On the religious worth of bodily liturgical action (original) (raw)
Related papers
2017
Moving in Sacred Time: Metrical Interactions Between Body and Voice in Jewish and Greek Orthodox Liturgical Chant Rosa Abrahams Whether in the Synagogue or the Greek Orthodox Church, worshippers are physically This dissertation is at its very core, a communal project. Thus, my first thanks go to those Jewish and Greek Orthodox congregations that welcomed me to conduct research, and to the many generous individuals that participated in this study, sharing with me their time, knowledge, and deep personal experiences in worship. Without you, there truly would be no dissertation. Thank you for showing me a deeper purpose in this endeavor, inviting me to bridge the boundaries of academic and public life with your hospitality, openness, and honesty. It is my hope that my work does justice in some small way to your complex experiences in churches and synagogues. My deepest gratitude extends to my brilliant and caring advisor, Mark J. Butler. Mark, your tireless and patient guidance throughout the entirety of my time in graduate school has been integral in my emerging on the other side. Thank you for challenging my ideas and teaching me to challenge myself as music scholar, for modelling expert professionalism and scholarship, and for treating me with respect and kindness. Most of all, thank you for trusting me in embarking on this project. I recall our meeting when I asked you to advise me in writing this dissertation and how I was met with your excitement and openness, in light of your own dissertation-writing experiences; and I've carried that moment as a talisman throughout this process. Thank you. My thanks to my superb committee for the unending gifts of their time, knowledge, and critique. Vasili Byros, thank you for suggesting I explore the music of the Greek Orthodox church, for guiding me as a music theorist, and for encouraging me to stay human throughout the process. Inna Naroditskaya, you have always challenged me to expand my expertise, to make connections between disciplines, and to be brave and courageous. Thank you for in turn 10 Glossary This glossary is provided to define commonly used terms throughout the text. Many terms are also defined within the text itself, and terms with multiple pertinent definitions are only defined within the text. All Hebrew and Yiddish definitions are taken from the following source:
Die geistige & geistliche Macht der Musk. Interdisziplinaere une oekumenische Perspektiven, 2022
The paper begins with a general definition of the idea of “performance” and its theological relevance as presented in the works of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Phillip Stoltzfus, Jeremy S. Begbie and Maeve L. Heaney. There is an analysis of texts concerning the musical practices of some Reformed and Orthodox Churches which is followed by some practical observations made by the Marcel Pérès, Marcin Bornus-Szczyciński, Jacques Cheyronnaud and Jean-François Colosimo. The next section tries to put together the results of some very bold West-ern reflections on the anthropological importance of music in the liturgy, with the Orthodox praxis of liturgical chant. This juxtaposition leads to value and understand two different ex-periences of musical power: a) the internal, implicit power of the chant, fully integrated into the liturgy and sung in an anthropologically integrated way; b) the external, more spectacular power of creativity and expression, typical for Western worship. These two expressions seem to have a common theological ground and a perspective of growth within a context of re-spectful exchange. The conclusion proposes some steps in this field, partially with reference to the original discoveries of Serge Wilfart, made on the relationship between spirituality and voice.
Ritual Systems, Ritualized Bodies, and the Laws of Liturgical Development
Studia Liturgica, 2019
The “laws” of comparative liturgical development (Baumstark, Taft) are derived from pre-modern liturgical texts and the findings of early biology and linguistics. Yet Christian liturgy is not an organically evolving species; it is a ritual system, a cultural, political, self-regulating, self-reproducing set of rites that are used to interpret and correct one another. Focusing on the reception of new practices by practiced communities, a performance theory approach spotlights the systemic interrelationships of rites and the ritual habitus of human bodies. A ritual system makes particular meanings seem natural, permitting some new liturgical developments, impeding others. Ritualized bodies constrain rapid changes, while the entrance of bodies ritualized in a different system changes the environment, leading some to attempt to reinforce the status quo. Technologies for passing on liturgies are developed and used when a crisis demands change or imperils valued practice. Accounting for d...
The Seraphim above: Some Perspectives on the Theology of Orthodox Church Music
Religions, 2015
Some outstanding contributions notwithstanding, much recent scholarship in Western European languages concerning art and the sacred has been quite prolific but has generally avoided discussion of specifically liturgical music, a particular problem when dealing with the sacred music of the Orthodox Church. The present discussion aims at establishing some bases for furthering this discussion, drawing not only on recent commentators but especially commentary on the question of liturgical singing by the Fathers of the Church.
Dancing in praise of God: Reinterpretation of theology in worship
2021
In many religions, worshipping God whilst moving the body is part of worship. This article aims to explain and defend the position that worshipping God by moving the body in liturgy is biblical and has a theological foundation. The discussion is divided into three. Firstly, the writer traces the origins of objections to bodily movements in liturgy and analyses them. Secondly, it is explained that body movement is a language to God. A biblical argument about body movements, which should not be trapped in appearance and drama, is the third part. The article concludes that worship by gestures is biblically substantiated. The research contribution suggests that the church should be accommodating in its orthodoxy to accept this as truth. The church should deem it important to teach the congregation the concept of true worship and not worship that is trapped in appearances. The key finding is that the meaning of worship lies not in the direction but in the worshippers’ hearts. Each church...
Corporeality as a Key to the Assessment of the Dynamics of Ritualization
Yearbook for Liturgical and Ritual Studies/Jaarboek voor Liturgie-Onderzoek, 2011
The authors inquire into the special quality which has the ability to transform non-ritual action into ritual action – ritualization. Borrowing concepts and terminology from the complex theory of James Laidlaw and Caroline Humphrey, the article demonstrates that non-ritual action – once transformed by ritualization – becomes ‘deliberately non-intentional’. At the same time, it also shows that even though Humphrey and Laidlaw’s theory provides a firm terminological frame, it is mistaken in the conclusion that ritualization is limited solely to the context of established rituals and that rituals themselves are phenomena primarily static, subject to little or no change. In the subsequent argumentation it builds on the method of Ronald L. Grimes and within the frame of his discourse strives to show that ritualization, as the dynamic quality of both emerging and established rituals, is sustained by the ritualists’ corporeality and that it is only by bodily comprehending the physical value of ritual action that we can study the foundations of rituals themselves. It tries to demonstrate that it is possible to develop a certain ‘sensitivity’ to ritualization in its many forms through physical training of a special type and explain in what way this training applies to the concept of ‘deliberate non-intentionality’ characteristic of ritualization. This will be done through an ac- count of a teaching technique called dialogical performance, which was founded in the year 1968 by professor Ivan Vyskoil and which is practiced today at the Theatre Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (the Czech Republic). The authors argue that developing such sensitivity to bodily expressions should form an integral part of training for those scholars who wish to investigate rituals in the field.
Liturgical hermeneutics: interpreting liturgical rites in performance
1994
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Liturgical Texts and Performance Practices
Understanding Medieval Liturgy
The study of medieval liturgy is largely dependent on surviving manuscript sources, but the nature of those sources and their bearing on the most fundamental aspect of liturgy-its enactment-is very difficult to reconstruct. We cannot assume that any written rite captures or prompts performance in a straightforward manner. The reasons for this include the low survival rate of the texts most often and most directly implemented in the course of worship, the dearth of explicit evidence for the ways such texts were used, the longevity of oral methods for transmitting information about performance, significant local and regional differences in the scripting of ritual activity, and changes in recording practices over time. Above all, our understanding of medieval liturgy is fundamentally fettered by the modern academic and confessional agendas that have manipulated and framed its study, beginning with the competing ideologies that shaped the concept of 'liturgy' during and after the Reformation, and continuing up to the present day in the retroactive designation of certain medieval texts as 'liturgical' , 'paraliturgical' or 'nonliturgical'. 1 The very word 'liturgy' (in English and other European languages) came into use only in the mid-sixteenth century, at precisely the time when the parameters and meanings of religious ceremonial were at the heart of confessional controversies. 2 Although the medieval vocabulary used to describe the wide parameters of religious worship was large and rich, it did not-at least in the Latin Westinclude the word 'liturgy'. The classical Greek λειτουργία meant, originally, the performance of any kind of public service or duty (religious, civic, military); it 1 The degree to which post-medieval editorial choices and scholarly chauvinism have shaped the study of medieval texts-while generating the modern genres and typologies to which these texts are assigned-has been the subject of intense critique by scholars in many disciplines for several decades. Yet this sort of scrutiny is only just beginning to inform the way we conceptualize and study such phenomena as medieval worship, preaching and dramatic performance. I address these issues in 'The Appearance of Early Vernacular Plays: