My friend M guest lectured in "Performing the Problem of Suffering: The Book of Job and the Arts" today, to excellent effect. His charge was to talk about the use of Job in the Liturgy of the Dead, but he managed to do a lot more. He introduced the students to the role of scripture in liturgy as communal performance, first in the Mass (hence the lovely liturgical calendar above), in the Liturgy of the Hours, and finally in the Office of the Dead. This was in service of a generalizable understanding of the Church as a "hermeneutic community," and some broader points about reading. Nobody, he exclaimed, ever reads alone (whatever they may think!). And the communities of interpretation which make our reading possible are ones in which we bear a responsibility to listen to each other - even, indeed especially, those who we find "irritating." And these are communities which include the dead. Some things he offered us to think about:1. No book of scripture is ever read in isolation. It is always read in conjunction/dialogue with other parts of the scripture.
2. The scripture is not only presented to the ear – it is often put into the mouth (i.e. embodied) by the congregation.
3. The reading is not individual, but communal.
4. The reading is not chosen by the individual, but mandated for the community.
5. A religious community is often though of as a group of people who agree about things. It might better be described as a group of people who agree about what is worth disagreeing about.
6. The readings are set according to the Liturgical Calendar, but there are moments in the community in which the calendar is interrupted and/or supplemented by extraordinary events – like the death of a member of the community.
In between naughty and self-deprecating asides he made it all dovetail beautifully with the Book of Job - itself a depiction of a hermeneutic community in crisis, he reminded us (they disagree but nobody leaves) - and the stuff of an Office in which the dead and the living grieve, rage and pray for each other. A marvel, and everyone was paying attention!
I've long known that M is a master teacher (he taught for a long time at Lang) but this was my first time seeing him in action, and with a group of students he didn't know to boot. I learned a lot, too!
