| Liturgy and the Social Sciences Contributor(s): Mitchell, Nathan D. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0814625118 ISBN-13: 9780814625118 Publisher: Liturgical Press OUR PRICE: $16.10 Product Type: Paperback Published: January 1999 Annotation: These essays offer ministers of the Church -- priests, religious, and laity -- the most up-to-date liturgical scholarship so that they may look ahead to the needs of their assemblies. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Christian Rituals & Practice - General - Religion | Institutions & Organizations - Religion | Christianity - Catholic |
| Dewey: 264.02 |
| LCCN: 98034981 |
| Series: American Essays in Liturgy |
| Physical Information: 0.28" H x 5.31" W x 8.2" (0.28 lbs) 96 pages |
| Themes: - Theometrics - Academic - Religious Orientation - Christian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In his letter to liturgists meeting in Mainz, Germany, in 1964, theologian Romano Guardini asked: Is ritual a forgotten way of doing things? That question challenged Catholics to reevaluate the roots and roles of ritual. In an ongoing response to that challenge, liturgists have sought to reinterpret the multiple meanings of ritual using insights from the social sciences. In Liturgy and the Social Sciences, Nathan Mitchell examines the responses of liturgists to Guardini's famous question. In the first chapter Mitchell focuses on Aidan Kavanagh, OSB, a noted U.S. liturgist that undertook the challenge of answering Guardini's question. He explains how Father Kavanagh's innovative call for a new discipline - a political science of behavior - was taken up by American liturgists in a classical or high church mode that emphasized ritual action as traditional, authoritative, repetitive, conservative, and canonical. The second chapter examines how the high church consensus began to unravel as a result of critical work done on emerging ritual by Ronald Grimes and David Kertzer. These scholars argued that new categories were needed to understand how ritual connects with social life and explained the characteristics of emerging ritual as innovative, untraditional, unpredictable, playful, and short term. In the third chapter Mitchell explores some of the proposals that a new generation of anthropologists have made for interpreting ritual. He gives attention to the research of Talal Asad, who suggests that rituals are a technology aimed at producing virtuous selves. Michel Foucalt's technologies of the self is also discussed in this chapter. Although written for directors of liturgy, Liturgy and the Social Sciences will also appeal to DREs, clergy and religious, directors of adult formation, persons working with candidates in RCIA, and students and teachers of liturgy who want to look beyond what we do to understand why we do it. Nathan D. Mitchell, PhD, is Associate Director for Research at the Center for Pastoral Liturgy, University of Notre Dame. Six times a year, he writes The Amen Corner for Worship. In 1998, the North American Academy of Liturgy presented him with its Berakah Award. Other books by Mitchell that have been published by The Liturgical Press include Cult and Controversy, Mission and Ministry, and Rule of Prayer, Rule of Faith. He also contributed to The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology. |
Contributor Bio(s): Mitchell, Nathan D.: - Nathan D. Mitchell, PhD, is Associate Director for Research at the Center for Pastoral Liturgy, University of Notre Dame. Six times a year, he writes "The Amen Corner" for Worship. In 1998, the North American Academy of Liturgy presented him with its Berakah Award. Other books by Mitchell that have been published by The Liturgical Press include Cult and Controversy, Mission and Ministry, and Rule of Prayer, Rule of Faith. He also contributed to The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology. |
