The first document issued by the Second Vatican Council was its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. This was emblematic of how the liturgy is “the summit toward which the action of the Church is directed and at the same time the font from which all her power flows” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 10).
It was also emblematic of one of the main developments within modern theology: its championing of the liturgy, after a period of relative neglect, as one of its primary objects of study and sources of reflection.
Such theological reflection on the liturgy requires and has been made possible by detailed historical research on the Church’s worship. Nor can historical research do justice to the liturgy without the proper theological understanding of it. Consequently, a growing number of scholars are combining both liturgical history and theology.
In this interview, Fr. Uwe Michael Lang discusses liturgical history and theology, how it can help us deepen our appreciation of the liturgy and participation in it, and some of the best books in this area.
Fr Uwe Michael Lang, a native of Nuremberg, Germany, is a priest of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in London. He holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford and teaches Church History at Mater Ecclesiae College, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and at Allen Hall Seminary, London. He is an Associate Staff Member at the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham. He is the Editor of Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal. From 2008 to 2012 he was a staff member of Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and from 2008 to 2013 he was a Consultor to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff. His current research is in liturgical studies, with a strong historical emphasis. He is the author of Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer(Ignatius Press), The Voice of the Church at Prayer: Reflections on Liturgy and Language (Ignatius Press), Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual and the Expression of the Sacred(Ignatius Press), and The Roman Mass: From Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). He is the editor of Authentic Liturgical Renewal in Contemporary Perspective(Bloomsbury T&T Clark) and The Fullness of Divine Worship: The Sacred Liturgy and Its Renewal (The Catholic University of America Press).
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There are various definitions of the liturgy. How would you define the liturgy? My favourite definition of the liturgy comes from the seventh paragraph of Sacrosanctum Concilium. There, Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy says that the liturgy is the exercise of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Christ is acting as the head of his mystical body, the Church, and as the mystical body itself. He acts through the ordained priest and through the communion of the baptized. As St. Augustine was wont to say, totus Christus, the whole Christ is acting. Both body and head are acting; ordained priesthood and the whole the body of the faithful.
This is an ancient principle. It goes back to St. Thomas Aquinas. It is elaborated upon in Pius XII’s encyclical Mediator Dei and then stated very clearly in Sacrosanctum Concilium.
The liturgy is Jesus Christ exercising his priesthood and acting in the worship of the Church, his body. It is Christ mediating between God and humanity, and, above all, offering the sacrifice of his body and blood for the salvation of the world.
"Joseph Ratzinger...formulated a crucial principle for understanding the liturgy of the Church, especially the liturgy of the Eucharist. He said that the Last Supper establishes the content of the Eucharist but not the form, which had to develop in the Church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the assistance of God's grace."
You have selected five books on liturgical history and theology. What do you mean by liturgical history and theology? Well, the liturgy of the Church was shaped in the history of the Church.
Of course, there are the foundational events, such as the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. However, the actual form of the church's worship had not yet been established.
Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, formulated a crucial principle for understanding the liturgy of the Church, especially the liturgy of the Eucharist. He said that the Last Supper establishes the content of the Eucharist but not the form, which had to develop in the Church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the assistance of God's grace.
Having some sense of that historical development is important for understanding, for example, the structure of the Mass. Why do we have the introit, then the Kyrie, followed on feast days by the Gloria? All this developed historically. Knowing that history is very useful for entering deeper into the liturgy.
Of course, it is not all about history. Liturgy is the presence of Jesus Christ among us, drawing us into the worship of his Heavenly Father in the Holy Spirit. Understanding the theological and spiritual side of liturgy is what truly helps us to partake fully, consciously, and actively in it.
When you speak of liturgical theology, are you construing it in the same way as Alexander Schmemann, Aidan Kavanaugh, and David Fagerberg: as prima theologia? I appreciate this approach because it takes the liturgy seriously as one of the sources of theological reflection. That is important.
Liturgy does not feature in the formulation of the sources of theological reflection (De locis theologicis) by the sixteenth-century theologian and canonist, Melchior Cano OP. That was certainly a lacuna that needed to be filled. The worship of the Church is one of the first witnesses to the faith and shapes its practice in our daily lives.
I have reservations about treating the liturgy as theologia prima because sometimes this seems to be done at the expense of systematic or dogmatic theology. Such an approach underestimates how systematic intellectual reflection also shapes the liturgy and has an impact on how we worship.
For example, the worship of the Blessed Sacrament of the altar and the Feast of Corpus Christi certainly came from the devotional life of the people of God, but also from the theological reflection of the Middle Ages, which found its most brilliant expression in St. Thomas Aquinas.
"In the liturgy, we have a more privileged access to the practice of the Church as a whole."
Any area of Catholic theology needs to be historical to some extent. Revelation comes down to us not just through Scripture but through Tradition too. Historical research and inquiry are needed to determine what the apostolic tradition is: what the Church has believed and lived always and everywhere. What, if anything, makes liturgical theology’s recourse to historical research any different from that of the other areas of theology? That is a good question and opens quite a wide perspective.
According to Vatican II, the liturgy is the source and summit (fons et culmen) of the Church's activities. Of course, a lot goes on in between and the Church's life can never be reduced to the liturgy. Nevertheless, the liturgy is at the heart of what we do as communion of the faithful. According to the great vision of the book of Revelation, it leads us into the eternal worship of God. Hence, it is a privileged source of the apostolic tradition and a prime witness to the faith of the Church, including the faith of the wider people of God. When we look at specific theologians from the tradition, we need to be aware that some of them may have developed in their own thought advanced speculative ideas that do not necessarily reflect the faith and practice of the Church. In the liturgy, we have a more privileged access to the practice of the Church as a whole. Hence, it is an important source of apostolic tradition.
"The medieval period is also very important for liturgical development...The rites were fully developed. That is when both the Roman Rite in the West and the Eastern traditions took on the form in which they are still celebrated."
Several of the books you have recommended focus on the early Church. Did the liturgy decline during the Middle-Ages, only to be restored to its pristine condition with the reforms subsequent to the Second Vatican Council? No, definitely not. The Early Church is perhaps the most interesting period for liturgical scholars because so much happened. That is when the liturgical rites were formed.
They developed especially after the peace of the Church which was introduced by the Emperor Constantine. There was a flood of cultural and artistic development. So, many scholars focus on that exciting period. Nevertheless, there was no decline or stagnation in the subsequent centuries.
In fact, the medieval period is also very important for liturgical development. From it, we get a much fuller picture. The rites were fully developed. That is when both the Roman Rite in the West and the Eastern traditions took on the form in which they are still celebrated. So, I try to argue against these narratives of decline.
"What I would draw attention to is the continuity and remarkable stability of the liturgy."
In certain parts of the English-speaking world, there is a heated debate for and against the Novus Ordo Mass of St. Paul VI. Both proponents of the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass cite the history of the liturgy in support of their favoured rite. Can historical research help settle mutual misunderstandings or correct spurious narratives? I agree. Historical research may bring some calm to that debate or controversy. It can take a bit of the heat out of it and shed more light on it.
In my own work, I strive to show both the elements of change or transformation and those of continuity or stability.
One certainly needs to acknowledge that the liturgy has changed over the course of the centuries. We are talking about a very long trajectory of at least 1500 years, if not quite 2000 years. Moreover, the Church spreads throughout the world, to many different regions and countries, each with its own cultural, linguistic, intellectual, and artistic traditions, along with sociological and political factors. All these come in and shape the public worship of the church. So, in a sense, changes are to be expected over such a long trajectory.
What I would draw attention to is the continuity and remarkable stability of the liturgy in that trajectory.
Take, for example, the basic structure of the Mass in the Western tradition, in the Roman Rite. The order of Mass was remarkably stable over a very long period. I find that more remarkable than the transformations that you would expect to find.
Some degree of historical awareness is helpful in just in conducting these discussions in a calm and more detached way.
The books you have selected focus primarily on the Eucharist. This is the understandable since it is the centre of the liturgy and the most important sacrament. However, what about the other sacraments and liturgical celebrations? Absolutely. To some extent, that reflects my own interests. My own work focuses on the Eucharist.
It would be worthwhile to delve also into the history of the Divine Office, the Liturgy of the Hours. There is some excellent work on that, such as that of Fr. Robert Taft SJ, though it is mainly on the Eastern, especially the Byzantine tradition.
My recommendations reflect my own interests. That said, the Eucharist is the most important act of worship of the Church. The other sacraments are ordered towards it in one way or another. Hence, it is useful to start from the centre when it comes to the other sacraments.
Encouragingly, there have been excellent publications in sacramental theology in recent years, but that would be a topic for another session.
You started out as a scholar of late Patristic Christology. Why did you shift your studies to the liturgy? My doctoral work was on the controversies of the Christology after the Council of Chalcedon. There was not that much research on it, so I did not have to plough through masses of secondary literature but could go directly to the primary sources. I found that useful, but it is a very technical debate that at times can appear somewhat sterile.
The liturgy has always been one of my personal interests. Hence, I shifted towards it, usually with a historical emphasis. In that regard, I have made good use of my historical training.
The liturgy is an essential and central part of the life of each Christian. Few, however, read about the history and theology of the liturgy. In your experience, does reading about them change one’s way of worship. I think it does. It helps you enter into the spirit and celebration of the liturgy more consciously and to develop a liturgical spirituality.
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