Liturgy

Structural differentiation between liturgy and the theatre

2013

Theater and in this thesis. Special thanks go first to Amy Lehman, who has always been kind, considerate and supportive through this whole process. I am also grateful to all of my professors at the University of South Carolina, especially Nina Levine, Victor and Amy Holtcamp, and Robert Richmond. Your dedication and talent are an inspiration to me. Thanks also to the administration of Cardinal Newman School and in particular to Jacqualine Kasprowski for making it possible for me to pursue Theatre in both practical and scholarly ways. Finally, I thank my wife Laura for putting up with the long hours and strange schedules.

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:

Religion, Theatre, and Performance. ed. Lance Gharavi (Routledge), 2012

Religion, ritual, and performance are troublesome as categories. Because they are central to academic disciplines, their definitions are contested. Like every other key academic concept, these have a history and come with baggage; it could hardly be otherwise. However, since most of us scholars continue using the terms, we have obligations. One is to say what we mean by the debated terms, but the other is to resist becoming so bogged down in terminological quibbling that we are disabled from conducting research among real people in actual situations. Here Ronald L. Grimes, the author, says how he understand these terms: religion, ritual, performance.

1994

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I have started this research as a response to a pejorative question that religious rituals are merely theatrical, and the personnel involved nothing else but actors; beyond this there is nothing any religion suggests, e.g. healing, divine touch, blessings et.al. This paper is about rituals and their meanings and roles played as in social drama and theatre play. Considering the relationship between ritual and theatre to be reciprocal I will use their functions to evaluate the process of religious ceremonies and the role they play for adherents/participants, as if they would be attending a play. Religious Studies and Drama joint study offers the opportunity to combine two complementary humanities subjects, as both drama and religion are mainstays of cultural practice.

These are scripta for a college theology class on the sacraments taught to undergraduate seminarians. This unit discusses the Liturgy.

The principle outcome of this research project is the methodology developed to make meaningful comparison between the spatial semiotics of theatre and liturgy. As part of this process, Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological quest for ‘God without God’ is invoked as the foundation for an analysis of liturgical space as it is perceived in performance, rather than as conceived of in the minds of theologians. Having established the common, performative, nature of theatrical and liturgical events (through reference to performance anthropologists including Richard Schechner), a methodology is devised which enables a detailed account to be made of the fluctuating phenomena generated by the spatial dynamics of performance (drawing on the work of Patrice Pavis). Whilst the architectural nature of space is considered as an element contributing to the overall perception of space, it is not the principle subject of analysis; space is considered as a fluctuating and negotiated construction, rather than a material constant. The semiological analysis is achieved through the application of Greimassian semiotics to a narrative of space which is defined through a process of syntagmatic analysis and annotation (the work of Gerard Lukken is particularly significant in the adaptation of Greimas’s work). Although the initial intention was to subject the spatial element of entire performance events to analysis, the level of detail required means that a more restricted study has been undertaken in which only the initial moments of the event (from the gathering process to the first entrance of the principle performer (theatrical or liturgical)) have been considered. Accordingly, case studies have been chosen to represent significant variations in the way which the (phenomenologically significant) establishment of embodied presence is established in performance. Through the comparison of theatre and liturgical case studies, distinctions are drawn, and fundamental parallels identified, in the manner in which space in performance separates the participants into different functional groupings and either emphasises that separation, or mitigates against it.

Routledge eBooks, 2017

Contemporary theatre sometimes uses religious language, symbols and poses. What do these references mean? Refiection on four productions shows the usefulness of tools developed in the study of liturgy. First, this helps to produce an account ofthe roles ofthe sacred and of community in theatre shows. Secondly, this throws light on the appearance of religion in "liquid modernity. " Thirdly, the study of religion in theatre shows how boundaries between fields areßuidnot only between arts and religion, but also between the field of arts and the academic field. Both deal with the significance of religion in a world where religious traditions are questioned and used, both in and outside the religious sphere.