The latest issue of Antiphon is out, and below is a summary of the contents. You can subscribe to Antiphon here.
Cassian Folsom, OSB – The Great Divorce: The Reason for Our Liturgical Malaise
The article proposes that the root cause of liturgical difficulties today is a divorce between two ways of knowing: rational and intuitive. This is a question of epistemology that can be traced back to Enlightenment philosophy. While it is good to pay attention to symptoms of the problems of liturgical participation this essay attempts to identify their causes. The goal, of course, is a reconciliation between these two parts of the soul, a union of two ways of knowing, and thus a healing of the liturgy of the Church.
Owen Vyner – Recontextualization or Revitalization? A Sacramental Approach to Postmodernity and Pluralism
This essay examines the potential ramifications of postmodernity for sacramental theology and Christian life. It begins with an exposition of Lieven Boeve’s proposal to “recontextualise” Catholic theology in response to the radical plurality of postmodernity. It then evaluates the philosophical presuppositions of Boeve’s theology by applying Peter Berger’s analysis of plausibility structures and Joseph Ratzinger’s writings on pluralism. Finally, this essay presents practical suggestions to negotiate the issues of pluralism and the loss of Christian identity in the West. It advocates a revitalization of Christian life through fostering conscious Christian communio and sacramental-liturgical praxis.
John A. Monaco – Shattering the Idols: Postmodernism and the Liturgical Self as Homo Adorans
Postmodernism has led to the fragmentation of the “Self,” in which man can only understand his identity through contextualism and self-identity. While it is good that postmodernity rejects the rationalism and communism of modernity, what takes the place of these false ideologies cannot fully explain man’s true identity. While the terms homo cogitans, homo faber, and homo societas fail to give the complete understanding of man, we can find an accurate description in the term, homo adorans, offered by the Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann. Man fully realizes himself as homo adorans when participating in the sacred liturgy; by this action, he becomes the image of God in the world.
Richard H. Bulzacchelli – Serpent and Sacrifice: Pascha, Promise, and Parousia
This paper presents a sketch of the biblical typology of the serpent as employed in a sampling of salient and pivotal texts, illustrative of the patter of movement from pascha to promise, and from promise to parousia, at the heart of the distinct idea of sacrifice central to authentic worship in the Judeo-Christian context. Herein, representational or vicarious atonement has its logic not in the offering of an alternative victim but in an anthropology of interpenetration of persons, or perichorësis, such that the one for whom the sacrifice is offered is truly made present in the victim.
BOOK REVIEWS
- Uwe Michael Lang reviews Sacrum Monarchiae Speculum: Der Sacre Ludwigs XV. 1722: Monarchische Tradition, Zeremoniell, Liturgie. By Josef Johannes Schmid. Münster: Aschendorff, 2007. Pages, xliii + 647. Harbound, €79.00.
- Kevin Magas reviews Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Liturgical Participation. By R. Gabriel Pivarnik. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2012. Pages, xxiii + 259. Paperback, $39.95.
- Owen M. Phelan reviews Penance in Medieval Europe 600-1200. By Rob Meens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Pages x + 282. Paperback, $35.99.
- John McCusker, OSB reviews The Holy Eucharist – The World’s Salvation: Studies on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, its Celebration and its Concelebration. By Joseph de Sainte-Marie, OCD. Leominster: Gracewing, 2015. Pages, 557. Paperback, $40.
- Thomas Lane reviews To All the World: Preaching and the New Evangelization. Edited by Michael E. Connors. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2016. Pages, ix + 167. Paperback, $24.95.
- David W. Fagerberg reviews Introduction to the Study of Liturgy. By Alberg Gerhards and Benedikt Kranemann. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2017. Pages, xiv + 400. Paperback, $44.95.
- Mark A. Gurtner reviews The Indissolubility of Marriage and the Council of Trent. By E. Christian Brugger. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017. Pages, xvi + 296. Hardbound, $69.95.
- Thomas Kocik reviews Lost in Translation: The English Language and the Catholic Mass. By Gerald O’Collins, with John Wilkins. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2017. Pages, x + 122. Paperback, $17.95.
- Michael Heintz reviews General Principles of Sacramental Theology. By Roger W. Nutt. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2017. Pages, viii + 206. Paperback, $34.95.
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