LITURGY, MODERNITY, AND IDEOLOGY
Reflections on Similarities and Differences between Trent and Vatican II
Keywords:
LITURGY, ODERNITY, IDEOLOGY, Similarities and Differences, Trent and Vatican IIAbstract
One often hears that the Roman Catholic Church only opened its
windows for the modern world at Vatican II. This is a curious
statement, however, for it supposes an understanding of modernity
which may be questioned for good reasons. Actually, it means that
the Church had missed the boat of contemporary (Western) society
for a very long time. At the same time, it implied the hope that the
Church would soon adopt a (more) democratic culture, that churchleaders
would attach (more) importance to the idea that every
baptized person is an equal member of the Church understood as the
peregrinating people of God, and that corresponding proposals
would be implemented to modify procedures of decision-making in
the Church at large. When it comes to the liturgical life of the Church,
this position usually favours the active participation of all the faithful
in worship services of all kinds, celebrations of the Eucharist, the
sacraments and the Liturgy of the Hours in vernacular languages,
and an overall easy access to the Church’s ritual and ceremonial
repertoire.
References
Wolfgang Reinhard, “Il concilio di Trento e la modernizzazione della Chiesa.
Introduzione,” in Il concilio di Trento e il moderno, ed., P. Prodi and W. Reinhard
(Annali dell’Istituto storico Italo-germanico: 45), Bologna: Il Mulino, 1996.
An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Nature and Culture, New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1993 and The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern
Culture, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Sources of the Self. The Making of the
Modern Identity, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1989.
Jean-Luc Nancy, Adoration. The Deconstruction of Christianity II, transl. John
McKeane (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy), New York: Fordham University
Press, 2013.
Aidan Kavanagh, Introduction to Liturgical Theology, Collegeville: The Liturgical
Press, 1992.
Joseph A. Jungmann, “Das Konzil von Trient und die Erneuerung der Liturgie,”
in Georg Schreiber, Hg., Das Weltkonzil von Trient. Sein Werden und Wirken, Freiburg:
Herder, 1951.
“Did the Council of Trent Produce a
Liturgical Reform? The Case of the Roman Missal,” in Questions Liturgiques/Studies in
Liturgy 93 (2012).
Piero Marini, A Challenging Reform. Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal
-1975, Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2007.
The standard work which chronicles the works of the Consilium is Annibale
Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, transl. Matthew J. O’Connell,
Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1990.
