Schools with good theology of liturgy teachers
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 857
    There is a discussion of good music programs, but that made me think of a related questions: what theology schools have good liturgy teachers? It seems to me that classes I have heard about in discussions online consisted of "nifty things we might do at Mass."

    The flip side is--is there anywhere that would be dangerous for an unformed mind?

    Kenneth
  • Adam Bartlett
    Posts: 533
    The Liturgical Institute
  • Paul F. Ford
    Posts: 857
    Notre Dame
  • YellowRoseofTexasYellowRoseofTexas
    Posts: 91
    Ave Maria University
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    Adam, I'll second the Liturgical Institute :)
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    notre dame???????
  • JaredOstermann
    Posts: 483
    Depends what you mean by "theology of liturgy" - Notre Dame offers courses in history of liturgy, liturgical year, the divine office, liturgy and popular devotions, and the actual field of liturgical theology. My teachers for all of these classes were excellent and respectful. On the other hand, there was the notoriously flaky "Eucharist" class taught by Michael Driscoll, which focused on dissident theology (Rahner et al), mocking Aquinas, extolling the virtues of the 1973 and 1998 translations, watching excerpts of Godspell (!), pretending there are no differences between Lutherans and Catholics, and so on. In other words, kind of a grab-bag of every kind of post-conciliar nonsense you could imagine. It all depends on picking the good teachers and avoiding the bad. Of course, there is something to be said for understanding warped ideas too - my poor teachers at ND helped prepare me for lots of the popular theology rampant in the parishes.

    In addition to all that, even the respectful and excellent teachers (some of whom are protestant) sometimes offered takes on things that I disagree with as a Catholic. You have a responsibility as a student to form your own mind - for me, the writings of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI were all the antidote I needed to keep on track through ND. I don't know if you should pursue a university degree if you can only handle teachers you already agree with wholeheartedly.

    All that to say, there is enough excellent liturgy teaching at ND to keep you occupied. It is much more wholesome than, say, a Collegeville program.
  • JaredOstermann
    Posts: 483
    Addendum - sorry if that was a roundabout answer. To answer the original question, none of my liturgy classes at ND (with the exception of the Eucharist class) consisted of "Nifty things to do at Mass."
  • Ioannes Andreades
    Posts: 310
    Don't have a suggestion, though a friend of mine who studied at a northern California seminary (in the 70's so not relevant now) said that the joke among the seminarians was that if you took the liturgy classes and managed a C+ or lower, you could still consider yourself to be Catholic.
  • btodorovich
    Posts: 32
    Ditto about Notre Dame. Avoid "Eucharist" but take any and all classes taught by Max Johnson, Nathan Mitchell, or David Fagerberg.
    Thanked by 1Mike R
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    I didn't realize Karl Rahner was a "dissident" theologian in the way that we might say Hans Küng is. Can you explain this in a little more detail?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Eucharistic Heretic

    http://lewiscrusade.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/fr-karl-rahner-sj-eucharistic-heretic/
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