diaspora in France after the 1917 revolution, which opened up space for changes in Orthodox liturgical life. Russian religious philosophers such as Nikolai Berdyaev and Boris Vysheslavtsev started not

1 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

with an explicit move from lex orandi to lex credendi, but with features necessary to both, namely freedom and creativity. The paper examines how in the theology and iconography of Maria Skobtsova and Julia Reitlinger this freedom and creativity contributed to a new style of icon-painting and liturgical space together with a prayer life oriented eschatologically but embedded in its context, and how sacramental life was transposed from the church into the world. It also shows how Fr Lev Gillet's dream for a link between Western and Eastern liturgies was similarly inspired, and thus led to a similar openness to the world. In conclusion the paper will argue that these approaches enriched the liturgical life of the church, while including the world into the dynamics between lex orandi and lex credendi. Ângelo Cardita (Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada) La théorie du culte de Robert Will ou ce que le Mouvement Liturgique nous réserve encore Dans cette communication, nous présenterons et discuterons de la théorie du culte de Robert Will, dans son étude pionnière des années 1925-1935 sur l'histoire et la philosophie religieuse du culte. Cette étude est de grande importance en ce qui concerne la compréhension de l'émergence et de la constitution de la théologie liturgique. L'étude de Robert Will témoigne bien du caractère oecuménique du problème liturgique ainsi que de ses dimensions anthropologiques, symboliques et religieuses. L'auteur propose une étude intégrale de l'intentionnalité ou encore du rapport du rite au divin (Le caractère religieux du culte: tome 1) ainsi que du signe rituel en lui-même (Les formes du culte: tome 2) et dans son contexte communautaire (Les éléments sociaux du culte: tome 3). La redécouverte de cette étude (presque 80 années plus tard) confirme la vocation "fondamentale" d'une théologie liturgique qui se laisse "fonder" sur l'anthropologie. Philip Yohannan Chempakassery (St. Mary's Malankara Seminary, Kerala, India) The Merging of the Past and Future in the Present of the Liturgy: A Syro-Antiochene Perspective The Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy understands the Church as constituted in such a way that “in her the human is directed towards and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation and this present world to that city yet to come (S C no.2).The Church is thus made real in the actual celebration of the sacred liturgy, though “the sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church” (S C no. 8). As the liturgy looks back into the historical events of redemption and makes the present redemptive, it looks forward to the future for complete fulfillment in the eschaton. The past merges with the present and in the present the future which is not yet is made real and tangible in the life of the Church in general and each individual in particular. The Syro-Antiochene liturgy, especially the Eucharistic liturgy brings out this aspect of the liturgy in two ways: by the very structure of the liturgy and by the text of the liturgy. The proposed paper is a study of both the structure and text of this liturgy to bring out the merging of the three dimensions of time that happens in the celebration. Nancy Dallavalle (Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA) Re-symbolizing Heterosexuality: A Liturgical Frame for the Nuptial Metaphor Contemporary discussions of sexuality, aiming for inclusion, often sideline the connection between heterosexual intercourse and procreation. This is in tension with Catholic theology’s treatment of the nuptial metaphor as not only a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and the Church, but also as the normative model for sexual acts (and, more recently, a privileged norm for systematic theology itself). This paper will suggest that a more adequate understanding of the nuptial metaphor as a rich symbol might be found in conversation with the interlaced temporality of the anamnesis and epiclesis, the moments of liturgical “remembering” and the invocation of the inbreaking Holy Spirit. This approach re-frames the privileging of heterosexual intercourse and procreation: just as natural selection cannot occur within a single life, but only with successive generations; so too does memory function as the past thrown forward, as progeny “re-member” their biological past in ways that direct but do not control. This paper will bring together symbols in liturgical theology (anamnesis, epiclesis) and in systematic thought (the nuptial metaphor as a norm not only for moral theology but also for dogmatic reflection), and ask if this dialogue might open a new theological space for this important human reality.

2 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

Yves De Maeseneer (KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) Contemplation in Action: Hans Urs von Balthasar, Liturgy and the Spiritual Senses Last decades attempts have been undertaken to reclaim the intrinsic link between liturgy and ethics, or contemplation and action - lex orandi, lex credendi, lex agendi. Several key notions have been proposed to mediate between prayer and world: virtue (Hauerwas), the affections (D. Saliers), symbol (M.-L. Chauvet), imagination (W. Cavanaugh). Recently, James K.A. Smith suggested ‘perception’ as the sphere in which liturgy fulfills its sanctifying role, and as such changes our life and world. However, in Smith’s approach perception is immediately connected with the imagination: the liturgy embodies narratives, which (trans)form our world-view. Our paper proposes an alternative way to interpret the mediating role of perception: a retrieval of the classical notion ‘the spiritual senses’. We shall present von Balthasar’s approach, both in his theological aesthetics and in some earlier writings (esp. Das betrachtende Gebet, 1955, transl. Prayer, 1961). Von Balthasar explicitly links the liturgy with a transformation of the bodily senses to open them for a contemplative perception of God and world. In his wake we shall develop a theology of the senses and its implications for the ethical realm. This helps to understand liturgy as ‘re-shaping the intentionality of our vision, such that through its lens we may learn how to feel the world with our eyes and to see the soul of our common humanity in the face of the other’ (R.P. Doede and P.E. Hughes). Jerry Farmer (Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans USA) Rahner and Realsymbol: A Church that is poor and for the poor Soon after his election, Pope Francis stated, “How I would like to see a Church that is poor and for the poor.” Karl Rahner, some forty years earlier, asserted, “But even today there seems to be a great danger of not taking love of neighbor seriously enough, especially the neighbor who is encountered in secular society. And yet only in this love can a Christian find God . . .” Rahner uses the term Realsymbol to mean “really genuine symbols.” “The highest and most original representation in which one reality makes present another reality (primarily ‘for itself’ and only then for another) allowing it ‘to be there’, we call symbol.” Rahner stresses the importance of viewing the humanity of the Logos (Ursakrament) in light of an understanding of Realsymbol. Consequently, he affirms that the Church (Grundsakrament), as the “persisting presence of the incarnate Word in space and time . . . continues the symbolic function of the Logos in the world.” Nevertheless, Rahner also insists that “the concrete embodiment of the Church never matches up to its true nature. It preaches a message which questions its own empirical structure. It is, namely, a Church of sinners, whose members deny in actions what they affirm in words.” David Gentry-Akin (Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, California, USA) Standing in Solidarity with the Penitent: The Minister as “Wounded Healer” One of the liturgical practices of the Church that has undergone the greatest change since the Second Vatican Council is that of the Sacrament of Penance. Numerous studies demonstrate that the practice of seeking sacramental confession and absolution among believers has fallen off dramatically since the Council. Some commentators suggest that this is the result of a profound sociological shift of consciousness: people no longer feel the "sense of sin" that characterized the pre-Vatican II generation, and thus they experience less of a "felt need" for sacramental reconciliation. This paper will argue that one of the chief reasons for decline in the practice of sacramental confession is that many people no longer identify with the minister of the sacrament as someone who is in solidarity with them: someone who understands himself to be, like them, a sinner in need of God's mercy. The notion of the priest as "judge" emphasized by Trent has outlived its usefulness and, if the sacrament is to recover its efficacy in the practice of the Church, what is needed is a renewed understanding of the minister of the sacrament as one who can identify with the penitent in her or his sinfulness and stand in solidarity with penitent in seeking God's mercy and healing. We must recover the understanding articulated by Bishop Haltigar of Cambrai (d. 830) in his Penitential: . . . No doctor can heal wounds, if he is afraid of infection. Likewise, no priest or bishop can heal the wounds from which a sinner suffers, or take away the sin, if he does not suffer and pray and weep with him.

3 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

Anthony J. Godzieba (Villanova University, Villanova, USA) Phantom of Liturgy, Spirit of Liturgy Joseph Ratzinger's views on liturgy, influential during his pontificate, were influenced by Romano Guardini, especially his The Spirit of the Liturgy. This paper does three things: (1) examines the essence of Guardini's argument and Ratzinger's reception of it; (2) proposes an alternative theologicalphenomenological understanding of the operations of human subjectivity in the liturgy, one that questions the human "phantom" that Ratzinger's "Guardini-esque" view of liturgy seeks to promote as the default position; (3) responds to the question "can mystery and embodied subectivity co-exist in the liturgy?" Basilius Groen (University of Graz, Graz, Austria) Liturgical Theology and Field Work This paper argues that field work enriches liturgical studies, since they allow for both theological and anthropological aspects. The paper deals not only with the current practice of worship but also with the history of the liturgy, as well as with hermeneutics. It emphasizes the need of a ‘current comparative liturgiology’, complementing the school of the ‘liturgie comparée’. Finally it addresses the high significance of more study of the religious popular culture. David Grumett (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland) Mystery or Doctrine? The Body of Christ in the Eucharist The idea that the Eucharist is a mystery calls into question, with good reason, merely functional construals of the Body of Christ and suggests that liturgy cannot be judged by secular reason. To present the Eucharist as nothing more than mystery, however, is to disregard its significance as doctrine. In fact, the Eucharist is neither more nor less mysterious than Christology. The four key doctrines of the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension give the Eucharist theological shape and structure. These doctrines are communicated through the elements, the configuration and use of space, ritual action and the liturgical text. Moreover, developments in liturgy reflect developments in doctrine. In the modern context, the frequent lack of concern in churches with historic liturgy and ritual action belies a more fundamental lack of concern with doctrine. Dorothea Haspelmath-Finatti (University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria) Transformations experienced in Liturgy: from Fagerberg and Grillo to Bonaccorso This paper asks in which way liturgies can be percieved as actions which transform individuals, communities, and the cosmos. While David Fagerberg in the US introduced “Theologia Prima” as an ecumenical liturgical theology, concluding that the liturgy is in fact the primary theology and God's transforming work on the the whole of creation, Andrea Grillo in Roman-Catholic Italy underlined the growing distance between liturgy and theology since the Enlightenment, stressing that only a new dialogue, between the various disciplines within theology as well as between theology and anthropology, can lead to a fuller understanding of the relationship between liturgical “immediacy”and “mediation”. Giorgio Bonaccorso, starting this new dialogue, suggests that recent anthropological (psychological, philosophical, neurobiological) research leads to an understanding of human life as an intricate interplay between mental, intellectual, spiritual and physical aspects, interwoven with other human beings and the environment. Human life can only exist in close dialogue, by receiving and by giving. In communal rite, and, in a specific way, in liturgy, human beings can experience this kind of exchange with their surroundings, enriched by the encounter with the “other”: The experience of transcendence and of transformations in ritual and liturgical action is possible. Bonaccorso's liturgical theology, founded in anthropological studies, leads to new perspectives of intercultural and interreligious dialogue. Liturgical studies, togehter with systematic theology of worship, could become of new importance for all of society.

4 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

Scott Holland (Bethany Theological Seminary, Richmond, Indiana, USA) A Theopoetics of Liturgy This presentation will begin by introducing and important new movement in theology known as "theopoetics" and its relationship to liturgy. Drawing from the disciplines of literary criticism, poetics and cognitive science, we will ask how poetry works in the formation of human consciousness and what it does to inspire and invite personal agency and action. Attentive also to current scholarship in ritual studies the paper will then offer a theopoetics of liturgy. Many of my young students proclaim that they are spiritual, not religious. Some of my old theology professors, in response to this youthful confession, counter gruffly that they are religious, not spiritual. We will suggest that theopoetics, indeed a theopoetics of artful liturgy, can bridge this chasm between religion and spirituality, institution and intuition, theory and praxis, doctrinal prose and lived poetics by inviting persons into a doxological wholeness which unites head, heart and hand in the great romance and adventure of faith. Kevin Hughes (Villanova University, Villanova, USA) Corpus Mysticum Revisited: de Lubac on Bodies, Mystical and Otherwise This paper proposes to take a fresh look at de Lubac’s classic Corpus mysticum, intending to retrieve what is lost. In the common reception of the argument, de Lubac is said to have uncovered a reversal of polarity from the early church’s notion of the community as the ‘Real Presence’ and the sacrament as “mystical body” to the more objectified scholastic and modern notion of the “real presence” in bread and wine, complimented by the “mystical body” of the Church. While this is true, it loses the sense that the classical symbolic theology of the Body of Christ is actually threefold – the bread and wine, the church, and the risen Christ. Loss of this third diminishes or even eclipses the eschatological horizon upon which all discussion of the sacrament must proceed. Only under the sign of the ‘missing body’ of Christ can the apparent oscillation between corporate and material senses of the Body be broken out of a paralyzing polar opposition, caught between ecclesial political factions, and set free to bind and to heal, as sacraments should. Nathan Jennings (Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas, USA) Liturgical Theology and the Contemplation of Mystery Reviewing Lubac’s three-fold definition of theology as the triune God, the interpretation of scripture, and contemplation, the paper focuses on theology as contemplation in particular. Liturgy somatically enacts the Christian mystery, mediating transcendence on our human, immanent plane. When contemplation sets the goal for the theologian, what defines the nature and approach of “liturgical theology”? Liturgical theology has traditionally engaged in a critical dialogue with “school,” or “systematic” theology. Liturgical theology encourages not so much contemplation leading to system, as somatic enactment leading to contemplation, not unlike Emminghaus’ Wesen. How do the universal and the particular relate in the Christian mysteries? Christian Platonism approaches an answer: transcendence cannot be named, but it can be performed. Some scholars express consternation concerning Kavanagh’s theologia prima. Is it an appropriate phrase? Equivocation between theology as doctrine or study, and teaching as enactment or discourse, generates more heat than light. Retrieving the primacy of behavior over discourse in Christian teaching constitutes the real gift of liturgical theology: doctrina prima, rather than theologia prima. Once so disciplined, so taught, the Christian approaches theology ascetically and receives the gift of contemplation of the mystery. Jitka Jonová, (Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic) The Attempt to Use the Vernacular Language in The Catholic Liturgy in the Czech Lands in the Twenties of the 20th Century After the establishment of independent Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 an attempt occurred to establish the national Catholic Church that would be less dependent on Rome. The promoters of the

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new church asserted – among other things – the use of the vernacular in the liturgy. The reforming priests argued that people do not understand the Latin liturgy, and referred to the precedent of Slavonic liturgy being approved in the 9th century (Mission of St. Cyril and Methodius). The priests began to use the Czech translation of the Roman Missal. Czech bishops requested in Rome that Czech and Old Church Slavonic languages would be permitted for liturgical use in the Czech lands. The bishops, however, only obtained the permission to read the Epistle and Gospel in the vernacular, and to celebrate the Old Church Slavonic liturgy in certain places and at certain festivals. The official permission for general use of the vernacular in the liturgy of the Catholic Church has occurred only decades later, as a result of the liturgical reform of the Vatican II. Georgia Masters Keightley (Independent Scholar) The Clericalization of the Roman Liturgy and the Peoples’ Eucharist: Organic Development or Rupture? Liturgical historians (e.g., Jungmann, Klauser, Emminghaus ) argue that over the centuries, the Eucharistic liturgy underwent substantial clericalization. This transformation becomes evident when examining the changes in structure and meaning that took place in the complex of rites relating to the peoples' eucharist (i.e., offertory procession, Eucharistic prayer, communion). The question considered here: were such changes to the peoples' rites an instance of organic development or do they in fact represent the Roman Rite's departure from tradition? In calling for liturgical renewal, the Second Vatican Council stipulated that “any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing (SC 23).” Today those calling for “a reform of the reform” cite the failure of those responsible for implementing the conciliar reform to heed this principle. While most (Gamber, Reid, Dobszay, Ratzinger) agree that some changes were necessary, the assumption is that the liturgy of the eucharist found in the 1962 Missale Romanum is the product and an exemplar of authentic organic development. The thesis argued here is that from the standpoint of the lay ordo and in respect to the people's eucharist, the 1962 Mass actually represents a rupture of the church's liturgical tradition rather than its organic development and that it is the Missal of Paul VI that presents a retrieval as well as a legitimate development of the tradition. Thomas M. Kelly, (Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA) When Liturgy Empowers: Rutilio Grande, S.J. and the Church of El Salvador Rutilio Grande, S.J. was the first priest assassinated in El Salvador prior to its civil war (1980-1992) largely due to his integral evangelization of the rural poor. Essential to this evangelization was the integration of the liturgy, and all the sacraments, into the lives of the most marginalized people of that country. For the first time in these communities, their faith was embodied by a liturgy which exemplified the Church’s mission to the world in that context. I will argue this based on Rutilio Grande’s description of two important liturgical moments he recounts during the evangelization of these communities. The first is the liturgy concluding the first year of mission activity when local lay leadership was chosen by the community and the second was the liturgy concluding the two-year evangelization program with the Archbishop of San Salvador. Both liturgies embodied, in a way that nothing else had before, the new faith of these new communities in El Salvador. What will become clear is that (1) a new understanding of the function of liturgy; (2) was directly related to leadership and power in the community; (3) which allowed people to integrate and live out Gospel values as a community of faith. Walter Knowles (Independent Scholar) “Becoming what you see”: Augustine’s Mystagogia of Deification In Sermon 272, Augustine, pointing to bread and wine on the altar of the basilica, told his newly baptized infantes, “Become what you see; receive what you already are.” A significant thread in Augustine’s theology of transformative desire is union with God—in David Meconi’s trenchant phrase, “Becoming gods by becoming God’s.” Augustine worked out his theology and praxis in the context of the worshiping community, and deification is not merely a theological concept; it is a driving force

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behind his teaching. He did not leave a collection of sermons to the neophytes, but rather, as with his catecheses, frequently led the entire community, infantes and seniores, through a mystagogia of deepening union with God, into the present reality of salvation. By living into his theology of creation and revelation (as expressed in the Hexameron commentaries and the early dialogs) and living toward his theology of totus Christus, the performed worship life of his community integrated evangelism, euchology, and theology. Johan Leemans (KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium) The Coming of the Spirit, Then and Now: Proclus of Constantinople on Pentecost As preacher, Proclus of Constantinople was one of the stars in the capital city of the Later Roman Empire. From him a large corpus of sermons is extant, which document very well how sermons as liturgy embodied, in a late antique fashion, the motto of lex orandi lex credendi. His hom. 16, on which my presentation will focus as an example to illustrate this more general point, was obviously delivered on the feast-day of Pentecost. Proclus reflects on the story of Acts, the meaning of the coming of the Spirit and the divinity of the Spirit. The sermon is so powerful because Proclus skillfully exploits the tension between the biblical “then” and the liturgical “now”. A masterful use of style and rhetoric adds to the liturgical power of the sermon. In this way the homilist does not only gets a message across to his audience but envelops the audience in it, makes it part of the message and exhorts it to embody this Spirit-filled presence in their lives outside the liturgy. Lex orandi and lex credenda finally, through the liturgy, ultimately becomes a lex agendi. Aimee Upjohn Light (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) Interreligious Optimism and Liturgical Skepticism: Tensions Between Catholic Interreligious Work and Changes in the Mass Roman Catholic theologians like Peter Phan, Aloysius Pieris, Francis Clooney and Peter Feldmeier lead interreligious work in attempting to affirm the goodness of non-Christian religions. Liturgically, however, Roman Catholicism's revivification of the Latin mass witnesses to a stand against more progressive approaches to non-Christian faiths. In the Latin mass's new form of the prayer for the Jews, one is returned to a stance which presumes the inferiority of traditions other than Christianity-even the tradition which was Jesus's own. This presentation will make three constructive claims about the latest wave of Roman Catholic interreligious work: first, that it shifts away from ontological claims, favoring instead a dialogical approach which seeks to learn from the religious Other. Second, the work of Phan and Clooney (who do theology of religions and comparative theology, respectively) rests on the Catholic belief in the doctrine of imago dei and that this doctrine significantly informed Nostra Aetate's declaration on the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions. Third, this presentation will argue that the work of these scholars remains consistent with the spirit of Nostra Aetate. The paper will then turn to how the Vatican's return to the Latin mass--especially the new form of the prayer for the Jews--appears discontinuous with the spirit of Nostra Aetate. The newest magisterial practice of liturgy returns the Church to an attitude of skepticism toward the efficacy of non-Christian religions at bringing about the kingdom of God. Phillip Joseph Linden, Jr. (Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) The Cry of the Poor: Inner City Solitude as Liturgy “Solitude as Liturgy”is an attempt to respond to the question of how the liturgy accounts for and responds to the cry of suffering peoples. It is a way of living among those who suffer--the crucified people–that gives insight into the ultimate liturgy, the dying of Jesus. I contend that peoples' sufferings and dying in the complex context of urban violence opens up an experience of the Divine. A reflection on this kind of transparency, challenges present times of the rising materialization of reality. The thesis is that there are no structures seemingly capable of responding to urban poverty and death at any level. In an attempt to account for suffering peoples, this theory goes beyond the limits of traditional ecclesial and liturgical structures to gain insight into the Divine mystery. Solitude allows insight into the struggles of the poor as anticipatory signs of the Divine because there is a transparency

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that the liturgy reveals. The revelation is no longer static–framed in established categories. Living among the victims of poverty is a liturgy that points to the mystery of the Divine. Solitude as liturgy has the potential of offering clarity on the altar of the universe. Sebastian Madathummuriyil (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) “Mystery” Versus “Mastery”: Reclaiming “Mystery” in the Sacraments The core of every religion is the quest for and an experience of the Transcendent. Apparently every religion promises presence of the Transcendent which assumes diverse expressions and manifold forms of worship. The questions as to “how” the Transcendent is mediated and “what” is mediated still remain to be explored since they involve the intersection between different domains, divine and human. However, the elusive nature of the Transcendent mystery often encounters us with more questions than answers. For instance, God reveals himself to Moses “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex 3:14) by a name which is not a name (Karen Armstrong); God mediates his gracious presence to his people in the gift of manna (man hu/what is this? Cf. Ex 16:15), a question rather than an answer (Louis-Marie Chauvet). This paper intends to revisit the patristic notion of the sacrament as mystery (mysterion) from a postmodern perspective. First I will explore how the use of the term sacramentum (since Tertullian) and the understanding of the sacrament in terms of cause/sign obliterated the perspective of sacraments as mysteries. Then I will demonstrate the dialectics of “presence” and “absence” as a fundamental mode of mediating the Transcendent. Finally, I will argue that postmodern sacramental thinking has the ability to reclaim the understanding of the sacrament as “mystery” disclaiming “mastery.” Christopher McMahon (Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, USA) Cruciform Salvation and Emergent Probability: The Liturgical Significance of Lonergan's Precept The relationship between liturgy and salvation depends on an adequate account of soteriology and its enactment in the liturgical celebration. The work of liturgists like Odo Casel led the Second Vatican Council to make significant progress in developing this relationship through an emphasis on the Paschal Mystery in both the theology of the liturgy and its practice. Moreover, the Council itself reaffirmed the formative character of the liturgy and its relationship to soteriology. The seminal work Bernard Lonergan on the cruciformity of Christian salvation (and amplified by his interpreters, e.g., Loewe, Crysdale, Komonchak, Kelleher) provides an important guide for the soteriological dimensions of liturgy. Lonergan's contribution to soteriology is particularly noteworthy given his emphasis on the Paschal Mystery as the symbolic-narrative expression of a precept to be enacted, the “Law of the Cross.” Lonergan's approach to soteriology demands that the liturgy be grounded not only in the symbolic dimensions of human experience but also oriented to the concrete and recurring patterns of human history, patterns shaped by sin that are open to and in need of redemption (GS 38). The construction of these redemptive patterns would benefit from a critical reflection on Lonergan's soteriology and its implications for the on-going reform of the liturgy and the renewal of ecclesiology. Ivana Noble (Protestant Theological Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) Words and music born out of silence: Liturgical and Hesychast influences on lex credendi in Vladimir Lossky and Fr Dumitru Stãniloae This paper will examine how liturgical practice and hesychasm enriched each other in two theologians of the Neo-Patristic renewal who participated in both of these main streams of the Orthodox spiritual tradition, Vladimir Lossky and Fr Dumitru Stãniloae. It will trace how liturgical symbolism was received in their theology, and where liturgical spirituality was transformed and enriched by their hesychast experience, especially that of the Jesus Prayer. Both liturgical spirituality and hesychast mysticism will be interpreted through the dynamics between the kataphatic and apophatic ways of knowing God. This will allow the two to be placed in a more equal relationship, as well as to see more clearly what each contributes to lex orandi. In accepting the multilayered notion of lex orandi as a source of lex credendi the paper will also ask how the unity in plurality of one will impact on the other. Returning to Lossky and Stãniloae, and taking this as an interpretive key of their contributions, it will conclude by considering which of their theological themes will need to be given a greater emphasis.

8 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

Timothy Noble (International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic) The Still Heart of the Celebration: Liberation Theology, Hesychasm and the Transformative Power of Liturgy Liberation theology and hesychasm can both be described as transformative practices. The sacramental theology of liberation has presented liturgy as the celebratory praxis of God's liberating presence, whilst hesychasm has implicitly questioned the centrality of the liturgy in much contemporary Orthodox theological reflection by its insistence on the encounter with the divine energies at every moment of life. Thus both have questioned the liturgical status quo and suggested ways in which the experience of liturgy can be expanded into Christian daily life. Liberation theology and hesychasm also form two poles of a dialectic, of active engagement and of the search for stillness, which does not need to find a synthesis, but which reminds us that both forms of reflection on grounded theological experience have an important contribution to make in attempts to relate theological theory and ecclesial practice. Bernard P. Prusak (Villanova University, Villanova, USA) Liturgy as Essential Lynchpin for a Hermeneutic of Vatican II Fifty years after event of Vatican II there is much discussion regarding the fundamental interpretation, implementation or even, in some quarters, the validity of the Council. Multiple dichotomies have been vociferously contrasted, such as continuity vs. discontinuity and renewal vs. radical rejection, In some circles, it has become fashionable to argue that Vatican II is very much in continuity with the positions of Pope Pius XII and his more immediate predecessors. That view tends to emphasize that the basic fundamentals of doctrinal tradition remain ever the same; change is limited to their circumstantial expression and disciplinary practice. This paper will propose a litmus test via a comparative analysis of Pius XII's Mediator Dei and Mystici Corporis with Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium. It will investigate whether the liturgical outcome of the Council was innovation or more a retrieval of past tradition. In that regard, it will ask who was more traditional, the Council or the so-called Traditionalists who seek to retrieve and to reintroduce the liturgical practices of the past four hundred years. The answer lies in Vatican II's recovery of a long lost, but foundational doctrine --that the participation of the baptized is essential to the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist. Michael Purcell (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland) Sacrosanctum Concilium in Transition and Translation, and the Sacrament of Pastoral Customs The Liturgy is the source and summit of all pastoral activity (SC 10). Indeed, the eucharist is the sacrament of pastoral custom (+ Francis, 05/2013). Liturgy is praxis and pastoral. It orients people to God and to one another. It is the impetus to pastoral action in local communities. It draws together people of diverse backgrounds and with a diversity of faith and understanding, yet all become one in what Jean-Yves Lacoste names co-affectivity. Liturgy is a unifying event, but it is also an exclusive event, as evidenced by those admitted to receiving the Eucharist in contrast to those excluded. This is notably formulated in 'Familiaris Consortio' where those who re-marry after divorce are de facto excluded from communion. Yet, liturgy, having a primary pastoral focus draws together such a diversity of people and peoples, who enrich its celebration by their very diversity, and often to liturgist has to close his eyes to what really presents itself at each celebration. People, and pastoral custom, are the text which needs to be read and deciphered with a view to pastoral impetus. Thomas Quartier (Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands)

Contemporary Practice of a Traditional Monastic Style Benedictine spirituality is characterized by its practical character, directed by the Regula Benedicti (RB). This lifestyle forms earthly identities (AGAMBEN), in contemporary society inside and outside monasteries. However, within these practices ‘close to the ground’ mysteries are mediated. In Benedictine tradition, the dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great (Vita Benedicti, VB) show how the pillars of monastic life offer practical patterns in which mystical experiences do take place. These

9 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

patterns form the heart of what we call liturgical spirituality (QUARTIER): life is ritualized and gains its liturgical character by mediating mysteries within lived religion. Especially prayer, reading and work (ora, lege et labora) in their monastic form offer a style (SALMANN) in which mysteries can be‘searched for’ (RB 58, 7) and ‘praised’ (RB 57,9). In this paper, we will first sketch a model of liturgical spirituality from Benedictine resources, the RB and the VB (1). In the second part, we present contemporary practices of liturgical spirituality inside and outside monasteries, relying on fieldwork conducted in the Low Lands (2). In the third part we will reflect on these findings using concepts from philosophy, religious studies and theology, to get a grip on how liturgical spirituality can be understood hermeneutically (3). Finally, we will draw some tentative conclusions about contemporary practice (4). Michael Quisinsky (Universität Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland) “The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take light” (GS 22) – Liturgy at the Crossroads of Christian Living and Thinking In a twofold dynamic, the liturgy is the summit and font of the activity of the Church (SC 10). It Is the “outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (SC 2). The same twofold dynamic exists also with respect to the “mystery of Christ”. According to another twofold dynamic mentioned in GS 22, the Christian life is both rooted in this mystery and leads into it. The question arises whether and in what way this twofold dynamics and more exactly the Christ-centred link between liturgy and life can be understood as the ecclesial expression of the togetherness of the universal and concrete dimensions of faith. In a first step, this paper analyses historically how this link was realised in the documents of Vatican II and their reception, and claims that this link can be a criterion for the evaluation of the Council’s reception. In a second step, the paper reconsiders the link between “pastoral” and “dogmatic” which is essential for a christologically and salvation-economically rooted understanding of “mystery”. In a third step, the paper indicates the horizons opened for Church and theology by this very notion. John C. Ries (Carroll College, Helena, Montana, USA) Liturgy as Being Caught in the Mysteries of Faith: The Existential Call and Binding of Sacrament This paper will explore how sacrament embodies how being human is caught up in the existential “between-ness” of mystery’s simultaneous pull of transcendence and immanence. Drawing from E. Schillebeeckx’s emphasis on the sacramental dynamic of encounter and J-M. Ela’s seeking a Eucharist that is genuinely liturgical (i.e. work of the people), it will examine how liturgies “work” precisely in and through their being caught in such mystery. Herein the call and binding of being caught between such radical immanence and radical transcendence is “momentous,” i.e. what S. Kierkegaard refers to as a “fullness of time” that demands self transcendence precisely in and through immanence. Accordingly, a disturbing disquietude lurks in mysteries of sacramental presence that already stretches oneself beyond oneself in oneself. Eucharist will be an example used to unfold this being caught in mystery. Randall S. Rosenberg (Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA) The Primacy of Desire and the Liturgical Ordering of Love: Theological-Anthropological Reflections The human person is often envisioned as fundamentally a rational animal or a believing animal or a moral animal. While these designations capture something distinctly human, they fail to do justice to our primordial experience of desire. This paper critically appropriates James K.A. Smith’s argument that human persons are fundamentally “liturgical, desiring animals” whose fundamental identities are constituted by what we love. This human structure of desire is oriented toward visions of human flourishing that symbolically capture our affect and imagination – visions of the good life that inform our identity through a consistent of set of habits and bodily practices. Mindful of Smith's account of visions of human flourishing operative in our “cultural liturgies” (for example, the rituals, practices, and hagiographies at work in a shopping mall), this paper retrieves Dante’s Commedia as a “classic” – a text capable of disclosing permanent possibilities of meaning and truth (David Tracy) – with special attention to the Commedia’s connection between liturgical performance and the ordering of loves. The

10 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

paper argues that the Christian liturgy is a privileged site where two dimensions of love – eros and agape – are integrated and ordered toward an incarnational and eschatological vision of the good life. Philip J. Rossi (Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA) Liturgy as Sacramental Mystery: Incarnating Grace in the Worldly Spaces of Contingency This presentation offers, within the context of emergent cultures of “post-secular” plurality, a construal of the centrality of liturgy for the Church’s mission to, for, and in the world. This construal functions within a larger project in theological anthropology to render the workings of divine grace intelligible in the face of the intellectual, cultural, and social dynamics that Charles Taylor calls an “immanent frame” circumscribing all value and meaning into “this-worldly” terms. This immanent frame— particularly at its most stringent—provides little conceptual or imaginative space for articulating a discourse of grace as the enacted worldly presence of God, let alone a discourse of grace instantiated as sacramentum, i.e., as “visible sign of the hidden reality of salvation” (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 774). I argue that liturgy, as locus of the church’s enactment of the signification of grace, can open spaces for such discourse in post–secular plurality to the extent that it expresses God’s initiative of “being with us” as fully incarnate in the contingencies of enfleshed human vulnerability. Liturgy makes present the mystery of God’s transcendent graciousness by drawing us deeper into the human vulnerability we share with the now-risen crucified One. Piotr Roszak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland) Mystery in Hispanic-Mozarabic Rite: From Liturgical Epistemology to Ecclesiological Praxis One of the characteristics of the Hispanic euchology is its focus on the mystery known, mediated, and participated in the rite by faith. This tri-partite division will determine our reflection on mystery. Firstly, the Mozarabic Rite is oriented ad consideranda divini Mysteriis sacramenta. This verbal unit between mystery and sacrament is very typical for this rite and establishes the appropriated hermeneutical coordinates for the liturgical epistemology. These two terms are not already synonyms, since they indicate two different aspects, external (sign) and internal (salvific reality), mediating in the rite. Liturgical actio opens up space and time so that, under visible signs, one can discover the invisible mystery. Secondly, for Mozarabs, the mystery does not signify the unknowability of God, but instead his Trinitarian revelation. Finally, the Hispanic euchology is marked by concern for adequately celebrating misteriis solemnitatis, the grace of sacraments, and intends to hold the odore fragrantia of mystery in the rite. The Christian life is shown as the “bringing of mysteries”, which God wants to share with men. It introduces the ecclesial paradigm of wisdom, which entails liturgy comprehended by Mozarabs as arcanum Christi. Marianne Servaas (Diocese of Vlaams-Brabant and Mechelen, Belgium) Liturgy as Being Clothed in the Trinitarian Mode of Mystery Using a combination of theological and mystical writers (von Hildebrand, Augustine, Newman, Ephrem the Syrian, Ruusbroec , Aelred of Rievaulx,…) we will indicate how liturgy is a dynamic happening of transformation that relates to three important intuitions: 1) life comes before thought; 2) body matters and 3) lasting peace and joy can only be found in complete surrender to the depth of Mystery. Two lines of reflection will serve as guidelines. First, `Mystery' is not some kind of esoteric conglomeration of impressions nor is it a gnostic apprehension of secrecy. Rather it is dwelling in the ever growing revelatory reality of the `Mystery of Faith' (the Trinity) as a communal and personal way of knowing that involves the objectivity of affectivity, the authority of the concrete, and truth as rooted in analogy, contemplation and beauty. Second, liturgy can only mediate this Mystery if is remains faithful to the ordinatio caritatis embedded in the incarnation of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit. Thus can it become the mediation of transformation (towards the imago Dei), purification (of desire, freedom and responsibility) and salvation (holiness) of life by Life itself.

11 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

John N. Sheveland (Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, USA) From Mystery to Dialogue to Pluralism: Theological Method According to the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences This essay analyzes the concept of mystery as disclosed in the writing of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences with particular attention falling on their Paper #96 entitled "Methodology: Asian Christian Theology," approved in the year 2000 in Kathmandu by the Office of Theological Concerns. In carving out a distinctively Catholic theological method born from a distinctively Asian experience of faith in Jesus, the Bishops stress the theological fruitfulness of the concept of mystery for Asian Christian understandings of God and of the Spirit's presence in the religions encountered as well as in a set of distinctively Asian loci theologici. For the bishops, mystery serves as a category fundamental to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition as well as one that bears fruit in the concrete experience of faith and discipleship in contemporary Asian contexts marked by communalism, dialogue, and cultural resources such as social movements. Theological pluralism -- as distinct from relativism -- serves as a useful check against hegemonies conscious and unconscious, while simultaneously resting on and restating in Asian tongues categories like mystery and Spirit which are central to the Catholic tradition. Laura Smit (Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA) Heavenly Worship in John Chrysostom and John Calvin John Chrysostom and John Calvin may seem an unlikely theological pairing, especially in terms of their liturgical theologies. Yet Chrysostom is one of the most cited theologians in Calvin's oeuvre, and there are some important points of convergence betwen them. Both Chrysostom and Calvin understand sacramental experience as a movement of ascension into the presence of God rather than a movement of distribution into the world. Both call for some degree of asceticism in worship, basing that call on an understanding of the human person as the highest available image of God's presence. Both understand the church's worship as a participation in heavenly worship. Their quite different liturgical approaches are designed to express these shared commitments. David Stosur (Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA) Narrative Signification and the Paschal Mystery: Liturgy, Participation, and Hermeneutics Prompted by Mark Searle's writings on liturgical participation, the paper explores connections between key principles in narrative and liturgical theology, considering questions and tensions that arise as these diverse theological areas are brought into dialogue. What is the narrative structure of Christian worship, and how does it serve the purposes of liturgy as human sanctification and divine glorification (SC 7 et passim)? How does the liturgical expression of a church “both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities” (SC 2) serve a hermeneutical purpose, interpreting what Rahner called the “liturgy of the world,” and how might Rahner's notion of the hermeneutical relationship between the liturgy of the church and the liturgy of the world correspond to what Stephen Crites called “the narrative quality of experience,” in which the “sacred story,” which cannot be told, is nonetheless brought to awareness in particular expressions of “mundane stories”? The path forged by Paul Ricoeur in his works dealing first with symbol, then with metaphor, and finally with narrative provides a roadmap for the way narrative approaches to liturgical theology may deepen our understanding of principles from Sacrosanctum Concilium and broaden our liturgical horizons in the current phase of the post-Conciliar age. Thomas R. Thompson (Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA) Unraveling the Multivalence of Trinitarian Mystery Every Christian liturgy of ecumenical-creedal sensibility bears a trinitarian framework, narrating that great chiastic exitus (from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit) and reditus (in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father) of creation and redemption. Indeed, the sublime purpose of Christian liturgy is to celebrate this divine mystery--the mystery of the Trinity pro nobis. But the "mystery of the Trinity" for many a worshiper remains shrouded in, and not illuminated by, the category of mystery. Given the multivalence of “mystery,” this paper reviews a variety of connotations in order to clarify the most

12 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

helpful theological senses in which the Trinity is a mystery of faith. I will contend that a long-standing and persistently popular conception of the Trinity as harboring a mysterium logicum has worked against the informative conceptions of the Trinity as a mysterium stricte dictum, mysterium salutis, and especially as a mysterium communionis. I will argue against the legitimacy of the first--especially as defended as (ontological?) paradox in recent thought--so as to accentuate the illuminating senses of trinitarian mystery as a revelation of grace (stricte dictum) for our salvation (salutis) for the purpose of participation (communionis) in trinitarian life. Elochukwu Uzukwu (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) Recapturing the Mystery: African Eucharistic Prayers in the Roman Rite The Vatican II liturgical renewal was good news for African Catholics. They began to enjoy the freedom of being “truly Christian” and “truly African”. Initial expectations were that liturgical inculturation would focus on the mysteries, especially initiation and marriage: rites that in indigenous Africa marked the development and flourishing of the human person. The inculturation of Christian initiation flourished in the diocese of Diebougou, Burkina Faso. However, in the central African region (Cameroon, Zaire-Congo), East Africa (AMECEA) and West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria) the focus was on Eucharistic liturgy and devotion. The great novelty was not the popularized “dancing church” but the creation of new Eucharistic Prayers. This paper explores the questions: What happened to the new African Eucharistic Prayers, especially with the Roman policy of centralization and translation? What are the structures of the Prayers? What do they have in common with but different from the Roman Canon and the Eucharistia of the historic liturgies? What new access do they open for the “local” recapture and diffusion of the mystery of Christ's Death-Resurrection? What do they contribute to the World Church? The paper will examine texts of Nigerian Eucharistic Prayer, “All-Africa Eucharistic Prayer”, Tanzanian, Kenyan, and Congo Eucharistic Prayers to show that the liturgies of Africa, like the historic liturgies, display the density of the mystery of God in Christ, always available through local witness or incarnation. Rik Van Nieuwenhove (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland) Contemplation and Sacraments: How to Make Sense of Sacraments in an Allegedly De-Ontologised World It is often said that in postmodern times we reduce `reality' to `meaning', and we usually understand `meaning' simply in terms of `experience.' From this perspective traditional teaching on the efficacy of grace in the sacraments is in danger of becoming utterly incomprehensible to people today. How can we even begin to relate to the dogma of the real presence in the Eucharistic bread and wine? Similarly, in relation to the sacrament of marriage, recent proposals by a number of scholars (Bernard Cooke, M.L. Lawler) who adopt the so-called inter-personalist model of marriage, argue that marriage between “unbelieving Catholics” may be valid but is not sacramental. Marriage can only be truly sacramental, in this understanding, if it is lived as a faithful/Christian relationship between two loving spouses. This paper will resist an (allegedly) de-ontologised understanding of divine causality in the sacraments, and argue that a hermeneutical perspective which recovers a Gadamerian understanding of symbolism (as developed in The Relevance of the Beautiful), as well as the traditional understanding of `contemplation' (understood as a disposition of gratuitous receptivity), may offer possibilities to retain a more traditional ontological approach while remaining sensitive to today's context in the `experience society'. Natalie Kertes Weaver (Ursuline College, Pepper Pike, Ohio, USA) As New Songs Upward Surge A communal response to the sacred, liturgy always reflects the living spirit of people-in-context. De facto, the context will necessitate (or perhaps reveal) certain formal innovations in the expression of worship. This move to innovation, however, raises important questions. To what degree can or should contemporary forms transform both the conveyance and the content of established beliefs? What criteria, if any, can be used to judge the adequacy of new spirit movements? How do new forms of communal encounter with the sacred eventually work themselves into the fabric of tradition itself? In

13 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

an effort to shed light on these questions, my paper will explore comparatively the dynamic between 1) Hebrew poetry and liturgy and 2) the modern day analogue of popular music and Christian worship through the case study of Medieval Hebrew lyric which occupied a unique place at the intersection between the sacred and profane in the 11th -13th century Islamic Andalusian courts. At once popular insiders yet religious outsiders, the Hebrew poets of this era were often employed with such secular tasks as composing wedding hymns or songs for banquet entertainment. They occupied public positions that often related little to the task of writing sacred poetry, yet from profane contexts their work sometimes became part of the Hebrew liturgical tradition. In this historical example, I see a microcosm of the general tendency toward a popular culture influence on formal liturgy. By analyzing this dynamic in a discreet, historical literature, my paper will explore comparatively this dynamic and consider parameters for the constructive dialogue between modern Christian liturgy and popular music today. George Worgul Jr. (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) When Mediating Mystery's Fails Anthropology, sociology and psychology have all underscored the fundamental role that ritual behavior plays in the transmission of cultural metaphors, beliefs, values and behaviors. Ritual is the main mediator of cultural root metaphors or the crucial mediator of mysteries. After briefly reviewing the literature on this subject, the paper will expose what happens in culture (religious communities) when mysteries (metaphors) are inadequately mediate, either because the ritual performance distorts the mystery or the mystery (root metaphor) no longer transforms or resolves ambiguity into meaningfulness. The final part of the paper will argue that Christianity in the west faces the dual challenges of a stagnant ritual (liturgical) celebration which clouds the mystery of Christ's death/resurrection as well as the emergence of alternative metaphors (mysteries). In the later case, Christianity in the west has entered a post-colonial and post-modern context. In the United States this has resulted in a shift in the meaning of religious ritual participation. This shift will be demonstrated from recent sociological surveys. Rev. Dr. Victor Yudin (OTI Johannes de Theoloog, Brussels/Ghent, Belgium) Celestial Hierachy in the Byzantine Prothesis Rite In his classical public lecture, delivered at Institut St. Serge (Paris) in June 1975, Mgr. Basil Krivochein compares certain features of Orthodox Service Books in Greek and Russian contemporary usage. His conclusion is that despite a number of minor discrepancies between the Russians and the Greeks, in doctrinal sense the worship practice differs only on two following points: (a) the issue of transubstantiation of wine during the liturgy of Presanctified Gifts; (b) the issue of Christ’s redeeming role for the celestial beings in the course of the Byzantine liturgies of John Chrysostom and Basil the Great. In our present talk we will discuss the second issue. Mgr. B.Krivochien remarks that in the course of the Prothesis Rite, the Greeks commence the commemoration of the Saints with the Theotokos proceeding down to the angels, whereas the Russians proceed directly to St. John the Baptist, skipping the celestial beings. Hypothetically, Mgr. B.Krivochien suggest to name the Greek practice as cosmic, whereas the Russian practice as anthropocentric. We revisit this issue again more in detail in connection with a possible influence of corpus areopagiticum on contemporary Greek practice via Maximus Confessor. We will also deal with the issue that the Russian practice of celebrating the rite of Prothesis differs from Greek practice (without mentioning angels), and what is the most plausible explanation for this in doctrinal sense.

14 LEST IX Senior Abstracts | KU Leuven, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies