From Stages to Strands: Re-Interpreting the Liturgical Movement

Abstract

This study proposes a new model for interpreting the liturgical movement in the Christian denominations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most historians have argued that the liturgical movement evolved through clearly defined stages before having a decisive impact on the churches in the 1960s and 1970s. This essay moves away from a “stages model” in favour of a “strands model” of interpretation, arguing that the liturgical movement was always constituted by antagonistic strands of ecclesiastical discourse which effected shifts in the outlook of the movement as the configuration of these strands altered. The pre-Vatican II Australian Church is used as a case study in applying the strands model of interpretation.