{"id":326,"date":"2012-01-06T00:03:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T05:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/thecc\/?p=326"},"modified":"2012-01-06T00:03:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T05:03:25","slug":"sociological-research-on-liturgy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/2012\/01\/06\/sociological-research-on-liturgy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sociological Research on Liturgy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So, where can we find relevant empirical research on liturgy?\u00a0 Since Mike McCallion<\/a> was the very first person to comment on this blog, I decided that I would highlight some of his previous research on liturgy, and I am hoping that he will write about his current research in a later post.<\/p>\n

McCallion\u2019s dissertation research examined the implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) within the Archdiocese of Detroit.\u00a0 In a later book (co-authored with his dissertation adviser, David Maines of Wayne State), the lens was broadened to depict the general implementation processes that followed Vatican II liturgical reforms.<\/p>\n

Since his dissertation specifically examined RCIA, I\u2019ll reiterate some useful context information regarding RCIA.\u00a0 McCallion noted that the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium<\/a>) promulgated in 1963 during Vatican II ordered that the catechumenate for adults be restored, but it was left to a smaller liturgical committee to actually revise the sacraments of initiation, and this commission did not finish its work until 1972, with the English translation finally approved in 1974.\u00a0 So, it was a decade long process from promulgation to revision to translation.<\/p>\n

We might imagine that liturgical change ends when the above process is completed\u2014but McCallion showed that there is wide variation in how different RCIA coordinators implement the rituals outlined by the RCIA text.\u00a0 As he notes, \u201cPolicies may well originate in powerful decision making groups like the Second Vatican Council or the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions or Bishop\u2019s Committee on the Liturgy, but they must flow through contexts and networks of social relations in order to have any effects.\u00a0 In flowing through these contexts, they invariably are changed to one degree or another.\u201d\u00a0 Thus, implementation <\/em>at the ground level is just as important for sociological study as policy development by elites.<\/p>\n

In his research, McCallion found that suburban parishes tended to have text-adhering coordinators, whereas urban parishes more often produced text-adapting ones.\u00a0 What did he mean by \u201ctext-adhering\u201d and \u201ctext-adapting?\u201d And why were these differences associated with location?<\/p>\n

In general, text-adhering liturgists were adamant about sticking to the RCIA text.\u00a0 It was their primary source for defining \u201cproper\u201d and \u201cimproper\u201d implementation of the RCIA.\u00a0 Such coordinators are caricatured in the common joke:\u00a0 What is the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist?\u00a0 Answer:\u00a0 You can negotiate with a terrorist.<\/p>\n

Text-adapting liturgists, on the other hand, readily adapted the RCIA text and sometimes bypassed its rituals all together.\u00a0 One example of this involved the dismissal rite.\u00a0 A text-adapting coordinator told McCallion, \u201cThe candidates come to Mass but we don\u2019t kick them out (use the dismissal rite) or anything like that.\u00a0 People interpret that as being rude here and so we just don\u2019t do it.\u201d\u00a0 Rather than adhering to the text, these coordinators adapted it to their parish understandings and circumstances.<\/p>\n

So, why was location important for understanding who was text-adhering or text adapting?\u00a0 Part of it was education, and how liturgical training embedded folks within liturgical social networks.\u00a0 Coordinators who were liturgically trained and rooted in liturgical social networks tended to be text-adhering, and they also tended to work in suburban parishes.\u00a0 Not just education, but race and other social factors impacted social networks.\u00a0 But most importantly, these social networks were mechanisms for transmitting a particular \u201cdefinition of the situation.\u201d\u00a0 According to McCallion, \u201cthis liturgical definition of the situation claimed that Americans do not appreciate ritual, indeed Americans are anti-ritualistic.\u00a0 Moreover, priests have not been trained in liturgy and so are basically inept to lead liturgical ritual.\u00a0 And then to drive all of these claims home, another claim was repeated, ad nauseum, that stated the RCIA and other liturgical rites were being implemented in the most individualistic context imaginable- North America.\u201d\u00a0 Thus, text-adhering coordinators held a basically negative (or at least highly critical) view of existing culture.<\/p>\n

Notice how the text-adhering definition of the situation fits Nathan Mitchell\u2019s \u201chigh church\u201d narrative in which liturgical critique quickly shifts to cultural critique.\u00a0 But it focuses on a different cultural critique.\u00a0 Whereas I noted concerns related to secularism and the lack of transcendant imagery as important for the new translation in my previous post, McCallion argues that the post-Vatican II high church group was initially most concerned with individualism.\u00a0 Consequently, ritual (as a public, communal activity) was seen as a means of \u201cpushing back\u201d against the individualistic contemporary American culture. \u00a0Liturgy shaping culture.<\/p>\n

In a blog post, I cannot do justice to an entire dissertation and a follow-up book.\u00a0 So, I will not try to enumerate all of the interesting findings in this work.\u00a0 Let me note, however, that McCallion recognized himself in the caricature of the \u201ctext-adhering\u201d liturgist.\u00a0 Formed by his training in theology and liturgy, he had a highly critical view of enactment of liturgy in most parishes and he wanted to study RCIA sociologically to substantiate his convictions.\u00a0 But his sociological investigation indicated otherwise\u2014thus his research forced himself to reevaluate his own deeply held understandings and to become more critical of his own previous views.\u00a0 Consequently, McCallion abandoned (perhaps too strong a wording) the high church camp and developed ideas and themes more consistent with the second of Mitchell\u2019s three theoretical approaches- emerging ritual.\u00a0 Theories of emerging ritual developed as a critique of the \u201cclassic\u201d consensus and argued that rituals always emerge organically from communities.\u00a0 Instead of a \u201critual wasteland,\u201d modern society is in fact chock full of meaningful ritual, but you must be willing to find it on its own terms.<\/p>\n

As a result of this shift, McCallion was able to recognize and highlight some key sociological ironies that have played out in the implementation of Vatican II liturgical change.\u00a0 For instance, he notes the ironic growth of bureaucracy in order to \u201cimplement community.\u201d\u00a0 He also suggests that we can view liturgical workers as a new knowledge class and profit from seeing the liturgical movement as a social movement, but one that, ironically, in its quest to implement community often finds itself at odds with the laity.\u00a0 Thus, he argues that implementation of liturgical change has led to the rise of a professional class of church professionals, including professional liturgists, who have contributed to divergences between professional diocesan\/parish workers and the laity.<\/p>\n

Consequently, he sees liturgists as too often forces of chaos and disruption.\u00a0 Michael McCallion\u2019s work does not pull punches, but it is important to recognize that he sees himself in the image that he critiques.\u00a0 So, he is being as hard on himself as he is on others.\u00a0 His work is well worth reading.\u00a0 Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to buy all of his conclusions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the end, his research points to some key questions that sociologists studying the new translation\u2019s impact should be asking\u2026How is change being implemented? \u00a0Who is implementing it? \u00a0Is there variation in how parishes are implementing the new translation?<\/p>\n

Inquiring minds want to know:\u00a0 How has your parish gone about implementing the changes?\u00a0 Who is charged with implementing changes in your parish?\u00a0 How did they prepare parishioners?\u00a0 How have they responded to parishioner concerns?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, where can we find relevant empirical research on liturgy?\u00a0 Since Mike McCallion was the very first person to comment on this blog, I decided that I would highlight some of his previous research on liturgy, and I am hoping … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":411,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}