Under the Dome

I am safely ensconced in my dorm digs and just finished my reading for tomorrow's class. This "liturgical theology" stuff is entirely new to me, so we'll see how it goes. Kevin Irwin, the professor, points to distinctions between theology of liturgy (distilling from liturgy a systematic theology), theology drawn from liturgy (using liturgy as a theological source), and doxological theology (theology that is informed by a recovery of an overall reorientation toward praise of God).

Irwin also writes about tradition as being not simply about the past but "the present shaped by past experience"; thus, "the present is integral to tradition." Normativity is made up of those elements of liturgy that have perdured over time and thus suggest a way to perform certain liturgical acts, though not blindly. Irwin is obviously very sensitive to the agenda of indigenization, which calls for enough flexibility for a local community to appropriate a given rite.

He emphasize the importance of analyzing a liturgical act not simply by looking at the texts involved but by looking at the history of the act, how the elements within the act relate to one another, what is the experience of those participating in the act, and is this experience appropriate to the intention behind the rite. One last question, which is of particular interest to me, is: what difference does the liturgical act make in an individual's or community's life?

That's it for now. I have to go hunt down some books. I know better than to promise to write daily on this blog, but I will attempt to use this space as a place to reflect and gather my thoughts.