The Effect of Jean Corbon’s Theology of Liturgy on the Liturgical Section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Abstract

Jean Corbon (†2001), the French theologian living in Lebanon, in his book Liturgie de source (1983) presented an extraordinarily original Trinitarian conception of the liturgy. This conception surprisingly well coincides with some paragraphs of the liturgical section (Nr 1066-1209) of the Catechism of the Catholic Church of 1992. Corbon was appointed as a member of the editorial team of the Catechism in order to write its fourth part concerning the Christian prayer. However, in the course of work on the catechism he was also entrusted with the task of looking through and correcting the fundamental exposition of the liturgy. Instead, he wrote this fragment of the catechism from the beginning and gave it a biblical-patristic form that was characteristic of his thought. The liturgy is defined there as a work of the Holy Trinity, where an extraordinary role is played by the Holy Spirit, whose work is called “four synergies”: preparatory, anamnetic, epicletic and the synergy of communion (such terms were suggested by Cassian Folsom). And the sacraments, according to Corbon and the catechism, are powers that come forth from the ever-living Body of Christ. These are only some examples of the coincidence of Jean Corbon’s conception of the liturgy and of the catechismal thought. Comparative analysis of these texts allows demonstrating Corbon’s effect on the liturgical section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.