National liturgical and ritual studies research programme

Het Instituut voor Liturgische en Rituele Studies coördineert het Landelijk Onderzoekprogramma Liturgische en Rituele Studies en hanteert daarbij de volgende uitgangspunten:

Het instituut biedt een onderzoekprogramma aan dat niet concurreert met andere onderzoekprogramma's; dit programma dient de identiteit en het profiel te versterken van de in Nederland beoefende Liturgische en rituele studies;
Door ook projecten op te nemen die in andere programma's en dergelijke zijn ondergebracht wordt het open en brede karakter van het vakgebied veiliggesteld en uitgebouwd;
Het programma streeft naar samenwerking en onderlinge afstemming met andere onderzoeksorganisaties en -instanties, zoals NOSTER (Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Theologie en Religiewetenschap);
In het programma wordt ook gestreefd naar uitwisseling met vakgenoten in binnen- en buitenland, vandaar dat onder meer wordt samengewerkt met het Instituut voor Christelijk Cultureel Erfgoed te Groningen en het Meertens Instituut te Amsterdam, het Liturgisch Instituut te Leuven, en met organisaties als de Societas Liturgica en de AKL (Arbeitsgemeinschaft katholischer Liturgikdozentinnen und -dozenten im deutschen Sprachgebiet).

Liturgical and Ritual Movements IV: Reframing liturgical and ritual identities. The new national liturgical and ritual studies research programme, 2009-2012

Paul Post, in collaboration with: Marcel Barnard, Justin Kroesen, Gerard Rouwhorst, Louis van Tongeren & Thomas Quartier

Introduction

In 2009 the new research programme coordinated by the Institute for Liturgical and Ritual Studies is implemented: Liturgical and Ritual Movements IV: Reframing Liturgical and Ritual Identities (2009-2012). Like in the past we consider it appropriate to present an outline of the programme with a focus on the general description of backgrounds, profile and theme, and a short presentation of the participating research groups and projects through title and person. For details, especially on the projects, we refer to the programme text on the website of the Institute of Liturgical and Ritual Studies (ILRS) located at Tilburg University.

The new national research programme is very in line with the previous three programmes, but also connected with some important recent developments.

Internationally, and certainly also in the Netherlands, particularly the study of religion and theology is undergoing rapid evolution. Nationally on the universities a new constellation has now been developed and implemented for their theology and religious studies curriculum. Looking back, we can say that these developments did not come as a complete surprise, and that indeed, in certain respects, Dutch liturgical studies had already been responding in advance to these tendencies. We can particularly mention the international discussions about the identity, that is to say the profile and remit of liturgical studies. There has been a search for the precise background of the marginalisation and pulverisation of the discipline and for ways to conduct an appropriate counter-offensive. In this connection one can point to the fact that those outside the discipline see it as strongly connected to a bygone period and context (namely the period of the Liturgical Movement and liturgical reform), and particularly also task-oriented (namely, to the rewriting of the liturgical repertory). This is both an extremely distorted image, both of the liturgical renewal of the last century and of the task and profile of liturgical studies, and an extremely dated image, given today's situation. Over against this, one could justifiably argue that the present context of our late modern or post-modern era, with its extremely complex dynamic of ritual, liturgy and culture, perhaps could or should provide yet greater stimulus. Precisely now one realises the requisite breakthrough from liturgy to ritual. Liturgy must enter into a relation with ritual and culture in a programmatic and fundamental manner. A research institute for liturgical and ritual studies is an appropriate translation of this.

That actuality (and particularly the threat of the marginalisation and pulverisation of liturgical studies) was at the time one of the most important motives for establishing the Liturgical Institute at Tilburg in 1992 (in 1996, with the status of an inter-university institute), and was a challenging foundation for a series of initiatives that have proven highly fruitful. In the national context, it goes without saying that collaboration in the field of liturgical and ritual studies is close, and within the practice of theology and religious studies it can be called exemplary: young researchers are coming forward, and especially in terms of its methods the discipline continues to renew itself. Internationally Dutch liturgical and ritual studies enjoy a rising profile, not in the least as a result of international symposiums, conferences and serial publications. It is precisely the programmatic combination of liturgical and ritual studies that profiles the ILRS as a platform. Or, to put it in the words of new motto of the series Liturgia condenda: the supporting rational is the conviction that liturgy and ritual form a complex and interrelated research object, the exploration and study of which must be performed both in its context (past and present) and in close contact with other (sub)disciplines. This gives the institute and the research programme its outspoken multidisciplinary profile.

Now, in 2009, these developments are very relevant to the start of this new programme. As said above, the landscape for religious studies and theology in the Netherlands has altered radically. Reference must be made here to the double movement of ecclesiastically profiled settings for the practice of theology on the one hand and an inclusion of religious studies in the broader field of the Humanities and cultural studies on the other. This programme transcends that parting of the ways.

All in all, the programme fits in with the experience gained from working on the mission of the ILRS: the coordination, encouragement and internationalisation of research in the field of liturgical and ritual studies. In addition to, and in close coordination with symposia, expert meetings, study days, monograph series, etcetera, the programme is one of the ways for achieving these goals. Here we must mention the vital research groups and project groups that come together around particular topics. Presently there are a number of these groups active, and these groups will also play a visible role in this programme.

The national liturgical and ritual studies research programme, 2009-2012 Liturgical and Ritual Movements IV: Reframing liturgical and ritual identities, coordinated by prof.dr P. Post, has been recorded in a document which shows the national structure of the programme. This research programme PDF is downloadable in pdf-format; a paper copy can be obtained at the ILRS: ilrs@uvt.nl, tel. (013) 466 2056.