Author: Willem Marie Speelman
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789039005118
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
This book is about the meaning of liturgical songs. Everybody who sings liturgical songs knows what a liturgical song is and also what it eans. But when we start to talk about them, things become confused. We know too much and there are too many languages in which we can express what we think their meaning is. And what is worse, other people seem not to understand what we say and immediately reply that we may know a lot but not what they know. Then the discussion turns into a quarrel amongst people who know too much and connot communicate what they know. A wise person may enter into the quarrel and say that communication about liturgical songs can only succeed when we sing together. Then we will sing together, confused and angry, because we now also know that the other people may sing very well but do not understand what they are doing. This is what has been happening for decades in the Dutch churches. Perhaps we should be silent and start to look and listen very carefully to liturgical songs, while developing a language in which the songs themselves can speak, communicating what they have to say. The looking and listening will take much time and energy: there are no more easy answers. And the language will be so difficult that we are forced to be silent, waiting and hoping for a word to come. Willem Marie Speelman (1960) is a musicologist, theologian and semiotician. In the present work he develops a very strict scientific method which can help to understand how liturgical songs "work", that is, in what manner they generate meaning.
The Generation of Meaning in Liturgical Songs
Author: Willem Marie Speelman
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789039005118
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
This book is about the meaning of liturgical songs. Everybody who sings liturgical songs knows what a liturgical song is and also what it eans. But when we start to talk about them, things become confused. We know too much and there are too many languages in which we can express what we think their meaning is. And what is worse, other people seem not to understand what we say and immediately reply that we may know a lot but not what they know. Then the discussion turns into a quarrel amongst people who know too much and connot communicate what they know. A wise person may enter into the quarrel and say that communication about liturgical songs can only succeed when we sing together. Then we will sing together, confused and angry, because we now also know that the other people may sing very well but do not understand what they are doing. This is what has been happening for decades in the Dutch churches. Perhaps we should be silent and start to look and listen very carefully to liturgical songs, while developing a language in which the songs themselves can speak, communicating what they have to say. The looking and listening will take much time and energy: there are no more easy answers. And the language will be so difficult that we are forced to be silent, waiting and hoping for a word to come. Willem Marie Speelman (1960) is a musicologist, theologian and semiotician. In the present work he develops a very strict scientific method which can help to understand how liturgical songs "work", that is, in what manner they generate meaning.
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789039005118
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
This book is about the meaning of liturgical songs. Everybody who sings liturgical songs knows what a liturgical song is and also what it eans. But when we start to talk about them, things become confused. We know too much and there are too many languages in which we can express what we think their meaning is. And what is worse, other people seem not to understand what we say and immediately reply that we may know a lot but not what they know. Then the discussion turns into a quarrel amongst people who know too much and connot communicate what they know. A wise person may enter into the quarrel and say that communication about liturgical songs can only succeed when we sing together. Then we will sing together, confused and angry, because we now also know that the other people may sing very well but do not understand what they are doing. This is what has been happening for decades in the Dutch churches. Perhaps we should be silent and start to look and listen very carefully to liturgical songs, while developing a language in which the songs themselves can speak, communicating what they have to say. The looking and listening will take much time and energy: there are no more easy answers. And the language will be so difficult that we are forced to be silent, waiting and hoping for a word to come. Willem Marie Speelman (1960) is a musicologist, theologian and semiotician. In the present work he develops a very strict scientific method which can help to understand how liturgical songs "work", that is, in what manner they generate meaning.
Liturgical Music as Ritual Symbol
Author: Judith Marie Kubicki
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042907409
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
In this book, Sister Kubicki uses Jacques Berthier's Taize music to explore the nature of liturgical music as ritual symbol. She carries out a hermeneutical analysis of Berthier's chants and examines biographical and historical data related to the creator's of Taize music and the founding of the Taize community. The author draws on five areas of study to interpret the Taize chants as ritual symbol - symbol theory, semiotics, theologies of symbol, ritual theory, and perfomative language theory. The final chapter explores potential ecclesial meanings which may be mediated in the Taize liturgy and the role of Berthier's chants in mediating that meaning. The study concludes that it is music's symbolic property that enables it to be both ministerial and integral to the liturgy. As symbolic activity, music-making evokes participation, negotiates relationships, and enables the assembly to orient themselves and to find their identity and place within their world. Furthermore, music-making provides the illocutionary force to "do something" in the act of singing. Thus it is that as part of a complexus of ritual symbols, music interacts with other symbols, in mediating the liturgy's meaning.
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042907409
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
In this book, Sister Kubicki uses Jacques Berthier's Taize music to explore the nature of liturgical music as ritual symbol. She carries out a hermeneutical analysis of Berthier's chants and examines biographical and historical data related to the creator's of Taize music and the founding of the Taize community. The author draws on five areas of study to interpret the Taize chants as ritual symbol - symbol theory, semiotics, theologies of symbol, ritual theory, and perfomative language theory. The final chapter explores potential ecclesial meanings which may be mediated in the Taize liturgy and the role of Berthier's chants in mediating that meaning. The study concludes that it is music's symbolic property that enables it to be both ministerial and integral to the liturgy. As symbolic activity, music-making evokes participation, negotiates relationships, and enables the assembly to orient themselves and to find their identity and place within their world. Furthermore, music-making provides the illocutionary force to "do something" in the act of singing. Thus it is that as part of a complexus of ritual symbols, music interacts with other symbols, in mediating the liturgy's meaning.
Song and Significance
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9401201544
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
Vocal translation is an old art, but the interpretive feeling, skill and craft have expanded into a relatively new area in translation studies. Vocal translation is the translation of the poetic discourse in the hybrid art of the musicopoetic (or poeticomusical) forms, shapes and skills. This symbiotic construct harmonizes together the conflicting roles of music and language in face-to-face singing performances. The artist sings in an accurate but free flow, but sung in a language different from the original lyrics. Vocal translation is a living-together community of composer and poet and translator; they work together though separately in time and place, through the structure and meaning of the vocalized verbal language. The meaning of the songs is influenced by the elements of musical expression: melody, impulse, pitch, duration, loudness, timbre and dynamics, each of which is governed by its own rules and emotions. The movement of the lyrics is an essential and meaningful attribute of the musical rhythms, pauses, pitches, stresses and articulations of the entire songs. The presence of the original and translated song structures its sounds, senses and gestures to suggest semiotic meaningfulness. In opera, folksong, hymn and art song, as well as in operetta, musical song and popular song, we have musical genres allied to a libretto with lyrical text. A libretto is a linguistic text which is a pre-existing work of art, but is subordinated to the musical text. The essays in Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation provide interpretive models for the juxtaposition of different orders of the singing sign-events in different languages, extending the meaning and range of the musical and literary concepts, and putting the mixed signs to a true-and-false test.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9401201544
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
Vocal translation is an old art, but the interpretive feeling, skill and craft have expanded into a relatively new area in translation studies. Vocal translation is the translation of the poetic discourse in the hybrid art of the musicopoetic (or poeticomusical) forms, shapes and skills. This symbiotic construct harmonizes together the conflicting roles of music and language in face-to-face singing performances. The artist sings in an accurate but free flow, but sung in a language different from the original lyrics. Vocal translation is a living-together community of composer and poet and translator; they work together though separately in time and place, through the structure and meaning of the vocalized verbal language. The meaning of the songs is influenced by the elements of musical expression: melody, impulse, pitch, duration, loudness, timbre and dynamics, each of which is governed by its own rules and emotions. The movement of the lyrics is an essential and meaningful attribute of the musical rhythms, pauses, pitches, stresses and articulations of the entire songs. The presence of the original and translated song structures its sounds, senses and gestures to suggest semiotic meaningfulness. In opera, folksong, hymn and art song, as well as in operetta, musical song and popular song, we have musical genres allied to a libretto with lyrical text. A libretto is a linguistic text which is a pre-existing work of art, but is subordinated to the musical text. The essays in Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation provide interpretive models for the juxtaposition of different orders of the singing sign-events in different languages, extending the meaning and range of the musical and literary concepts, and putting the mixed signs to a true-and-false test.
The Sepulchrum Domini Through the Ages
Author: Justin E. A. Kroesen
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042909526
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
TABLE OF CONTENTSPreface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIII. REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLY SEPULCHREIntroduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3A. The Holy Sepulchre as a Separate Church Building. . . . . 71. Constantine the Great's Church of the Holy Sepulchre . 72. Churches of the Holy Sepulchre in Western Europe. 12a. Background . . . . . . . . 12b. The pilgrimage period . . . . . . . . 14c. The period of the Crusades. . . . . . 25B. The Holy Sepulchre in the Interior of the Church 451. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452. Holy Sepulchres Modelled on the Anastasis Tomb in Church Interiors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473. Typology of the Holy Sepulchre in the Late Middle Ages. 53a. Background. . . . . . . . . . 53b. The altar as Holy Sepulchre . . . . . . 55c. The temporary Holy Sepulchre 56d. The moveable wooden Holy Sepulchre . 62e. The Holy Sepulchre in combination with a tabernacle . 68f The Holy Sepulchre in combination with a founder's tomb 77g. The Holy Sepulchre as a canopied monument 83h. The Holy Sepulchre as a separate recess in the wall. 90i. The Holy Sepulchre as a free-standing shrine . 102j. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084. The Entombment Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 109C. Diversity of Representations of the Holy Sepulchre . 1171. Revival of Holy Sepulchre Buildings. 1172. After the Council of Trent. 1243. The Twentieth Century . . . . . . . 132VI THE SEPULCHRUM DOMINIIl. USE OF THE HOLY SEPULCHREIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . .A. The Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem 143B. The Function of the Holy Sepulchre in the Mediaeval Easter Liturgy of Western Europe. . . . . 1471. The ceremonial Easter Liturgy . 147a. Introduction . . . . . . . . . 147b. Adoratio crucis . . . . . . . . 150c. The ritual of depositio and elevatio . 151d Depositio. . . . 153e. Vigilia paschalis 165f Elevatio. . . . . 1672. The Easter Play. . 170C. The Holy Sepulchre as an Andachtsbild . 175D. Use of the Holy Sepulchre from the Middle Ages on 1811. After the Council of Trent . 1812. The Twentieth Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION . 193BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . 197LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . 205INDEX OF PLACES . 207PLATES . . . . . 215.
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042909526
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
TABLE OF CONTENTSPreface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIII. REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLY SEPULCHREIntroduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3A. The Holy Sepulchre as a Separate Church Building. . . . . 71. Constantine the Great's Church of the Holy Sepulchre . 72. Churches of the Holy Sepulchre in Western Europe. 12a. Background . . . . . . . . 12b. The pilgrimage period . . . . . . . . 14c. The period of the Crusades. . . . . . 25B. The Holy Sepulchre in the Interior of the Church 451. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452. Holy Sepulchres Modelled on the Anastasis Tomb in Church Interiors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473. Typology of the Holy Sepulchre in the Late Middle Ages. 53a. Background. . . . . . . . . . 53b. The altar as Holy Sepulchre . . . . . . 55c. The temporary Holy Sepulchre 56d. The moveable wooden Holy Sepulchre . 62e. The Holy Sepulchre in combination with a tabernacle . 68f The Holy Sepulchre in combination with a founder's tomb 77g. The Holy Sepulchre as a canopied monument 83h. The Holy Sepulchre as a separate recess in the wall. 90i. The Holy Sepulchre as a free-standing shrine . 102j. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084. The Entombment Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 109C. Diversity of Representations of the Holy Sepulchre . 1171. Revival of Holy Sepulchre Buildings. 1172. After the Council of Trent. 1243. The Twentieth Century . . . . . . . 132VI THE SEPULCHRUM DOMINIIl. USE OF THE HOLY SEPULCHREIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . .A. The Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem 143B. The Function of the Holy Sepulchre in the Mediaeval Easter Liturgy of Western Europe. . . . . 1471. The ceremonial Easter Liturgy . 147a. Introduction . . . . . . . . . 147b. Adoratio crucis . . . . . . . . 150c. The ritual of depositio and elevatio . 151d Depositio. . . . 153e. Vigilia paschalis 165f Elevatio. . . . . 1672. The Easter Play. . 170C. The Holy Sepulchre as an Andachtsbild . 175D. Use of the Holy Sepulchre from the Middle Ages on 1811. After the Council of Trent . 1812. The Twentieth Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION . 193BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . 197LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . 205INDEX OF PLACES . 207PLATES . . . . . 215.
Liturgical Catechesis of Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest
Author: Veronica C. Rosier
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042910720
Category : Catechetics
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
The number of Catholic communities with no priest available to celebrate Sunday Eucharist has increased steadily over 60 years. For many, other forms of Sunday celebration are the statistical norm. This dramatic development coincides with Vatican II's insistence on liturgical catechesis: for the baptised the main source of their Christian spirit comes from active participation in the liturgy, especially the Sunday Eucharist. Celebrating the liturgy in all its symbolic fullness leads to inner participation in the mystery. A more profound appropriation of this living relationship with Christ comes about through well-celebrated rites and reflection on personal experience of the rites. Yet, liturgical catechesis is largely ignored or dismissed because it is not understood. Liturgical celebrations frequently lack the vitality capable of leading people into the depth of the sacred mysteries they celebrate. Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest are no exception. This book presents a systematic treatment of the modern church's teaching on liturgical catechesis. It proposes ten general principles of liturgical catechesis. These principles are used to explore and criticize the "Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest" (1988), as well as the rituals prepared from the "Directory" by the USA, and Canada. Even when there can be no Sunday Mass in parishes, hospitals and nursing homes, navy ships and jails, liturgical prayer is to be a privileged place of evangelisation, catechesis, spirituality and discipleship in Christ.
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042910720
Category : Catechetics
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
The number of Catholic communities with no priest available to celebrate Sunday Eucharist has increased steadily over 60 years. For many, other forms of Sunday celebration are the statistical norm. This dramatic development coincides with Vatican II's insistence on liturgical catechesis: for the baptised the main source of their Christian spirit comes from active participation in the liturgy, especially the Sunday Eucharist. Celebrating the liturgy in all its symbolic fullness leads to inner participation in the mystery. A more profound appropriation of this living relationship with Christ comes about through well-celebrated rites and reflection on personal experience of the rites. Yet, liturgical catechesis is largely ignored or dismissed because it is not understood. Liturgical celebrations frequently lack the vitality capable of leading people into the depth of the sacred mysteries they celebrate. Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest are no exception. This book presents a systematic treatment of the modern church's teaching on liturgical catechesis. It proposes ten general principles of liturgical catechesis. These principles are used to explore and criticize the "Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest" (1988), as well as the rituals prepared from the "Directory" by the USA, and Canada. Even when there can be no Sunday Mass in parishes, hospitals and nursing homes, navy ships and jails, liturgical prayer is to be a privileged place of evangelisation, catechesis, spirituality and discipleship in Christ.
Announcing the Feast
Author: Jason McFarland
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0814662625
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
How does the entrance song of the Mass function within the Roman Rite? What can it express theologically? What should Roman Catholics sing at the beginning of Mass? In this groundbreaking study, Jason McFarland answers these and other important questions by exploring the history and theology of the entrance song of Mass. After a careful history of the entrance song, he investigates its place in church documents. He proposes several models of the entrance song for liturgical celebration today. Finally, he offers a skillful theological analysis of the entrance song genre, focusing on the song for the Holy Thursday Evening Mass-arguably the most important entrance song of the entire liturgical year. Announcing the Feast provides the most comprehensive treatment of the Roman Rite entrance song to date. It is unique in that it bridges the disciplines of liturgical studies, musicology, and theological method.
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0814662625
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
How does the entrance song of the Mass function within the Roman Rite? What can it express theologically? What should Roman Catholics sing at the beginning of Mass? In this groundbreaking study, Jason McFarland answers these and other important questions by exploring the history and theology of the entrance song of Mass. After a careful history of the entrance song, he investigates its place in church documents. He proposes several models of the entrance song for liturgical celebration today. Finally, he offers a skillful theological analysis of the entrance song genre, focusing on the song for the Holy Thursday Evening Mass-arguably the most important entrance song of the entire liturgical year. Announcing the Feast provides the most comprehensive treatment of the Roman Rite entrance song to date. It is unique in that it bridges the disciplines of liturgical studies, musicology, and theological method.
Music in Catholic Worship
Author: Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church music
Languages : en
Pages : 22
Book Description
Pamphlets are located in the pamphlet section, in the box labeled with the first heading listed below under Subjects. Pamphlets are for in library use only. Special permission to borrow the pamphlets may be granted by the librarians.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church music
Languages : en
Pages : 22
Book Description
Pamphlets are located in the pamphlet section, in the box labeled with the first heading listed below under Subjects. Pamphlets are for in library use only. Special permission to borrow the pamphlets may be granted by the librarians.
Music as Theology
Author: Maeve Louise Heaney
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621894290
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326
Book Description
"The conversation between music and theology, dormant for too long in recent years, is at last gathering pace. And rightly so. There will always be theologians who will regard music as a somewhat peripheral concern, too trivial to trouble the serious scholar, and in any case almost impossible to engage because of its notorious resistance to words and concepts. But an increasing number are discovering again what many of our forbears realized centuries ago, that the kinship between this pervasive feature of human life and the search for a Christian 'intelligence of faith' is intimate and ineradicable. Maeve Heaney's ambitious, wide-ranging, and energetic book pushes the conversation further forward still. Her approach is unapologetically theological, grounded in the passions and concerns of mainstream doctrinal theology. And yet she is insisting . . . that music must be given its due place in the ecology of theology. Although convinced that music should not be set up as a rival to linguistic or conceptual articulation, let alone swallow up 'traditional' modes of theological language and thought, she is equally convinced that music is an irreducible means of coming to terms with the world, a unique vehicle of world-disclosure, and as such, can generate a particular form of 'understanding': 'there are things which God may only be saying through music.' If this is so, it is incumbent on the theologian to listen." --Jeremy Begbie, from the Foreword
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621894290
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326
Book Description
"The conversation between music and theology, dormant for too long in recent years, is at last gathering pace. And rightly so. There will always be theologians who will regard music as a somewhat peripheral concern, too trivial to trouble the serious scholar, and in any case almost impossible to engage because of its notorious resistance to words and concepts. But an increasing number are discovering again what many of our forbears realized centuries ago, that the kinship between this pervasive feature of human life and the search for a Christian 'intelligence of faith' is intimate and ineradicable. Maeve Heaney's ambitious, wide-ranging, and energetic book pushes the conversation further forward still. Her approach is unapologetically theological, grounded in the passions and concerns of mainstream doctrinal theology. And yet she is insisting . . . that music must be given its due place in the ecology of theology. Although convinced that music should not be set up as a rival to linguistic or conceptual articulation, let alone swallow up 'traditional' modes of theological language and thought, she is equally convinced that music is an irreducible means of coming to terms with the world, a unique vehicle of world-disclosure, and as such, can generate a particular form of 'understanding': 'there are things which God may only be saying through music.' If this is so, it is incumbent on the theologian to listen." --Jeremy Begbie, from the Foreword
The Antenicene Pascha
Author: Karl Gerlach
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042905702
Category : Easter
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
Beginning with "spiritual" interpretation and anti-Judaic polemic to secure the Pesach institution narrative (Ex 12) for Christian proclamation, major centers of Asia Minor and Syria, then Upper Egypt and the West, develop distinct rhetorical structures that load first the day, then the date of Pascha, with theological meaning. The emergence of the four-gospel canon at the end of the second century enriches, but does not supplant, a dialogue between Christian rituals and the scriptures inherited from Judaism. The Antenicene Pascha takes a fresh approach to the scattered literary remains of the earliest paschal feast by acknowledging them for what they are: relics of heated disputes about ritual boundaries that had elevated the Pascha, an observance with no explicite reference in first century literature, to an icon of unity and orthodoxy at the Council of Nicaea. Just as these disputes repeat familiar patterns of establishing Christian identity, much modern scholarship employs hermeneutical categories derived from other conflicts (Great Schism, Reformation) that often obscure, rather than reveal, the history of the paschal celebration. This book will be of value not only to students of the liturgy, but also to those interested in the history of biblical hermeneutics, the canon, and the roots of Christian anti-Judaism.
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042905702
Category : Easter
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
Beginning with "spiritual" interpretation and anti-Judaic polemic to secure the Pesach institution narrative (Ex 12) for Christian proclamation, major centers of Asia Minor and Syria, then Upper Egypt and the West, develop distinct rhetorical structures that load first the day, then the date of Pascha, with theological meaning. The emergence of the four-gospel canon at the end of the second century enriches, but does not supplant, a dialogue between Christian rituals and the scriptures inherited from Judaism. The Antenicene Pascha takes a fresh approach to the scattered literary remains of the earliest paschal feast by acknowledging them for what they are: relics of heated disputes about ritual boundaries that had elevated the Pascha, an observance with no explicite reference in first century literature, to an icon of unity and orthodoxy at the Council of Nicaea. Just as these disputes repeat familiar patterns of establishing Christian identity, much modern scholarship employs hermeneutical categories derived from other conflicts (Great Schism, Reformation) that often obscure, rather than reveal, the history of the paschal celebration. This book will be of value not only to students of the liturgy, but also to those interested in the history of biblical hermeneutics, the canon, and the roots of Christian anti-Judaism.
Toward the Origins of Christmas
Author: Susan K. Roll
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789039005316
Category : Christmas
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Christmas exerts an enormous attraction today even apart from its Christian character as a celebration of the incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus. Even marginal or indifferent Christians crowd the churches on Christmas Eve and in highly commercialized and technologized Western societies the Christmas season is celebrated with enthousiasm. Yet Christmas entered the calendar of feasts relatively late, by 336 C.E., and the reason for its introduction and quick spread remain speculative and based on fragmentary evidence. Towards the Origins of Christmas addresses both the contemporary Western celebration of Christmas, and its deep historical roots in the church of the fourth century. The book presents a thorough investigation of the patristic texts and evidence cited by liturgical scholars in the late 19th and 20th centuries to support two main theories: the Calculation theory and the History of Religions theory. This historical research is set in the framework of the contemporary experience of Christmas; the dynamics of time and the liturgical year; the inculturation of liturgy; and underlying elements of dualism and patriarchal power paradigms which linger beneath the often commercial and sentimental character of Christmas today. Suzan K. Roll was born in Clarence Center, New York (USA) in 1952. She holds degrees in classical languages and pastoral theology, and in 1993 received a Ph. D. from the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), Belgium, summa cum laude with the gratulations of the jury. She has thaught and published in the field of liturgy, sacraments, pastoral theology, and presently teaches at Christ the King Seminary, Buffalo, New York (USA).
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789039005316
Category : Christmas
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Christmas exerts an enormous attraction today even apart from its Christian character as a celebration of the incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus. Even marginal or indifferent Christians crowd the churches on Christmas Eve and in highly commercialized and technologized Western societies the Christmas season is celebrated with enthousiasm. Yet Christmas entered the calendar of feasts relatively late, by 336 C.E., and the reason for its introduction and quick spread remain speculative and based on fragmentary evidence. Towards the Origins of Christmas addresses both the contemporary Western celebration of Christmas, and its deep historical roots in the church of the fourth century. The book presents a thorough investigation of the patristic texts and evidence cited by liturgical scholars in the late 19th and 20th centuries to support two main theories: the Calculation theory and the History of Religions theory. This historical research is set in the framework of the contemporary experience of Christmas; the dynamics of time and the liturgical year; the inculturation of liturgy; and underlying elements of dualism and patriarchal power paradigms which linger beneath the often commercial and sentimental character of Christmas today. Suzan K. Roll was born in Clarence Center, New York (USA) in 1952. She holds degrees in classical languages and pastoral theology, and in 1993 received a Ph. D. from the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), Belgium, summa cum laude with the gratulations of the jury. She has thaught and published in the field of liturgy, sacraments, pastoral theology, and presently teaches at Christ the King Seminary, Buffalo, New York (USA).