Liturgy and Trinity

This essay seeks to counter “liturgicism,” which gives to the liturgy alone the role of making known the content of divine revelation. Without slighting the liturgy, we should affirm that the word of God is given (as truth) in Scripture and Tradition. Thus, liturgical experience is informed by Scripture as dogmatically interpreted by the Church. Focusing on the Trinity, I defend this point by recourse to four late-patristic and medieval liturgical commentaries, each of which combines allegorical interpretation of the liturgy with the exposition of doctrine: St. Germanus of Constantinople’s Ecclesiastical History and Mystical Contemplation; Nicholas Cabasilas’s Commentary on the Divine Liturgy; Amalarius of Metz’s Liber officialis; and William Durandus the Elder of Mende’s Rationale divinorum officiorum.