Liturgie und Pastoral im Kontext von Pandemien und Epidemien

Benedikt Kranemann, Lea Lerch and Stephan Winter (eds.)
Liturgie und Pastoral im Kontext von Pandemien und Epidemien
Vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart
(series: Liturgiewissenschaftliche Quellen und Forschungen, Vol. 117)
Aschendorff, 2024
ISBN: 978-3-402-11296-0
DOI number: 10.17438/978-3-402-11292-2
387 pages
63 EUR

Religious rituals and liturgy are particularly important in coping with pandemics and epidemics, as the COVID virus pandemic has recently shown. Such practices interpret events and help people to deal with what they have experienced – with a view to body and soul. They serve to reconcile God and man, are intended to open up perspectives of hope, provide orientation for life and faith, but can also fail. Essays from the fields of theology and cultural studies examine these connections for the liturgy and pastoral work of various centuries. They address, among other things, official church guidelines as well as devotional and hymn books, passion plays, pilgrimage practices and processes of space creation. Different media of liturgical practice and examples of theological reflection from Judaism and Christianity are analysed. Liturgy is understood as an integral part of a religiously characterised existence. The studies show that worship and pastoral action can only be understood and weighted within the socio-cultural and life-world environment.

About the authors

• Benedikt Kranemann is Professor of Liturgical Studies at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Erfurt.
• Lea Lerch is Assistant Professor of Franconian Church History and Ecclesiastical Regional History at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg.
• Stephan Winter is Professor of Liturgical Studies at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.