Medieval Liturgy Working Group: Andrew Irving (University of Groningen), "On Trash: Reflections on Neglected Aspects of Liturgical Things"

Andrew Irving (Assistant Professor of Religion and Heritage, University of Groningen) will be presenting a talk entitled "On Trash: Reflections on Neglected Aspects of Liturgical Things" 

Abstract: The category of rubbish would seem to be as strictly separate from liturgy as Mircea Eliade’s notion of the profane is from the sacred. But recent approaches to the stubborn agency of objects' entanglement have shown
that distinctions between practices, humans, and things – including trash, are not quite as clean cut as we might wish. Rubbish provides a particularly fruitful and timely lens to re-examination things at the limits of meaning and
function. This talk undertakes a re-examination of liturgy and liturgical change across periods (including medieval examples) from the point of view of rubbish: its production, management, and theological significance. Understanding better the ways Christians have over time sought to dis-entangle themselves from the liturgical materials they no longer want, and the ways those attempts are often frustrated by the “resistance” of the
things themselves, offers new perspectives on the nature of liturgy itself.

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