The rhetoric of prayer. Studies relating the ritual latin language of Late Antiquity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Weckwerth
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology ; Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 284097706

The project wants to give a philological analysis as well as a theological interpretation of the language of prayer as found in late antique Roman and non-Roman sacramentaries.In a first step, I am going to examine the syntactic structures and the linguistic characteristics of Latin liturgical language (orthography, morphology, syntax, semantics / lexicology). The results of this analysis will then be compared tot he linguistic characteristics of late antique Latinity in general, in order to define the relation between the language of prayer and general linguistic usage / everyday speech or secular literary style. I am also going to examine how liturgical Latin has been influenced by both the pagan language of prayer and by the early translations of the Bible into Latin (the so-called Vetus Latina). Finally, I am going to try to identify some of the theological concepts and ideas that shape the language of Christian liturgical prayer. On the basis of this, I want to attempt a theory on the relation between linguistic style and theological content / intention in late antique liturgical prayer texts. A preliminary survey of the sources suggests that for the image of God, the metaphor of the kingship of God / Christ is of vital importance; the linguistic form of liturgical prayer is heavily influenced by it.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants