NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 73, Issue 3, 2019

Recent years’ emphasis on contemplation, prayer and ritual has raised new questions about the ‘site’ of theological reflection: is an inhabited theology newly disclosive? What are the implications of such an appreciation of the role of the body – of language, gesture, posture, sound, variations of light and space, the passage of time – for theological understanding? The space of the liturgy, the edifice of the Church or the performed space of enactment becomes a dramatization and exteriorisation of the mind, of unfallen reason which remembers that it is created and is now at one with the diversity of creation and with God, where knowing and unknowing coincide in illumination and the forgetting of the self.

This paper seeks to interrelate the ritual turns in biblical studies and systematic theology, in order to explore whether the latter can be used to further the former. In order to do so, first, the ritual turn in biblical studies is outlined, second, aspects of the ritual turn in systematic theology are presented, third, an exegetical case study focusing on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 is presented, and fourth and finally, conclusions on this experiment are offered. In doing so, the paper will interact in particular with recent work by Catherine Pickstock and somewhat older work by Paul of Tarsus.

Why does it seem that humans are in need of ritual and contemplative practices, such as singing, for their intellectual reasoning on theological matters? First of all, this study introduces Liturgical Theology as an endeavor to establish liturgy as an activity that connects physical and intellectual dimensions of faith. Secondly, insights into the dialogue between theology and the natural sciences will provide a framework for the engagement with research on singing. Finally, selected studies on singing from different fields of human sciences can unearth evidence for mutual influences between singing and human thinking as a prerequisite for academic theology.

The present article aims at making again a connection with central intuitions of the early Liturgical Movement in francophone Belgium at the outset of the 20^th century. The reason for doing that is that it is still quite uncommon for professional theologians to consider liturgy as a real source for theologizing. The major focus of the article is the Body of Christ, a profound image, symbol, doctrine and reality, the impact and potential of which were rediscovered then in the circle of Benedictine monasteries. It was interpreted both in an ecclesial and sacramental way and it arguably constituted the basis for many other theological renewals prompted by subsequent representatives of the Liturgical Movement. Relying on a careful analysis of key texts by Dom Columba Marmion (1858-1923), Dom Lambert Beauduin (1873-1960) and Dom Maurice Festugière (1870-1950), I argue that their dealings with ‘liturgy intuitions’ – which are not equal to ‘liturgical intuitions’ – should be retrieved not only for scholarly purposes but, even more so, for a deepened understanding of the intrinsic and organic connections between Church, liturgy, Christ and life.

In the last thirty years, theologians such as Milbank and Hauerwas have allowed ecclesiology to play a fundamental role in theology. This move is grounded in their conviction that the meaning of Christianity consists primarily not in its theory and doctrine but in its lived form, which is the church. Interestingly, this contemporary 'turn to the church' in many ways resembles an earlier revival of ecclesiology in the beginning of the twentieth century in Roman Catholic theology. In this paper, I will focus on the work of Henri de Lubac, and demonstrate how the particular way in which he develops his idea of the church might offer valuable insights for contemporary theology. First, I sketch how his particular understanding of the church as the social and historical embodiment of God's gracious action immediately implied an embrace of the social and historical world. Second, I argue that notwithstanding all his emphasis on the church, his particular understanding of the church as springing from the Eucharist means that the church is never idolized but always points beyond itself to God. I conclude by relating these insights to the contemporary turn to the church.

The ‘contemplative turn’ in today’s theology had already a predecessor in the theology of O. Noordmans. That theology, developed in the first half of the 20th century, was (as Noordmans himself put it) ‘embedded’ in ‘the church as mother church’, as a ‘womb of piety’. This article describes how that can be seen in Noordmans’s appreciation of the pastoral character of Reformed dogmatics and in his sharp distinction between ‘church’ and ‘school’. The church, according to him, is not a place for doing philosophy, rather for proclaiming the Gospel, and the dogma serves only to keep the preacher on the right path. In this context, special attention is paid to Noordmans’s doctrine of creation, as summarized in his statement: ‘Creating is not forming, but dividing’. In other words: creation cannot be a (philopsophical) theme in itself; rather it is the beginning of a story: the story of the procession towards the cross.