Per ritus et preces? Theology and ritual studies

• Autor(a) principal: Cardita, Ângelo
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.7559/ephata.2019.299

This article is about the problem of the meaning of the rite, taking seriously Frits Staal’s provocation, according to which, the rite is completely devoid of meaning. The article takes as its starting point three different translations of a Latin expression present in the conciliar constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium suggesting that through rites and prayers we may come to an intelligence of the mystery of faith, contrary to the vernacular translations that tend to subordinate rite to mystery, practice to theory. In linguistic terms, the rite is considered as a “signifier”, but what is its relation to the “signified”? Arbitrary, as Saussure considered, or necessary, as proposed by Benveniste? More radically, is the rite really characterised by signification? According to Frits Staal, the rite should be considered rather as pure syntax. Humanities and social sciences, however, seem to need the presupposition of signification. In turn, the possibility of considering liturgy to be a self-referential reality had already been anticipated by Guardini. In spite of this, the perspective continues to constitute an analytical challenge as much for humanities and social sciences as for theology. Is it possible for the latter to develop as a grammar of faith starting from a ritual syntactics, similar to the generative grammar of Chomsky that inspired Staal? This article maintainsthat it is not only possible, but opportune and necessary.