Abstract

This chapter identifies several disciplines and thinkers that, when taken together, contribute to a robust consideration of liturgy in the realm of radical theology. This chapter considers both the important contributions and the limitations of each area in three parts: first, the contributions of ritual theory and religious anthropology, particularly the study of the disruption of ritual and ritual’s relation to the impossible; second, the philosophical areas of influence, especially Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida; and finally, liturgical and sacramental theology proper, primarily the work of Louis-Marie Chauvet, and the challenge posed to radical liturgical thought by dependence on orthodoxy. Each of these insular discourses can contribute to thinking liturgy radically.