Studies on Medieval Liturgy and Ritual

Dear Colleagues,

Christian liturgy undoubtedly has a ritual quality, characterized by its involvement in the salvific history. At the same time, liturgy encompasses the service of the church to God, as well as God's interaction with human beings. On the one hand, liturgy can be understood as the totality of acts of worship that follow fixed forms and formulas. On the other hand, the term is also considered a category of analysis in cultural studies and refers to the execution of a more or less unchanging sequence of formal actions and statements that contain an already predetermined meaning (Roy Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) or "any ritual action with an ultimate frame of reference and the doing of which is understood to be of cosmic necessity" (Ronald L. Grimes, Beginnings in Ritual Studies [1982]. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. (=Studies in Comparative Religion), 1995). Liturgy can thus be understood in the Christian context of ritual actions as an expression of the Christian faith of an individual or the community. Thus, liturgy stands in both an anthropological and socio-cultural context (post). There is a dynamic interaction between rituals and the surrounding culture or worldview, whereby ritual is not a rigid entity but remains open to revelation and change. The tension between the two terms liturgy and ritual opens the possibility, both within the theological context and outside the ecclesiastical sphere, of exploring the dynamics of complex, seemingly uniform actions in their changing referentiality and changing of meaning for a community.

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

- Diversity and consolidation of rituals in the liturgy (e.g., in the development of Eastern and Western churches, in the context of church reforms, etc.).

- Theological disputes about the "right" rituals.

- Shifts in the meaning of rituals within the liturgy.

- Processes in the standardization of liturgy and their social and political background.

- Rituals and ceremonies regarding the tension between church and society/politics, as well as their changes.

- Community-constituting meaning of "liturgical" rituals, for example, in cooperatives, guilds and other social groups.

- Mediality/materiality of ritual and liturgy (“Schriftlichkeit”, music, objects…).

- Ritual and space in liturgy.

- Female liturgy and gender.

Tentative completion schedule:

Call for Paper deadline: 1 December 2024

Abstract submission deadline: 15 January 2025

Full manuscript submission deadline: 1 June 2025

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, Dr. Eva-Maria Butz ([email protected]), or to the Assistant Editor of Religions, Ms. Margaret Liu ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring that the paper is within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer-review process.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Eva-Maria Butz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• liturgy
• ritual
• ceremony
• correctness
• mediality
• materiality
• space
• music
• gender

Title: Integration and Symbiosis: Medievalism in Giulio Aleni’s Translational Mediation between Christian Liturgy and Chinese Rituals

Abstract: Admittedly, the earlier Franciscan missionaries to China – such as the famous John of Montecorvino (1247-1328) and Andrew of Perugia (1270-1329) – had partially introduced the fundamentals of Christian liturgy (such as rationales of sacraments, baptism, and the Eucharist) into Mongol China by translating parts of the Bible and liturgical texts into the Mongolian language. But the Franciscans did not delve into detailed liturgical explanations from a theological perspective, which was achieved afterwards by Jesuit missionaries in 16th- and 17th- century China, who composed treatises in classical Chinese to introduce and expound Catholic liturgy through inculturation and accommodation. Comparable to Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607), Giulio Aleni (1582-1649) also forged a common ground between Christian liturgy and Chinese rituals (rooted in Confucianism and Buddhism) via ideologically manipulative translation. Nonetheless, the medievalism in Aleni’s selective translation of Western philosophy, as reflected from his extensive co-references to both medieval scholasticism and mystical theology, has not been sufficiently studied, let alone being investigated vis-à-vis his translational mediation between Christian liturgy and Chinese rituals. This article will fill out this blank by offering a fresh and in-depth look at Aleni’s entangled ideological leanings towards Thomism and mysticism in his œuvres on Christian liturgy composed in classical Chinese. Methodologically, I propose that Aleni’s Chinese catechetical works – e.g., his Explication of the Mass 彌撒祭義, Correct Rules for the Elimination of Sins 滌罪正歸, and The Doctrine of the Eucharist 聖體要理 – shall be understood as constitutive of his overarching project of cross-religious translation. On this account, Aleni’s General Principles of Western Learning 西學凡 – which contains abridged Chinese translations of Thomistic and mystical philosophy, as well as Aristotelianism already filtered through the lens of medieval commentaries – shall be reconsidered closely in relation to his liturgical theology. Based on intertextual analysis, I argue that Aleni’s symbiotic integration of Christian liturgy and Chinese rituals in his doctrinal interpretation is solidly grounded on his familiarity with medieval philosophy, both scholastic and mystical. Medieval learning, so viewed, not only facilitates Aleni’s translational mediation between China and the Latin Christendom, but also reveals his conscious participation in the contemporary theological disputes about the “right” Christian rituals when denominational clashes were on the rise within the Latin Christendom. This point can be further substantiated by my archive studies of Aleni’s correspondences available in Italy.