Dissertation Abstract
The Beautiful Funeral: The Aesthetics
of a Liturgy
by
Melinda Ann Quivik
Degree: Ph.D.
Year: 2003
Pages: 00367
Institution: Graduate Theological
Advisor: Coordinator Lizette Larson-Miller
Source: DAI, 64, no. 11A (2003): p. 4093
Inspired by the liturgical reforms emerging from
Vatican II, many Christian denominations began revisions of their liturgical
books, often reflecting a renewed emphasis on the centrality of the sacraments
of baptism and eucharist. Just as theological
understandings contribute to liturgical changes, so revised rites can and do
lead to new theological understandings. The question asked by this dissertation
is how a liturgy centered in word and sacrament might be structured in light of
a liturgical aesthetic.
This
study begins with a history of the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) Burial
of the Dead in order to show the theological issues which underlay many
liturgical choices.It then examines the liturgical theology of Gordon Lathrop
and the aesthetic theology of Alejandro Garcia-Rivera, with particular
attention to the work of philosopher John Dewey and mathematician Charles
Sanders Peirce, in order to create a new liturgical aesthetic.
Lathrop's
liturgical theology asserts that meaning is generated not simply through the
assertion of "truths," but through the proximity between those "holy
things" that mediate God's grace: the holy scriptures,
baptismal waters, communion meal, and the baptized. The relationship between
signs of the faith and the postmodern critique of received tradition is
explored especially through the work of Merold Westphal, showing that Lathrop's
"broken symbols" are not reliant on conventional notions of
metanarrative as oppressor but, on the contrary, create liberating spaces for
meaning-creation. Alejandro Garcia-Rivera's theological aesthetic asserts that
God's beauty is made available through both kataphatic and apophatic engagement with the difference between
signs. Experience of the beautiful is to come into the presence of
contradiction.
The
new liturgical aesthetic becomes a lens with which to evaluate the capacity of
the LBW Burial of the Dead to mediate the beauty of God. Its elements include
understanding the liturgical experience as an event in which the assembly
participates intuitively as well as cognitively to create the meaning of its
faith. Issues that the funeral rite most fruitfully considers surround the identity
of the communion of saints in light of the resurrection.
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: THEOLOGY
RELIGION,
PHILOSOPHY OF
Accession
No: AAI3110195
Provider: OCLC
Database: Dissertations