By Janosch Dörfel, August 11, 2025
How deeply do the roots of our present-day liturgy reach into the spiritual awakenings of the 19th and 20th centuries? How did these developments occur in Europe and the U.S., both in relation to each other and within different contexts?
A research project at the Faculty of Theology in Trier is exploring these questions. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the project is being carried out in cooperation with the Catholic University of America (Washinton, D.C.) at the Chair of Liturgical Studies under the direction of Prof. Marco Benini. The project focuses on the little-researched connection between two major ecclesiastical renewal movement on both sides of the Atlantic: the Liturgical Movement, which sought to restore communal liturgical celebration and understanding to the center of faith, and the Biblical Movement, which reopened access to the Holy Scriptures as a source of lived piety.
A highlight of the project was the international symposium “Bible, Life and Worship: The Liturgical and the Biblical Movements in the German -Speaking Area and the U.S Compared,” which took place from June 2 to 5 at the German Liturgical Institute in Trier.
Experts from the German-speaking countries and the U.S. came together to shed light on the transatlantic interconnections between the liturgical and biblical movements. Particular attention was paid to exchange processes between Europe and the U.S. Many ideas from German-speaking countries, for example, were brought to the United States by emigrants and monasteries such as the Benedictine abbeys of Maria Laach and Collegeville. Within this close-knit network, ideas, liturgical forms and spiritual impulses traveled across the Atlantic—and returned in a transformed form.
The movements were not centrally controlled reform projects but rather were driven by local initiative in monasteries, parishes, and educational institutions. Many of those involved at the time—including numerous women—are little known today. Thus, many of the conference presentations focused on individual protagonists and their valuable contributions to the reform movements.
The conference also addressed current questions: What can we learn from these movements today? During a public evening lecture, Prof. Dr. Michael Witczak (Catholic University of America), a Mercator Fellow accompanying the project, impressively described the spiritual dimension of the Liturgical Movement as a source of strength for the Church at that time and today. After all, renewal begins with listening together to the Word of God and celebrating the faith in the liturgy, not solely with structural changes.
A concluding panel discussion revealed that the Liturgical and Biblical Movements should not be viewed as isolated phenomena limited to national contexts. Rather, they should be seen as expressions of an international spiritual reform process linking theological, pastoral, and social dynamics.
All of the conference presentations will be published in an English-German anthology in the Liturgiewissenschaftliche Quellen und Forschungen series by Aschendorff Verlag. Additionally, a digital bibliography is planned to provide a solid foundation for future research on the Liturgical and Biblical Movements.
This translated article and accompanying photo (of conference group at Maria Laach) has been published with permission. You can find the original version here.
The original and the translation were composed by Janosch Dörfel, a doctoral researcher in the field of liturgical science at the Faculty of Theology in Trier, Germany. He studied Catholic theology in Fulda and Rome. He is currently writing his dissertation on the development of nuptial rites in the German-speaking world during the Middle Ages. In addition to his work on medieval liturgy, he has a strong interest in the Liturgical Movement and is currently studying the thought and influence of Pius Parsch.
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