Cyprian Krause’s ‘justification of rituality in the face of the absurd’ – its potential for negative hermeneutics of liturgy and their methodological consequences

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe essay analyses the potential for a negative hermeneutic in liturgical studies, taking as its basis Cyprian Krause’s ‘justification of the ritual in the face of the absurd’. It then examines consequent challenges for other theological subjects. The method of negative hermeneutics focusses on the limits of and gaps within the process of sense. This article explores how different aspects of negativity of sense (e.g. formal and content related) can help to study otherwise ignored and liminal aspects of liturgy. A negative hermeneutics of ritual can allow us to read the Christian liturgy as a performance whose power lies in its capacity precisely to unsettle, transform and subvert, rather than merely to authorize, justify and unify.