Reflections On The Exploration Of Jewish And Christian Liturgy From The Viewpoint Of A Systematic Theology Of Liturgy

Abstract

Christian liturgical studies take past and present forms of Jewish liturgy into consideration. This chapter follows some brief remarks on the characteristics of a systematic theological consideration of the Christian liturgy. A concrete example of the hermeneutics of the Eucharistic celebration and the Passover subsequently illustrates the theological location of Christian liturgy in the biblical and Jewish tradition. This is followed by a short ascertainment based on the Council decree 'Nostra Aetate' and finally some liturgical theological views of Jewish-Christian liturgical research. Recent research shows, however, quite a differentiated image of the supposedly successive transition from the Jewish Passover to the Christian Eucharist. A systematic theology that is based on the liturgy leads to a theology of promise in the language of the glorification of God's remembrance, which replaces an outwardly orthopractical effectiveness and an ethical idealization and functioning of religion in terms of the conditio humana . Keywords: Christian Eucharist; Christian liturgy; Jewish liturgy; Jewish Passover; Nostra Aetate; systematic theology