Christ the liturgy. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. PDF
Preview Christ the liturgy. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Christ the Liturgy William O. Daniel, Jr. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2013 For Susan Keefe (1954 – 2012) and Frank Valdez Synopsis This thesis is a constructive work in theology. The aim is to show the centrality of liturgy for theological investigation, exposing how liturgical action at once shapes and gives rise to theological articulation and also manifests an implicit theology. The meaning is in the making, as it were, and this thesis seeks to show the descriptive nature of theology and liturgy as that which makes all theology possible. What is liturgy? Following the earliest usage of leitourgia in the ancient world, and especially as articulated by Saint Paul, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Irenaeus, I show that the Church’s earliest articulation of liturgical action bears an implied ontology of participation, namely in the singular liturgical action of Christ. Liturgy is not, therefore, to be defined or understood as “the work of the people,” but rather as the “work of the One for the sake of the many,” in which all of creation participates. I argue that the human is to be understood as a liturgical animal who by virtue of her being(-)created is incorporated into the Liturgy God is. I also argue that liturgy names the inter-offering of the Persons of the Trinity, whereby each hypostasis exists as mutually constituting and constituted. The human’s participation in this liturgical action is a participation of the whole person, mediated by the materials and movements involved in the liturgical action—liturgy as the mediation of the divine economy. I also show how late medieval liturgical reforms issue a gradual and unwarranted relegation of the laity’s involvement in the liturgical action. Although inadvertent, this continual extraction of lay participation serves to secularize their role and extract them from the economy to which the liturgy is meant to assimilate. All of this is to expose how the liturgical action, which was vastly influential to the social imaginary of the medieval world, construes and conditions the human more and more along a secular line. Additionally, it is to recover the essential nature of liturgical action for social construction. Indeed, liturgical action as social construction—the embodying of the reciprocal and mutually constituting life of God in whose image the human is created and to whose Being, through Christ the Liturgy, the human has been assimilated, is being- assimilated, and will be assimilated. Christ the Liturgy 6 Acknowledgements I thank Professor John Milbank who facilitated my postdoctoral research in theology and for his encouragement in the unraveling direction of this thesis. I am grateful to Simon Oliver and Catherine Pickstock for their generous and careful criticism of the thesis, which has proved immensely beneficial for its current form and my continued research and writing. I am especially grateful to Susan Keefe, without whom this thesis would not have been possible. Her direction of my studies at Duke Divinity School, her friendship, and her fruitful criticism of my work during my time at both Duke Divinity School and the University of Nottingham will never be forgotten. I am deeply saddened by her unexpected death this past year, which is a tremendous loss to the Church Catholic. She was the most selfless person I have ever known and I am grateful to dedicate this thesis to her memory. I thank Steven Hoskins and Henry Spaulding who first taught me how to do theology and why I should. I am grateful to Stanley Hauerwas who was so influential in my studies at Duke Divinity School. I thank the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship for providing further avenues for dialogue, which enabled much of this thesis to develop. As part of the Institutes’ work, and for their gracious reading and discussion of the ideas contained herein, I thank D. Stephen Long, Michael Budde, James K. A. Smith, and all who participated in their seminars. I thank also my friends and interlocutors who have challenged my reading, writing, and theological rigor. I am especially grateful to: Frank Valdez, Hugh Cruse, Bill Duryea, Elizabeth Bass, Richard Eatman, Steven Peay, Thomas Holtzen, Arnold Klukas, Kyle Bennett, and all others who may have entertained my continuous discussions on liturgy and action. Last, but not least, I thank Amanda and Wyles and Aydah. They have endured the most from my research and writing and all the time away from home it has caused. I am eternally grateful to Amanda for her faithful encouragement and support and to Wyles and Aydah who constantly distracted me to help me realize what I am really writing about. I am also grateful to my parents Bill and Fay, and my in-laws, Jim and Kathy, who have Christ the Liturgy been a constant source of encouragement, more so than perhaps they will ever know. 8 Contents Abbreviations Introduction i 1 A Genealogy of Liturgy 1 2 Divine Liturgy and the Epistemological Crisis 41 3 Being-in-the-Liturgy 85 4 Deranging the Senses 131 5 Invoking the Secular 177 Conclusion 221 Bibliography 227
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