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Home > About Us > Collaborating Institutions > SCS > Luce Seminars > 2003Perception, Presence, and Sacramentality in a Post-Modern Context
by
Dr. Judith M. Kubicki, C.S.S.F.
Fordham University
Bronx, New York
Prospects of Historic Christian Liturgy in a Postmodern Age Seminar
directed by Dr. Bryan Spinks
The essay entitled "Perception, Presence, and Sacramentality in a Post-Modern Context" was written as a result of my participation in Prospects of Historic Christian Liturgy in a Postmodern Age Luce Seminar, directed by Dr. Bryan Spinks. The essay is one part of a larger project that will eventually result in a book. In the mean time, the essay will be submitted this fall for publication in a journal of theology.
The larger book project will address the topic of recognizing the presence of Christ in the liturgical assembly gathered for worship. The book is anticipated to include five chapters. The first will consider how perception, presence, and sacramentality are experienced in a post-modern context; the second will examine how our celebration of symbols in the gathering rite of the Eucharist enable the assembly to recognize the presence of Christ in its midst; the third will examine music's role in enabling the recognition of Christ in worship; the fourth will explore the presence of Christ in the Church's celebration daily prayer, that is, the Liturgy of the Hours; and the fifth will consider possible models of liturgical celebration that might promote the gathered assembly's recognition of Christ's presence in its midst.
"Perception, Presence, and Sacramentality in a Post-Modern Context"
Abstract
This essay explores how perception, presence, and sacramentality are experienced by a liturgical assembly in a post-modern context. It begins by considering the contextual nature of theology as expressed by the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965). While the principles regarding the liturgical reform were shaped by a modern viewpoint, contemporary culture, particularly in first world countries, has moved beyond it to a post-modern viewpoint. This situation requires putting these principles in dialogue with the contemporary situation. Three questions are addressed in the essay: (1) What are the characteristics of post modernism that might directly impact religious belief and practice? (2) What role does the notion of "sacramentality" play in the contemporary imagination, if indeed, it foundational to understanding the mediation of Christ's presence in the world? (3) How is this "presence" understood and "perceived" in a post-modern world?
A review of the characteristics of postmodernism leads to a realization that while many postmodern developments may be regarded as negative or even hostile to religion, the current situation may be regarded as a challenge to renew efforts to recontextualize, that is, to look for new relations between the received religious tradition and the changed context. Furthermore, since the integration favored in the postmodern approach promotes a world-view that is relational, personal, and participatory, worship may once again come to be recognized as an important locus for religious insight and the expression of religious belief.
The notion of "sacramentality" is examined as a foundational principle for understanding the modes of the presence of Christ highlighted in Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Insights from such theologians as Kevin Irwin, Kenan B. Osborne, and Lieven Boeve are used to discover the meaning and significance of sacramentality and the sacramental imagination. An understanding of sacramentality that is profoundly temporal, spatial and relative provides points of convergence with postmodernisms focus on the importance of the here-and-now and the local. A posture of contemplative openness is identified as a key criterion for perceiving the sacramentality of life.
In order to come to some understanding of how "presence" is "perceived" in a postmodern world, the final section of the essay explored the meaning of both presence and perception. Insights from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's book, Phenomenology of Perception, were used to explore the experience of perception. His philosophical ideas were brought into conversation with Peter E. Fink's theological discussion of St. Augustine's sense of the totus Christus. Finally, Robert Sokolowski's phenomenological writings on presence and absence were used to explore the experience of both the presence and absence of Christ in Christian worship.
Perception, Presence, and Sacramentality in a Post-Modern Context
Selected Bibliography
Dr. Judith M. Kubicki, C.S.S.F.
Boeve, Lieven. "Thinking Sacramental Presence in a Postmodern Context: A Playground for Theological Renewal." Sacramental Presence in a Postmodern Context, ed. Lieven Boeve and Lambert Leijssen, 3-35. Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2001.
Catechism of the Catholic Church: Revised in Accordance with the Official Latin Text Promulgated by Pope John Paul II. Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana; Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 2000.
Chauvet, Louis-Marie. Symbol and Sacrament: A Sacramental Reinterpretation of Christian Existence. Translated by Patrick Madigan and Madeleine Beaumont. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1995.
Danneels, Godfried Cardinal. "Liturgy Forty Years After the Second Vatican Council:High Point or Recession. In Liturgy in a Postmodern World, ed. Keith Pecklers, 7-26. New York: Continuum, 2003.
Fink, Peter E. "Perceiving the Presence of Christ." Worship 58 (January 1984): 17-28.
Flannery, Austin, gen. ed. "The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy." In Vatican Council II: Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations. A Completely Revised Translation in Inclusive Language, 117-161. Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company, 1996.
Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996.
Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Irwin, Kevin. "A Sacramental World-Sacramentality As the Primary Language of Sacraments." Worship 76 (May 2002): 197-211.
Kubicki, Judith Marie. Liturgical Music as Ritual Symbol: A Case Study of Jacques Berthier's Taizé Music. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers and Booksellers, 1999.
Marsoobian, Armen T. "Saying, Singing, or Semiotics: 'Prima la Musica e poi le Parole' Revisited." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54 Summer1996: 269-277.
Martinez, Herman. Signs of Freedom: Theology of the Christian Sacraments. New York: Paulist Press, 2003.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Colin Smith. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962, 1986.
Osborne, Kenan B. Christian Sacraments in a Postmodern World: A Theology for the Third Millennium. New York: Paulist Press, 1999.
Phan, Peter C. "Liturgical Inculturation: Unity in Diversity in the Postmodern Age." In Liturgy in a Postmodern World, ed. Keith Pecklers, 55-86. New York: Continuum, 2003.
Power, David N. Unsearchable Riches: The Symbolic Nature of Liturgy. New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1984.
Sokolowski, Robert. Introduction to Phenomenology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
________. Presence and Absence. A Philosophical Investigation of Language and Being. Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy series, gen. ed. James M. Edie. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1978.