The Eucharist, The Cross, and Ritual Modes of Theology

Medieval liturgical prescriptions are not often read for theological meaning, but such ritual instructions are encoded with theology. Ritual acts and gestures are communicative in ways similar and dissimilar to texts and words. In the case of the eucharist, what is the meaning of the sign of the cross made over (or with) the bread and the wine? Are words alone, i.e., the eucharistic prayer, not enough? Attending to the ritual gestures prescribed in the canon, and accounting for how they are communicated textually and graphically, allows for a richer account of eucharistic theology in the period before the Eucharistic synthesis of the high Middle Ages. Free and open to the public. This event is part of the ISM Liturgy Symposium Series. Tyler Sampson holds a Ph.D in liturgical studies from The Catholic University of America. He was most recently a lecturer at CUA and a senior lecturer and affiliate professor at Virginia Theological Seminary. His research focuses on the history and theology of Christian liturgy in the first millennium, particularly the developments and adaptations of the liturgy of the city of Rome. While at the ISM, he will expand on his dissertation research with a project entitled, “Ordo et Ratio: Ordering, Explaining, and Celebrating Liturgy in the Early Medieval West.” With this project he aims to deepen our understanding of this critical period of liturgical history by placing manuscripts of liturgical handbooks at the center. These understudied books, with instructions, commentaries, and other texts, were central to enacting the liturgical reform of the Carolingians and reveal the creativity and diversity of its implementation.