From Experience to Expression

A Phenomenological Pathway to Liturgical Creation and Understanding

Abstract

This paper examines the semantic displacement of the term 'exigence', historically rooted in Catholic exegetical practice yet recently redefined within secular rhetorical discourse. Its appropriation into the Advanced Placement English curriculum and composition studies illustrates a broader cultural tendency to flatten concepts once embedded in theological tradition. Employing Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics, the study argues that such usage obscures the doctrinal and sacramental resonance of exigence, reducing it to a utilitarian category within the rhetorical situation.The inquiry adopts a threefold methodology: critical analysis, to evaluate the theological and philosophical significance of exigence; scoping, to trace its development from biblical exegesis to modern pedagogy; and meta-analysis, to synthesise scholarship on Catholic hermeneutics, the historical-critical method, and Ricoeur’s philosophy of tradition. Drawing on Origen, Vatican II, and Benedict XVI, alongside Husserl’s phenomenology and Ricoeur’s theory of symbols, the paper argues that Catholic liturgy and magisterial authority safeguard continuity where secular discourse tends toward rupture and relativism. Re-situating exigence within the organic unity of Scripture, liturgy, and tradition restores its theological depth and preserves the epistemological integrity of interpretation.