Christ the liturgy. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

269 Pages·2017·1.42 MB·English

by  Christine Middleton

Christ the Liturgy

William O. Daniel, Jr.

Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

March 2013

For Susan Keefe (1954 – 2012)
and Frank Valdez

Synopsis

This thesis is a constructive work in theology. The aim is to show the
centrality of liturgy for theological investigation, exposing how liturgical
action at once shapes and gives rise to theological articulation and also
manifests an implicit theology. The meaning is in the making, as it were, and
this thesis seeks to show the descriptive nature of theology and liturgy as that
which makes all theology possible. What is liturgy? Following the earliest
usage of leitourgia in the ancient world, and especially as articulated by Saint
Paul, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Irenaeus, I show that the
Church’s earliest articulation of liturgical action bears an implied ontology of
participation, namely in the singular liturgical action of Christ. Liturgy is not,
therefore, to be defined or understood as “the work of the people,” but rather
as the “work of the One for the sake of the many,” in which all of creation
participates. I argue that the human is to be understood as a liturgical animal
who by virtue of her being(-)created is incorporated into the Liturgy God is. I
also argue that liturgy names the inter-offering of the Persons of the Trinity,
whereby each hypostasis exists as mutually constituting and constituted. The
human’s participation in this liturgical action is a participation of the whole
person, mediated by the materials and movements involved in the liturgical
action—liturgy as the mediation of the divine economy. I also show how late
medieval liturgical reforms issue a gradual and unwarranted relegation of the
laity’s involvement in the liturgical action. Although inadvertent, this
continual extraction of lay participation serves to secularize their role and
extract them from the economy to which the liturgy is meant to assimilate. All
of this is to expose how the liturgical action, which was vastly influential to
the social imaginary of the medieval world, construes and conditions the
human more and more along a secular line. Additionally, it is to recover the
essential nature of liturgical action for social construction. Indeed, liturgical
action as social construction—the embodying of the reciprocal and mutually
constituting life of God in whose image the human is created and to whose
Being, through Christ the Liturgy, the human has been assimilated, is being-
assimilated, and will be assimilated.
Christ the Liturgy

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Acknowledgements
I thank Professor John Milbank who facilitated my postdoctoral research in
theology and for his encouragement in the unraveling direction of this thesis. I
am grateful to Simon Oliver and Catherine Pickstock for their generous and
careful criticism of the thesis, which has proved immensely beneficial for its
current form and my continued research and writing.
I am especially grateful to Susan Keefe, without whom this thesis
would not have been possible. Her direction of my studies at Duke Divinity
School, her friendship, and her fruitful criticism of my work during my time at
both Duke Divinity School and the University of Nottingham will never be
forgotten. I am deeply saddened by her unexpected death this past year, which
is a tremendous loss to the Church Catholic. She was the most selfless person I
have ever known and I am grateful to dedicate this thesis to her memory.
I thank Steven Hoskins and Henry Spaulding who first taught me how
to do theology and why I should. I am grateful to Stanley Hauerwas who was
so influential in my studies at Duke Divinity School. I thank the Calvin
Institute of Christian Worship for providing further avenues for dialogue,
which enabled much of this thesis to develop. As part of the Institutes’ work,
and for their gracious reading and discussion of the ideas contained herein, I
thank D. Stephen Long, Michael Budde, James K. A. Smith, and all who
participated in their seminars. I thank also my friends and interlocutors who
have challenged my reading, writing, and theological rigor. I am especially
grateful to: Frank Valdez, Hugh Cruse, Bill Duryea, Elizabeth Bass, Richard
Eatman, Steven Peay, Thomas Holtzen, Arnold Klukas, Kyle Bennett, and all
others who may have entertained my continuous discussions on liturgy and
action.
Last, but not least, I thank Amanda and Wyles and Aydah. They have
endured the most from my research and writing and all the time away from
home it has caused. I am eternally grateful to Amanda for her faithful
encouragement and support and to Wyles and Aydah who constantly
distracted me to help me realize what I am really writing about. I am also
grateful to my parents Bill and Fay, and my in-laws, Jim and Kathy, who have
Christ the Liturgy
been a constant source of encouragement, more so than perhaps they will ever
know.

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Contents

Abbreviations

Introduction i

1 A Genealogy of Liturgy 1

2 Divine Liturgy and the Epistemological Crisis 41

3 Being-in-the-Liturgy 85

4 Deranging the Senses 131

5 Invoking the Secular 177

Conclusion 221

Bibliography 227