MONASTIC RESONANCE EXPERIENCES OF THE MONASTIC LITURGY OF THE HOURS IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

What kind of monastic resonance do contemporary monks experience when praying in the Divine office? This question is explored in this article from various perspectives. First, anthropological categories of "resonance" are introduced, relying on the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa. After that, a methodological frame is sketched, how monastic liturgical wisdom can be traced in a dialogical type of qualitative research: collegial interviews. This new technique enables the researcher to do a case study of a monastic environment in which he himself is involved. Both, researcher and key-informants in our case monks are theologians: practice (theologia prima) and reflection (theologia secunda) complement each other. Three aspects are explored: the relation with the world is theologically interpreted on the basis of the idea of liturgical embodiment (L.M. Chauvet); the resonance is reflected on using the concept of monastic ascetism (D. Fagerberg); and the answer of God is understood as spiritual attentiveness (K. Waaijman). Core quotations from the collegial interviews (N=19) hermeneutically enrich theological concepts. In that way, new monastic theological insights can be developed on an anthropological basis that hopefully contribute to understanding the Liturgy of the Hours as an essential part of monastic studies today.