Abstract
This chapter identifies several disciplines and thinkers that, when taken together, contribute to a robust consideration of liturgy in the realm of radical theology. This chapter considers both the important contributions and the limitations of each area in three parts: first, the contributions of ritual theory and religious anthropology, particularly the study of the disruption of ritual and ritual’s relation to the impossible; second, the philosophical areas of influence, especially Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida; and finally, liturgical and sacramental theology proper, primarily the work of Louis-Marie Chauvet, and the challenge posed to radical liturgical thought by dependence on orthodoxy. Each of these insular discourses can contribute to thinking liturgy radically.
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Notes
- 1.
Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford UP, 1992).
- 2.
I here tend to use “ritual” and “liturgy” interchangeably. While ritual is arguably a much broader and more generic category than the primarily religious activity of liturgy, in the context of this chapter, I am treating the religious performance of rituals as prescribed, ordered liturgy, mostly from within a Christian setting. It is also worth noting that though “liturgy” tends to connote specifically religious (and often specifically Christian) ritual, the etymology of the word is more generic. The Greek λειτουργία breaks down to λαός, that is, people or public, and ἔργον, that is, work. Therefore either or both “ritual” and “liturgy” may be appropriate to describe the activity in question. I use both terms throughout.
- 3.
Gerardo Marti and Gladys Ganiel, The Deconstructed Church (New York: Oxford UP, 2014).
- 4.
Kathryn McClymond, Ritual Gone Wrong (New York: Oxford UP, 2016), 182.
- 5.
Adam Seligman et al., Ritual and Its Consequences (New York: Oxford UP, 2008).
- 6.
The aporia , or irreconcilable contradiction, is key to deconstruction, especially in Derrida’s work. One classic example of Derrida’s work with aporia is in his Of Grammatology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1998) where he puts in conflict “logocentric” and “scientific” thought.
- 7.
John Caputo, What Would Jesus Deconstruct? (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), 58.
- 8.
For an explanation and discussion of Derrida’s “we who cannot say we,” see John Caputo, ed., Deconstruction in a Nutshell (New York: Fordham UP, 1997), 108.
- 9.
Louis-Marie Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament (Collegeville, MN: Pueblo, 1995), 265.
- 10.
Louis-Marie, Chauvet, The Sacraments (Collegeville, MN: Pueblo 2001). 28.
- 11.
Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World, 2nd ed. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s), 136.
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Osinski, K. (2018). Liturgy. In: Rodkey, C., Miller, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Theology. Radical Theologies and Philosophies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96595-6_46
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