Liturgiewetenschap in Nederland. Naar aanleiding van een onderzoekbeoordeling

Abstract

In 1995 the report 'Quality Assessment of Research: Theological Research in Dutch Universities 1989-1993' was published. In this report the liturgical research as well as the two Liturgical Institutes of Tilburg and Groningen are discussed under the discipline of church history. Moreover this report pleads for a reinforcement of the research in liturgical history which in fact is already strongly represented by researchers in the dutch academic institutions. Furthermore in the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion which has been established in June 1995 the research in liturgy forms one section together with religious studies and church history. The author outlines the developments of the liturgical studies in the Netherlands after Vaticanum II. These developments are characterized by new questions, application of new methods, intensive partnerships with other disciplines and broadening of the object of research. At the same time he observes in the broader scientific theological research the tendency to marginalize the study of the liturgy and to discuss the peculiar statute of this discipline. In this article he argues that the study of the liturgy has its own place in theological research and pleads that in the future both liturgical institutes, especially by means of the national research programme, will continue their broad and innovative project, all the more because this corresponds to the international developments in liturgical research.