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Introduction
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1 introduCtion Medieval Blessings and Religious Ritual The idea of a reality that lies beyond our understanding, a sacred being or power existing adjacent to yet distinct from the mundane world as we perceive it, is a common element of the religious belief of human cultures throughout recorded history. As a general student of religion, I have longbeeninterestedinthisideaof thesacred,alongwiththeritualsthatimplore its power and the cosmological beliefs that such rituals express. Numerous studies by archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians of the ancient and modern world have satisfied my interest with texts that I, an outsider to these disciplines,could nevertheless appreciate and that brought into focus for me both the fundamental characteristics of human religious belief and the peculiarities that distinguish one era’s faith from another’s.As a medievalist studying the liturgical ritual of the medieval church, however, these interests more often than not found little satisfaction in my professional reading.Concerned with tracing the uniquely Christian expression of belief in the theology and public worship of the medieval church,the historicalandtextual studies of traditional liturgistsand medieval historiansleave much unsaid regarding the more fundamental issues of how the human cultures of medieval Europe conceived of the otherworldly power of the sacred and its connection with their lives, and how ritual was used to express and reinforce this conception.1 1. Josef Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, 2 vols. (New York: Benziger, 1983), and Theodor Klauser,AShortHistoryof theWesternLiturgy (Oxford:Oxford University Press,1979), are excellent representative syntheses of the historical approach. More recent works worth consideration are George Every, The Mass (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1978), and AiméGeorges Martimort, The Church at Prayer: An Introduction to the Liturgy, trans. Austin Flannery and Vincent Ryan (Collegeville,Minn.:Liturgical Press,1988). z 2 introduCtion This lacuna was especially frustrating when I first became aware of a large body of rituals lacking both detailed contemporary commentaries and modern historical treatments, rituals the scope and variety of which nonetheless convinced me that they played an important role in medieval Christianity :liturgical blessings.Blessings range in complexity from simple Latin prayers spoken over the recipients to lengthy and complex rituals including prayers,alternate prayers,rubrics for actions and gestures by celebrants and participants, psalmody, litanies of saints, and scriptural quotation and allusion . These rituals served an exceptionally large number of purposes, often using similar formulas but frequently manifesting distinctive traits and qualities that hinted much about how medieval people understood both the divine and ritual,and how they used both to better their lives.Given the paucity of historical sources discussing these rituals,I have chosen to adopt a textual approach drawn more from religious studies than from history and focusing primarily on the broad ideas, beliefs, and trends found within the language of these texts themselves. Where sources exist to provide details about the historical context, usage, and reception of individual texts, I discussthese ,butIalwaysreturntotheritualsthemselvestoexplorethefundamental questions they raise concerning the nature, meaning, uses, and perception of the sacred. The necessary first step in my project, thus, is a working definition of the sacred by which to approach the medieval benedictions. I choose to define the sacred in the language of phenomenology, as something originating wholly outside the moral and rational order constructed by the human mind.This definition is drawn from the work of Rudolf Otto,whose terminology and study of this power,which he terms the numen, elegantly encapsulates the nature and evolution of human religious consciousness of the sacred and the divine; this definition will anchor my discussion of the holy and the sacred.2 This understanding cannot stand on its own,for while it of2 . Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, trans. John W. Harvey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923), 1–30. According to this paradigm, the numen is not irrational, but nonrational, originating not in theological ideation but in a “daemonic dread”of the primitive human consciousness toward a nonrational experience, a moment that made the human mind aware of its “creature consciousness,” a feeling of utter nothingness in the presence of undeniable Being (that is,ultimate reality or divinity),and its “dependence sense,”a feeling of utter reliance on this present Being.The experience of this numen, its presence,and its effect on its observers ,is encapsulated in Otto’s concept of the mysteriumtremendum, embracing dread,such as the holy awe of Job before the presence of God;wrathfulness,the interpretation of this divine awe [35.171.22.220] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 15:30...