Ritual Techniques: New Openings in Ritual and Liturgical Studies

Technology, Liturgy, and Ritual. Rereading Krämer & Bredekamp’s “Culture, Technology, Cultural Techniques” (2003/2013)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/YRLS.38.4-21

Keywords:

technology, computer, Internet, AI, theology, humanities, ritual, liturgy

Abstract

By rereading Krämer and Bredekamp’s “Culture, Technology, Cultural Techniques” (2003/2013), this article aims at appropriating and evaluating the significance—and philosophy—of the mathematical and computer science elements in it. This contribution aims to answer the following questions: How do we understand, interpret, and evaluate the notion that symbol and technology interpenetrate and that their functional processes can mutually substitute for one another? How do we evaluate this theologically? This article provides a basic building block for a liturgical theology of the digital, the computer, calculations, and algorithms. After an introduction, I consider four aspects from the article of Krämer and Bredekamp: the relationship between technological creativity, imagination, and the metaphysical; the convertibility of the symbolic and technical; the connectivity of technical machines in a network; and the new knowledge order associated with these developments. In a concluding paragraph, future developments regarding technology, liturgy, and ritual are outlined and considered.

Author Biography

Marcel Barnard

Marcel Barnard is Professor of Practical Theology / Liturgical Studies at the Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Published

2022-10-24

Issue

Section

Ritual Techniques: New Openings in Ritual and Liturgical Studies