Difficulties in Doing Liturgical Theology

Abstract

This study critically examines some traditional methods in liturgical theology. The author argues that liturgy is as much a human artefact as a divine creation, and therefore that liturgical theology needs to take the fruits of historical research and the insights offered by the social sciences much more seriously than it has generally done. He also rejects the notion that there is a single theological meaning within every liturgical act which can be read out of it as a doctrinal norm. On the contrary, liturgies are essentially multivalent, and doctrine shapes both the liturgies themselves and people's interpretations of them at least as much as liturgical practice shapes belief.