Active Participation and the Fight Over the Mass

2015

Protestants and Catholics have long been obsessed with their origins. There is something powerful about claiming that one’s faith descends directly from the life of Jesus. Holding to the truth thus means tracing one’s practices and beliefs to the true beginning. Protestants have commonly imagined that their faith is grounded in an epochal return to Christianity’s genesis after a long interlude of wandering and corruption. Roman Catholics have maintained that they never lost contact with the apostolic age, and have therefore preserved the church that Jesus founded, and then entrusted to Peter. The issue for both parties has been authority, or, in a more modern term, authenticity, though each has posed and answered the question of authority differently. The Catholic tradition has been defined in many ways by asking who spoke for God, while Protestants from the outset focused instead on asking by what means God spoke. The Catholic answer is that the church fathers, the councils, and th...

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conservative laity might have felt a personal aversion to the new ritual, the traditional Catholic custom of unquestioning clerical obedience prevented the formation of a significant lay resistance. A number of works examine the historical developments in the modern Catholic Church which contributed to these liturgical changes. 13 Several texts examine the 20th

2015

world and in ways that seem complicated and even mysterious to today’s readers. This collection will long remain a valuable resource for unlocking the meaning of the council and its interpretation. Some of the best scholars in this field contributed to several issues of Theological Studies during the council’s jubilee, and these selections comprise a truly fitting tribute to the council that created the contemporary Catholic Church and shaped relations among Christians and among all people of goodwill into the present century.”

This dissertation examines the relation of iconic images to Real or spiritual presence, analyzing key debates and exemplary case studies in a long history of controversy, from the iconoclastic period of eighth and ninth centuries in Byzantium to the Reformation in Italy of the sixteenth. The focus is the icon of Christ's Passion-what became the imago pietatis in the Latin West and the related pietà-reexamined as a site of cultural conflict, theoretical reflection and artistic negotiation. The study begins with the icon's development in Byzantium, emerging in the wake of religious conflict, and examines its cultic appropriation in Italy, where it becomes bound to controversy as the Eucharistic vision of Gregory the Great. It culminates in the icon's transformation by Renaissance artists in the sixteenth century, when Reformation critique of cult images as mediators of spiritual presence lay at the center of a crisis that would define modern Europe. By articulating a shared history of spiritual imaging between Byzantium and Italy, my study offers an alternative to canonical narratives of artistic progress that cast them in hierarchical terms, contributing to a reevaluation of Renaissance art history currently underway. Attending closely to the work of images in relation to their viewers-as mediations of presence, beyond their status as representation-the dissertation articulates the mutual interrelation of artistic and cultic functions, integrating realms of study traditionally divided in scholarship. More broadly, by setting Renaissance artworks within a longer historical dynamic of icons and iconoclasm, this study reflects upon the deep structure of tensions regarding images and idolatry that were formative to the thought and culture of early modern Europe, and continue to resonate with force in our day. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Among the pleasures of writing a dissertation is the opportunity it presents to acknowledge the many individuals and institutions that have made it possible. In my own department, I am grateful to Howard Singerman for his unfailing support as Chair and Director of Graduate Studies, as well as to Larry Goedde and Douglas Fordham, his successors. Among the Renaissance faculty, Francesca Fiorani and Cammy Brothers have provided exceptional models of scholarship, teaching and collegiality. I am forever in their debt for the myriad ways in which they have mentored, trained and inspired me. From early on in my project, I benefitted from wide-ranging conversations with David Summers on every conceivable topic. Later, Paul Barolsky stepped up to advise the dissertation that grew out of my ever-expanding interests. Exchange and collaboration with other faculty have nourished me as well, with Dorothy Wong,

2006

A creative and healthy tension between conservatives and progressives serves to keep both secular and ecclesiastical governments strong and viable. This tension, however, becomes unhealthy when either side hardens its views into absolutes that prevent the give-andtake of dialogue. Since the Second Vatican Council, the debate concerning its meaning and mandate threatens at times to become shrill and to lack a constructive and necessary civility. To keep different interpretations in not only a civil but also a productive exchange with regard to the two great councils, Trent (between 1545 and 1563) and Vatican II (1962-1965), few things serve better than balanced historical analyses that answer critical questions such as these: What happened before and after Trent? What was Trent's primary purpose? How well did it succeed? The same inquiries need to be made of Vatican II, with the addition of one other fundamental and multifaceted question: In what ways did Vatican II build on Trent, and in what ways did it extend or change Trent's direction? The essays in this volume attempt to address these basic questions as well as concentrate on specific aspects of Catholic life affected by both councils, including the Eucharist, liturgical music, the laity, marriage, confession, and devotion to the Virgin Mary. The authors accept both councils as legitimate ecumenical councils duly convoked by a reigning Roman Pontiff and attended by a majorityin the case of Vatican II, an overwhelming majority-of active bishops. The contributors understand that their task is to strictly adhere to scholarly standards that preclude special pleading for either conservatives or progressives. Their hope is to facilitate discussion viii foreword about the direction of the post-Vatican II Church. None of these scholars thinks that either reversion or aversion to Trent will help the Roman Catholic Church as it moves into the twenty-first century. Each of the authors in this volume has established a record of scholarship in the particular issues he or she engages; not a few are renowned experts on their subjects. They have consulted primary documents and other respected historians and theologians. Some summarize current scholarship; others break new ground-for example, John W. O'Malley and Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo. John O'Malley's work on Roman rhetoric and on the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century allows him to see the different styles of Trent and Vatican II as part of the different goals and methods of the two councils. Trent's object was reform, and its language was primarily legislative and juridical. Vatican II's object was renewal, and its language was primarily poetic, working through image and metaphor, and almost sacramental in character. Using documents only recently made available, Stevens-Arroyo brings material theology to bear on the often facile judgments of some historians and commentators concerning the situation in the Americas at the time of the Council of Trent and during the following century. By "material theology," Stevens-Arroyo means a theology based on what people were actually doing rather than what theologians were thinking at the time. While some readers may want to question several of his more controversial positions, I am certain that no one will argue with the fresh portrait of the contributions of the dynamic mixture of indigenous and Spanish peoples and cultures that made the baroque era in the Americas so different from its European counterpart. The most visible, audible, and therefore neuralgic changes of Vatican II occurred in the liturgy, its language, its music, and the degree of participation by laity. Sonorous Latin, often supported by the remarkably apt Gregorian chant, united text and music in a meditative flow that may never be equaled. Nevertheless, to move laypeople from passive observers of a distant liturgical drama in a language they could not understand to vibrant participants in the liturgy required the use of the vernacular. Gerard S. Sloyan's account of the use and the demise of Latin in the West may help those who miss the "old" Mass to understand why the change was necessary and inevitable. Liturgists have spoken of the need for the Church to subsidize qualified musicians to assure that the Church's music goes beyond the adaptation of nineteenthcentury Protestant hymns. The creativity of folk and spiritual music has added to the post-Vatican II repertoire, but one hopes for continuing musical inspiration to accompany a more participatory liturgy. In one of the more provocative essays, Robert J. Daly combs through the language and context of the two councils on the Mass as a sacrifice. He focuses on the role of the priest and his position with regard to the risen Christ and the Church as the Body of Christ on Earth. Emblematic of the priest's role is the location of the altar. When the priest's back was turned to the congregation, The editors wish to express their special appreciation: To the University Seminars at Columbia University for their assistance in the preparation of the manuscript for publication and for providing opportunities in the University Seminar on Studies in Religion for airing some of the ideas presented in this book. To Professor Robert Belknap, director of the Seminars, for his confidence in the outcome of the enterprise. To Cynthia Read, Executive Editor of Oxford University Press, for her support, her patience, her guidance, and her gracious professional advice. To St. John's University for providing both time and support for the project. In particular, to Sister Mary Ann Spanjers and to Carla Funk for their skillful and enthusiastic help in research. To Gabriella Coccia Roy and Emily Michelson for their painstaking and expert work on translation and to Frances Fico of St. John's University and Victoria Gonzalez of Santa Clara University for their cheerful and reliable assistance in communicating with contributors and in the timely circulation of documents. To Rev. Gerard S. Sloyan for his warm encouragement of the project from the beginning and to Rev. Frederick Cwiekowski, Rev. Thomas A. Lynch, and Rev. Michael Fahey for both their helpful suggestions and their strong commendation of the volume. To Professor Jill Raitt of the University of Missouri for gracing the book with her Foreword and for the many valuable suggestions she made to the editors. xii acknowledgments To John Macquarrie and Ewert Cousins, our former mentors, in grateful appreciation of the rich theological legacy they have given us. To them we also gladly dedicate this volume. Finally, to our loved ones, friends, and colleagues who have provided continuous support and helpful advice throughout the long process of publication.