Sociology and Liturgy

This is a study of the social construction and the impression management of the public forms of worship of Catholicism and Anglicanism. Interest centres on the dilemmas of the liturgical actors in handling a transaction riddled with ambiguities and potential misunderstandings. The study is an innovative effort to link sociology to theology in a way that serves to focus on an issue of social praxis.

Preface - Introduction - Sociology and Theology: a Career in Misunderstanding - Liturgical Theology: Some Sociological Implications - Sociological Understandings of Liturgy: Some Aspects - Angels and Surplices: appearing as holy becoming - Simulation and Dissimulation: Self-revealing Paradoxes - Holy and Unholy Rites: Lies and Mistakes in Liturgy - Sacred and profane Abasements: the Management of Esteem - Altar Servers and Waiters: serving in Worlds apart - Liturgy as Ritual: Playing on Social Limits - Action, Symbol, Text: Hermeneutics and Sociology - Apophatic Liturgy: Re-presenting the Absent in Rite - Conclusion - Bibliography - Index