The Imprecatory Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours after the Second Vatican Council: Reform, Reception and the Current State of the Debate
Wojciech Węgrzyniak
The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5696-304X
Abstract
Since 1970, the Catholic Church has not used the so-called imprecatory Psalms and verses in the Liturgy of the Hours (in total, 122 verses have been removed). This article aims to analyze the presence of controversial fragments of the Psalms in the liturgy. It consists of four parts. First, it presents the history of the process that began during the Second Vatican Council and led to the decision to remove such fragments from the liturgy. What follows, is an overview of the reception and opinions on the imprecatory Psalms over the past fifty years. The next part of this study collects arguments in favor of removing the questionable texts from the liturgy as well as an argument in favor of keeping them in it. The article concludes with an appendix of all the texts from the Book of Psalms that have been removed from the Liturgy of the Hours. The author is personally in favor of leaving the unwanted verses in the liturgy.
Keywords:
Psalms, imprecations, Second Vatican Council, Old TestamentReferences
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The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow
Ks. Wojciech Węgrzyniak - doktor nauk biblijnych i archeologii (SBF, Jerozolima 2010), habilitację z nauk teologicznych uzyskał w 2020 roku (UPJPII), adiunkt i kierownik katedry egzegezy Starego Testamentu na Uniwersytecie Papieskim Jana Pawła II w Krakowie. Głownym obszarem zainteresowań naukowych jest Księga Psalmów oraz Księgi prorockie ST. Napisał m.in.: Psalm 83. Teksty - egzegeza - konteksty (Studia Biblica Lublinensia XIX; wyd. KUL) Lublin 2019; „Unreasonable atheism? The case of נָבָל (Ps 14 and 53)”, Liber Annus 69 (2019) 121-133; "Gniew człowieka przyniesie Ci chwałę" (Ps 76,11), Verbum Vitae 34 (2018) 67-85; „Problemy tekstualne, egzegetyczne i translatorskie So 3,18”, Collectanea Theologica 87/ 4 (2017) 91-107.
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