Liturgische Bibelhermeneutik: Die Heilige Schrift im Horizont des Gottesdienstes by Marco Benini

Abstract

Reviewed by: Liturgische Bibelhermeneutik: Die Heilige Schrift im Horizont des Gottesdienstes by Marco Benini Antonio Portalatín marco benini, Liturgische Bibelhermeneutik: Die Heilige Schrift im Horizont des Gottesdienstes (Liturgiewissenschaftliche Quellen und Forschungen 109; Münster: Aschendorff, 2020). Pp. xvi + 574. €76. Certainly, the vast research contained in Benini’s book and presented in 2018 as his Habilitationsschrift at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany is of great interest for exegetes, especially if they share the hermeneutical inclinations of the author. The investigation concerns liturgical biblical hermeneutics and is therefore primarily a liturgical and not an exegetical study. Offering principles of biblical interpretation is not its purpose either. Rather, the inquiry, following the lead of the Second Vatican’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (§24) about the importance of the Scriptures in the liturgy, seeks to investigate the relation of the Bible to the liturgy and, consequently, how the liturgical context affects the interpretation of biblical texts as well as how they provide meaning to celebrations. This knowledge could greatly benefit exegetes. After the introduction, the work is divided into two parts. The first part is of an analytical character, in which B. surveys the use of the Bible in liturgy and goes deeply by selecting samples from the Roman Latin, the Ambrosian and Byzantine ritual traditions concerning readings in the lectionaries, the liturgy of the hours, the echo of the Bible in the prayers of sacramentaries, biblically inspired liturgical songs, and the biblical significance of liturgical gestures. This part is very instructive for the history of biblical reception. It also treats the case of Psalm 24 (MT 23), which B. follows from the biblical setting, to the liturgical context, and into the hermeneutical implications for liturgy. Thus, examining this psalm gives B. the opportunity to recognize a liturgical biblical hermeneutics in the types of voices with which the psalms are used, that is, their “christologisation” (p. 105) in the liturgy: vox Christi ad Patrem, vox ecclesiae ad Christum, vox de Christo (“the voice of Christ to the Father, the voice of the church to Christ, the voice concerning Christ”). In the second part, B. uses the results of his investigations to construct systematically a biblical hermeneutics for liturgy. He elaborates the principles related to intertextuality, [End Page 115] that is, how meaning is produced in the relationship of biblical texts with other intertexts within the liturgical celebration, including other biblical readings, prayers, antiphons, and the whole setting of the celebration. Next, there are principles that result from the placement of the readings in the lectionary, either in their relationship with other readings of the same celebration, or according to their distribution during the year, or from their connection to a thematic liturgical festivity. Then B. analyzes the performative dimension of biblical texts in the liturgy: how they produce and receive meaning from gestures, rites, and representations. In addition, B. proposes a list of liturgical functions of the Scriptures. First is the catechetical function, by which liturgy is a major means to convey knowledge of the Scriptures. Second is the anamnetic function, by which the liturgy actualizes events of the biblical history of salvation. Third, B. mentions the paracletic or pastoral function, by which the Scriptures edify the participants in the celebrations. Fourth is the meditative function, by which the biblical texts in the context of the liturgy are occasions for prayer. The performative function is the fifth, by which the participants in the liturgy identify themselves with roles or characters of the Bible. Then, in the sixth place, there is the doxological function, a major and specific goal of the liturgy. Seventh, B. notes that biblical narratives are also origins of liturgical celebrations. Finally, B. reflects theologically on the relation of liturgy and Scriptures in general. The concept of sacramentality of God’s Word, stressed by the post-synodal document Verbum Domini (§56), serves as a category to illuminate the relation of the human and divine Word, the efficacy of the Scriptures in the liturgy, and the relationship between sacrament and word. In addition, the participatio actuosa to which every worshiper is invited in the liturgy is also a particular form of Scriptures’ reception, not...