‘The Latin literature of liturgical interpretation: defining a genre and method’, Studia Liturgica, 43.1 (2013), 76-92. (original) (raw)

In the Christian literature of the Latin West there was a distinct and widespread type of writing that interpreted the liturgy in its broadest sense (sometimes including the space where the liturgy was celebrated) using contemporary methods of scriptural exegesis. It fell from favor in the early modern period, but in recent decades there has been a small revival of interest among scholars in a variety of disciplines. This article aims to assist this new interest by defining the genre of "liturgical interpretation" more closely through attention to its origins, method, history, and theoretical underpinnings. Given the genre's important place in medieval and early modern culture, students of these periods should have an understanding of liturgical interpretation; but it is even possible that the genre's symbolic and flexible mode of thinking about public worship may be able to contribute to future liturgical theologies. 1