Romano Guardini on Technology and the Liturgy
Peter CasarellaDuke Divinity School
This lecture was cosponsored by the University of Chicago Divinity School and the In Lumine Network. It was made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
Romano Guardini penned his Letters from Lake Como between 1923-1925 in order to think about the new technocratic relationship between nature and culture that was emerging in post-war and post-Enlightenment Europe. Guardini’s reflections on the technocratic paradigm are critical for understanding the relationship of the human person, the dynamics of culture, and our hyperdigitized world today. Guardini’s newly translated Liturgy and Liturgical Formation was also published in its first edition in German and Italian in 1923 and reflects a similar approach to the centrality of the body and the senses in the spiritual formation of the human person. In a surprising way, Guardini’s critique of technology parallels his analysis of liturgy and prayer within the life of the Church.
On the following day, Prof. Casarella lead a master class for students and faculty on Guardini's Letters from Lake Como: Explorations on Technology and the Human Race.
Peter Casarella was appointed to the faculty of Duke Divinity School in 2020. His primary field of study is systematic theology followed by world religions and world church. Before joining Duke, he was an associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame from 2013-2020 and served as director of the Latin American North American Church Concerns (LANACC) project in the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. He served as professor of Catholic Studies from 2007-2013 at DePaul University, where he was also the founding director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology. He has published ninety-one essays in scholarly journals or books on a variety of topics including medieval Christian Neoplatonism, contemporary theological aesthetics, intercultural thought, and the Hispanic/Latino presence in the U.S. Catholic Church.
