Lived Liturgy? A Call for Papers from Catholic Re-Visions and the Journal of Global Catholicism

The Journal of Global Catholicism and Catholic Re-Visions, a blog on politicaltheology.com, invites scholars from across disciplinary lines to consider the theological and political power of liturgy in different global contexts through a jointly published blog post (summer 2025) and journal article (winter 2026). This initiative aims to be both an interdisciplinary conversation about the practices of liturgy bringing together scholars of religion, theology, critical theory, anthropology, history, and sociology, among others, and an opportunity to explore different styles of writing directed at multiple publics. 

Liturgy, as a space and time of mediation between the divine and the human, is one of the most central elements of Catholic life. According to Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963), the Vatican II Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, the Eucharistic liturgy constitutes both “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed” and “the font from which all her power flows” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 1963, §10). This circulating theopolitical power and the solidarities, tensions, conflicts, interpretations, appropriations, and subversions that it entails are at the core of this call for papers. We are interested in articles exploring the lived Catholicism through which liturgies are enfleshed from several interconnected angles: from global intraecclesial struggles to the bodies and movements that animate different forms of theopolitics. Liturgy represents a key practice in analyzing these forms through the interconnected and interdependent realities of Catholicism. 

As liturgy represents “the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 1963, §2), the struggle for its control is one of the central issues in the life of the Church. Here, the tensions between tradition and innovation, inculturation and Roman centralization (Berríos, 2014), modus operatum and modus operandi (Napolitano, 2016: 176-177) clergy and laity (Lacoste, 2023; Marshall Potter, 2023) give rise to debates and practices that have direct impacts on the beliefs and practices of the faithful. Liturgies can therefore be the theatre of imaginations and enactments of new ways of being in the world as well as of the imposition of rigid forms of worship and religious expression by male clergy.

Bodies are crucial elements of liturgical events and gestures. As Carvalho Silva and Martins Filho (2022) have argued, “liturgical rites are fundamentally realized with the body, for the body, by the body and on the body”. On one hand, liturgies represent the physical encounter of the body of Christ with the bodies of the gathered faithful, and, on the other, the encounter of these bodies among themselves. These profoundly affective spaces and moments of touch and distance (Napolitano, 2020; Norget, 2021), of loving embrace and hurtful exclusions, allow for both the reaffirmation and transformation of racialized and gendered boundaries (Symmonds, 2023) that exist within the ‘afterlives’ of slavery (Williams, 2022).

The theopolitics of liturgy therefore far exceed the narrow walls of any given church. Recent studies have shown how liturgical events and gestures can take the form of affective irruptions, able both to challenge and reinforce given institutional formations (Napolitano, 2020; Norget, 2021). As the etymology of the word suggests (from the Greek leitourgía meaning “public service”), liturgies can take the form of public events able to sustain or transform both the ecclesia and the polis. As a practice of community, liturgy invokes notions of fellowship, gathering, solemnity, and celebration (Moten, 2014). Liturgy, understood in this broad sense, allows scholars to identify the social norms on display within a community, as well as the bases and loci of authority the community might be challenging. 

We take our point of reference to be a “lived Catholicism” that analyzes the practices of Catholics as they embody, enact, or betray the ideals that Catholics are taught. We welcome interventions that employ a variety of methods that attend to both the material and the form of liturgy. In turning away from more abstract debates about liturgy to those that center on its lived and material dimensions, we hope to enliven a conversation about ‘lived liturgy’ to consider what practices uphold, challenge, or fail to account for the global political order. 

Questions that authors could consider include: 

• How or in what ways does liturgy challenge structures of power within the Catholic church or in the various political or social systems where they might take place? 
• In what ways are the senses–sight, smell, sound, touch, taste–of liturgy representative of broader political systems or the disciplined boundaries of Catholicism? 
• How does liturgy animate the worldviews and practices of different movements, such as the Womanpriest movement or ecclesial base communities?
• How is liturgy brought into the everyday? 
• How do political institutions and movements mobilize, co-opt, or deviate the power of liturgy to assert their authority?
• How does the enfleshment of liturgy intersect with the embodiment of race, gender, sex, dis/ability? 

This conversation will be cross-published in Catholic Re-Visions and the Journal of Global Catholicism. We welcome 250-word proposals by March 31, 2025, for consideration by the blog’s and journal’s editorial teams with a decision date of April 15, 2025. Those accepted will be invited to write a 1500-2000 word post to be published on Catholic Re-Visions, due June 1, 2025, and a 5000-8000 word article to undergo the double-blind peer review process of the Journal of Global Catholicism by September 15, 2025, to tentatively appear in the JGC’s Winter 2026 issue. We imagine the blog post as a “preview” of the larger article where authors can try out ideas and experiment with form, including pictures, videos, or sounds. We imagine the two essays complement each other, speaking to different audiences yet sharing similar ideas and insights. 

Questions and Abstracts should be sent to [email protected] AND [email protected] with “C-Revisions/JGC proposal” in the subject line.