General and Introductory Materials
Part 2 History of the Liturgy

Chapter d29 The Twenty-First Century

Preliminary Questions

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Bibliography

Vincent J. Miller Consuming Religion:  Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture.  A Continuum Book  ISBN 0-8264-1531-8

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50 Years After the Council

John Allen in the NCR (November 7 2007) summarizes the work of two Chicago Cardinals:  "Yet there is a difference. Many historians say the two great impulses that produced Vatican II were aggiornamento, meaning bringing things up to date, and ressourcement, or a return to the wellsprings of tradition, and theologians will tell you that ultimately the two belong together. Nonetheless, in different periods one may wax and the other wane; synthetically, one could say that Bernardin leaned to the aggiornamento end of the equation, while George inclines a bit more to ressourcement.

Work still to be done   A man whose opinion I respect very much, Father Robert F. Taft SJ, writing in America 198:18P11 gives the following list of "work still to be done." A list of works still to be done would include the order of the Christian initiation of infants, The liturgy of the hours, the practice of taking holy Communion from the tabernacle during Mass and the retreat from any meaningful reform of the sacrament of reconciliation, which has left confession a disappearing sacrament, at least in North America. Regarding all of these except the last, Catholics might learn from the East.

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Consuming Religion

During the Spring of 2006 I taught the course, Liturgical Spirituality in a  Consumer Society.  During the course we read together Vincent J. Miller  Consuming Religion:  Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture.  The quotations from this book which appear below are printed in consideration of the "Fair Use Act."  I presume that those reading the following paragraphs have each purchased a copy of this book and have thus paid royalties to the copy write owners.

Introduction

1.  This book is about the disconnect between religious belief and religious practice.  In a consumer society we form habits of interpretation and use that render the content of beliefs and values less important (1).
2.  The goal:  to become aware of how we are effected by consumer culture so that our religious engagements might be more effective (1). 
3.  Examples:  In a pole conducted by the author of his undergraduate students the majority were anonymous "in admiring and respecting John Paul II.  A majority of tem simultaneously considered the Vatican's policies on sexuality and the treatment of women to be fundamental obstacles to either joining or remaining in the Catholic Church.  Not a single one associated John Paul with any of these issues" (7).
4.  Example:  When one goes to the grocery store to buy a steak it is in its own plastic wrapped package.  we do not think of what happened to the rest of the cow; where it was raised and fed; whether it came from North Dakota or whether part of the rain forest of Brazil was destroyed to make grazing land.
5.  Example:  Formerly a child might have a treasured stuffed animal or teddy bear, which would be loved and protected for many years.  Today a child often has hundreds of stuffed animals and consequently this bond of affection is not formed with any of them.  They become simply disposable items.  Miller tells the story of a young Chinese worker who works herself to death in a factory producing stuffed animals.  Which will become "throwaway" items in the United States.  Miller uses this as an example of the disconnect between objects and values.

Chapter 1.  How to Think about Consumer Culture

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Chapter 2.  The Commodification of Culture

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Chapter 3.  Consumer Religion

1.  "Media infrastructures replace religious institutions" (102). Television and religion:  Pope John Paul II carefully orchestrated his appearance on television.  His face and voice were recognized world wide (just like any other media star).  Catholics could easily recognize the bishop of Rome where as many Catholics do not even know who their own local bishop is.  Thus the media reinforces centralization in the church and greatly diminishes the effectiveness and the authority of the local church and national bishop's conferences.  This explains in part the loyalty of contemporary aspirants to the priesthood. to Pope John Paul II and to his writings.  I have found that the writings of John Paul II are the preferred and favored text of the seminarians in any course I might teach (101).

Note that an "unintended" (at least one would presume that it is unintended) result of this media attention is that it diminishes subordinate institutions.  While the popularity of the Pope may seem an unmixed blessing, note that following remarks by David Hollenbach commenting on an unrelated issue:

"In recent years, for example, we have seen the creativity of bishops' conferences significantly reduced by decisions of the Holy See.  This has been motivated partly by the Vatican's desire to protect the unity of the church by strengthening central control.  It is increasingly clear, however, that complex global organizations are more effective when they grant greater scope for creativity to regional and local decision makers.  Effective transnational management calls for decentralization that respect local conditions.  The church, however, has been moving in the opposite direction" (David Hollenbach, "Joy and Hope, Grief and Anguish" America December 5, 2005 Vol. 193: No. 18, pg. 13)

"Second, the church needs to develop structures to enable clergy and laity to enter into more serious dialogue about how the Catholic community should respond to the challenges of public life today.  Laypeople have deep experience of engagement in all facets of our public life, an the Catholic community must learn from this experience.  Regrettably, centralization of church governance in recent years has significantly impeded such dialogue."  (David Hollenbach, "Joy and Hope, Grief and Anguish" America December 5, 2005 Vol. 193: No. 18, pg. 14)

2.  Mother Angelica's clash with Cardinal Roger Mahoney:  "Mother Angelica's impact also far outweighs that of trained theologians" (107).  The EWTN website gets more hits in an hour than the original press run of a book that was examined by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith who then excommunicated its author.  The point being that because of the media, Mother Angelica has much more influence than a contemporary theologian and the media has given her "quasi-episcopal status" (103).
 

Chapter 4.  Desire and the Kingdom of God

1.  Desire is a key element in both Christianity and a Consumer Society (107).
2.  Religious desire and the desire for consumption are not contradictory but are like "Trains on Parallel Tracks."
3.  Religious desire:  "You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee."  (Augustine:  opening lines of the Confessions (110).  Religious desire arises from a "call beyond the self."  (111).  Religious desire calls us to "transcend ourselves, to constantly move forward to the gift of salvation".  (112).  It is related to Benedictine "Stability" (110).
4.  Consumer Desire:  Consumer Desire is manipulated by marketing and advertising and "Desire" comes disassociated from its related value and is directed towards sales.  However it is not directed simply towards acquiring things "consumerism is as much about losing interest in goods as it is about acquiring them."  (114).  "People spend money on personal-appearance products and services, clothing, and luxury items such as watches and cars, not simply out of a desire for those particular products, or even because they enjoy re-imagining and recreating themselves, but to maintain their status in a competitive society" (116).

Chapter 5.  The Politics of Consumption

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Chapter 6.  Popular Religion in Consumer Culture

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Chapter 7.  Stewarding Religious Traditions in Consumer Culture

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Conclusion

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 Cultural and Theological Context

James D. Davidson (in an article "Alienation in the Catholic Church Today" p 22 in Robert J. Kennedy's Reconciling Embrace [Liturgy Training Publications, 1998]) states that Catholics who experienced their formative years during the 1950's and 1960's witnessed the following changes:

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Moving the Furniture

At a gathering of parish leaders on January 19, 2002 from St. Mary's Parish, Evansville (one of the parishes mentioned in Excellent Catholic Parishes by Paul Wilkes) we discussed the metaphor of "moving the furniture."  The theological concepts we hold are something like furniture in a room.  Sometimes when we introduce a new piece of furniture, the old ones need to be rearranged.  Applying this to the arrangement of our "theological furniture" before and after the Second Vatican Council we found several key items have been "moved."  These changes are summarized in the the following table:

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Conclusions at the end of Summer 2006 Sacraments Course

I was raised in a Catholic Church where everyone knew the answers given in the Baltimore Catechism by heart. This gave the impression that in the Catholic Church, everyone thought alike, and believed the same things. At the same time studies showed that Catholics were the group of Christians least likely to discuss their religion. As we seldom explored what was going on “under the iceberg”, we presumed that everyone’s unconscious experience was similar.

This (imaginary?) experience of a uniform, monolithic Church, causes me to be uneasy– and perhaps even a little upset – when I encounter the great diversity of religious belief among Catholics today. Catholics who get upset when the Pope suggests new mysteries for the rosary and Catholics who do not believe in the trinity or personal resurrection from the dead.

The poet Murray Bodo has written that “who we are is where and how we have journeyed”. We have come to this course from a great diversity of life journeys. This has become clear from our first assignments and from our ongoing discussions throughout the course. One of the first and most basic conclusions that we might draw from this course is simply the acknowledgment of the diversity of belief and understanding that exists in the Catholic Church today. In many ways I find that I am more comfortable with (that is more in agreement with) my Protests colleagues in the Societas Liturgica and the North American Academy of Liturgy. I believe this is because our intellectual journeys have been similar.

It is important today for each Catholic Catechist and minister to be aware of this diversity. It is naive to believe “I think what the church thinks and everyone else should think what I think”. This naivety opens the door to transference which can impede the Catechetical process.

The recognition of this diversity leads me two further conclusions. First: Perhaps God likes diversity. When we look at the diversity in creation could we not come to the conclusion that God likes variety. Although I would like everyone to think “just like me” perhaps God is not so narcissistic.

Another conclusion that I come to from this diversity is a deeper realization and acknowledgment of the time that it takes to change ideas, attitudes, behavior, and particularly liturgical behavior.

Jerry Austin has written: “One day while taking a walk with John Tracy Ellis, I asked him, ‘Father John, you’re a great historian. How do your think these years following the Second Vatican Council will god down in the history books?’ After a minute or two of walking in silence, he turned to me and said, ‘Jerry I am convinced they will be known as an era of baptismal consciousness.’... It is indeed significant that Pope John Paul II wrote the following in his Apostolic Exhortation on the Laity, Christifideles Laici: ‘All the baptized are invited to hear once again the words of St. Augustine: ‘Let us rejoice and give thanks: We have not only become Christian, but Christ himself...Stand in awe and rejoice: We have become Christ” (CL, 17) This is the famous totus Christus theology of Augustine, that the whole Christ is constituted by Christ the head and Christ the members, forming the one complete Body of Christ. This explains why the baptismal theology of the early Church saw the alter Christus to be the baptized woman or man. Only later on, with medieval theology, would the alter Christus be used exclusively for the ordained priest, almost forcing into oblivion the importance of the priesthood of all the baptized. Forgotten were the words of Augustine: ‘As we call everyone Christians, in virtue of mystical anointing, so we call everyone priests because all are members of only one priesthood’ (CL, 14)” ... “What does it mean to be baptized? To aid us in this important task, my Dominican colleague, Paul J. Philibert, has just written a very helpful book (The Priesthood of the Faithful: Key to a Living Church) which ends by stating: ‘A living church is a church awake to the dynamic significance of its baptismal vocation, one eager for the investment of its member’ lives in the transforming grace of Christ in the world, and one that offers itself as a sacrament – a living sign – of the real meaning of human life. A living church is a priestly people ‘who consecrate the world itself to God’ (LG, 34).’”(Pastores Gregis: Shepherds of the Flock #10) quoted from Jerry Austin, Three Priesthoods: Assembly Volume 32, Number 4, July 2006

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To Think About

Do you think the spirit of the Second Vatican Council is being implemented today? Why or why not?   [A participant in this class once wrote:   "Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the Second Vatican Council. But where is the next step, Spirit? Your gentle breeze isn’t moving on to gale force winds. This freshness is rapidly becoming stagnant air. Soon the smog will cover us all and we won’t remember why we got into this boat to begin with. Some will hide in the bottom of the boat and construct a plan to build a more seaworthy vessel. Some will look to the sky and begin to cry. Some will curse you for meddling in a situation where you don’t belong. Some will become paralyzed and do nothing. But the remainder will leap overboard, put that foot out and start walking toward the shore. Please be ready with breakfast."  (R. Cavanaugh, summer 1993)

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© Copyright: Tom Richstatter, Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist, Cincinnati Ohio, Order of Friars Minor. All Rights Reserved.  This page was created by Fr. Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M.  Every effort has been, and is being made, to acknowledge sources when the ideas are not my own.  Any failure to comply with the United States Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code) will be corrected immediately should I become aware of it.  This site was updated on 10/07/08 .  Your comments on this site are welcome at tomrichs@psci.net.