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Numbering Liturgy an Augustinian Aesthetics Of NUMBERING LITURGY AN AUGUSTINIAN AESTHETICS OF WORSHIP A dissertation by Walter Roy Knowles presented to The Faculty of the Graduate Theological Union in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Berkeley, California June, 2009 Committee Signatures Lizette Larson-Miller, Coordinator Date PREVIEWMichael B. Aune Date Alejandro García-Rivera Date Richard L. Crocker Date UMI Number: 3388827 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3388827 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. PREVIEW ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 NUMBERING LITURGY AN AUGUSTINIAN AESTHETICS OF WORSHIP Walter Roy Knowles This dissertation is a systematization of Augustine’s reflections on worship as they intersect with his more general aesthetic thought. It traces the music in his song to God and investigates the rhythm of his aesthetics to understand how that rhythm informed and transformed his understanding and love of God. I begin with Augustine’s most directly aesthetic writings. Confessiones includes a précis of De pulchro et apto which tells us more about Augustine’s way of thinking than his thought itself. De ordine is the most important of Augustine’s four early dialogs for his thought about beauty, and it provides the context for De musica, his most significant work in aesthetic theoryPREVIEW. During the first year of his episcopate, Augustine brought his explicitly philosophical work to a close in De doctrina Christiana before turning to more pressing pastoral issues. Those issues included leading the Christian faithful into deeper commitment, and calling outsiders and the catechumens to conversion. De catechizandis rudibus synthesized Augustine’s care for beauty and his desire for evangelism, and through its i rhetoric, I provide a way of exploring four of the primary stages of Christian initiation at Hippo: evangelism, committing to the church, preparation for baptism, and the journey in resurrection life. The promise of baptism was sharing in the Eucharist. I use Augustine’s aesthetic thought to situate many of the references he made throughout his life to the Eucharist in sermons, letters, and commentary, as well as his instructions to new Christians, which describe parts of the Eucharist which were not appropriate to discuss in more public forums. This exploration establishes that Augustine’s theology of the Eucharist (and indeed of sacramentality in general) was much more grounded in the interaction of the beauty of God with structures of signification than has often been acknowledged. Finally, I briefly gather this descriptive effort together, invert it thematically, and draw together themes throughout Augustine’s thought: the ambiguity of desire and relationship, the proportionality of love, and the play of memory and time. PREVIEWLizette Larson-Miller ii Numbering Liturgy: An Augustinian Aesthetics of Worship Acknowledgements...................................................................................iv I. Introduction..............................................................................................1 A. Musica and Sacramentum........................................................................................................6 B. A brief look at the literature.................................................................................................9 C. The performance environment of the Eucharist............................................................20 D. Texts and translations.........................................................................................................28 II. Sounding the Numbers: Augustine’s Aesthetic of Rhythm.............................................................33 A. De pulchro et apto: “in interiorum melodiam tuam”.......................................................37 B. The early dialogs: “noverim me, noverim te”.................................................................61 C. De musica: “scientia bene modulandi” .............................................................................71 D. De doctrina Christiana: loving what we use........................................................................96 E. A loving aesthetic of sound...............................................................................................115 III. Leading the Community into Faithfulness: Becoming What You Love.......................................................................117 A. Instructing beginners........................................................................................................119 B. Encouraging catechumens to commitment..................................................................136 C. Preparing the competentes for baptism........................................................................145 D. Joining in the preparation for baptism..........................................................................147 E. Journeying in resurrection...............................................................................................163 IV. Celebrating the Eucharist: One bread, One body,PREVIEW One table, One Lord.............................................192 A. Doing the Eucharist............................................................................................................193 B. Eucharistic worship at Hippo...........................................................................................199 C. The theology of worship: the life of sacrifice................................................................266 V. Singing a New Song: Augustine’s Liturgical Aesthetics...........................................................272 A. The ambiguity of liturgy: desire and relationship.......................................................274 B. The proportionality of liturgy: loving God in and above all things..........................278 C. The memories of liturgy: all times are God’s................................................................283 Bibliography...........................................................................................289 iii CKNOWLEDGEMENTS A This dissertation, as all instances of its type, is the product of a community, dispersed throughout time and locale. The list of all who influenced or supported me in this endeavor could easily double the page count of this manuscript, but several people must be mentioned. At the start must be William Beasley, at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, who as a musicologist and a musician taught me that music-making, music history, and music in worship can never be separated. Andrew Hughes, another musicologist, at the University of Toronto, impressed upon me the necessity of solid liturgical study were I to understand the music of the middle ages, and set me on the path of liturgical scholarship. The late Eugene Fairweather, at Trinity College, insisted that one must pay attention to what early texts say (and in their original languages!), rather than what we want them to say, in order to enter into community with the great thinkers of ChristianPREVIEW tradition. At the Graduate Theological Union, the four members of my committee deserve special thanks. Alejandro García-Rivera, of the Jesuit School of Theology, drew me to the GTU and did his best to make me think clearly about Peirce, von Balthasar, and aesthetics. Richard Crocker, of the University of California renewed my interest in early chant and challenged me with early music theory. My advisor for most of my time at the GTU, Michael Aune of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary did iv much (in so far as it has been done) to turn this autodidact into a liturgical scholar, never letting me forget my grounding in music and ministry. I also must thank him for introducing me to the work of Bernd Wannenwetsch, which provides one of the themes of this dissertation. To my supervisor, Lizette Larson-Miller, of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, I owe an entire book of gratitude for her mentoring in teaching, celebration, and scholarship. Wandering in the wilds of late antique North African liturgy with her guidance was a continual reminder that all who wander are not lost! I owe special thanks to two organizations. The Church Divinity School of the Pacific awarded me its Bogard fellowship during the writing of this dissertation. That fellowship located this work in the work of teaching persons as they deepened their call to ministry in the church, and it provided me with physical space which made the writing much easier. The people of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in San Francisco called me to leadership in their community as their minister of music. This special community of thinking and concerned Christians supported me by their life of prayer and worship, and in doing so, gave me the strength and purpose to complete this work. And lastly andPREVIEW most importantly, for their support throughout this time of study, for their reflection on this material as fellow Christians, and for their love and care, I thank my wife, Lorelette, and our son, Martin. Without their encouragement, I would not have started
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