Liturgical Studies

Liturgy describes a ritual connecting the worshipping community with its origins, tradition and future. It serves to commemorate, represent and anticipate the meaning and transcendent reason for human life as embraced by faith. By researching and communicating this condensed form of religiously shaped living culture, all endeavours in liturgical studies touch on the existential dimension of human existence and its culture-creating forces. The theological and cultural significance of the manifestation of faith as represented in actual worship traditions is the central focus of the Department of Liturgical Studies work.

This includes the sacraments – first and foremost, baptism and the Eucharist – and the daily liturgy, the celebration of the Word of God, blessings and new worship rituals. Ecumenical and interfaith celebrations and their related questions are an essential part of the department’s theoretical and practical work. Cultural and art-scientific questions linked to worship traditions are considered, including findings from ritual studies, Christian art history, hymnology and church music.