„Übersetzungsverfahren“. Zum Verhältnis von Ereignis und liturgischer Performanz

“Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22, 19). Christ ‘translated’ the gift of his whole life into a ritual program (“do this”) which he asked his disciples to enact. As early as 1925, Romano Guardini (1885–1968) understood the ritual form of the Eucharist as a ritual transposition of the form of Christ’s life. He foresaw, limited as he was as a pioneer nonetheless, a dimension of the liturgy that liturgical studies would subsequently investigate using categories such as performance, Inszenierung or mise en scène. In this sense, the liturgical drama has an illocutionary and performative quality both in continuity and in discontinuity with other religious performances.