IMC 2026: Sessions

‘Words denoting different times are applied to God, because His eternity includes all times; not as if He Himself were altered through present, past and future’ (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q.10, a 2, ad 4). In medieval and Renaissance religious drama the tension of God’s presence in and beyond time (and in the Holy Scripture) and theatre's general visualizing effect, calling past events into presence, combine in a most fascinating way. The papers in this session examine how religious plays use or discuss their potential to bridge time, though envisaging the border lines between drama (which stands in the audience’s historical time) and a liturgical presentation of God’s real presence.

Paper a. asks about the religious, political, societal and didactic dimensions of time involved in the performance of the Mystère de la Passion de Jesus Christ: the choice of the in all aspects appropriate date of performance, the time structure of the play, and the question of theatrical presentation of sacred history, involving the remembrance of the Fall, the Salvation, and expectation of Eschatology.

Paper b. analyses the Croxton Play of the Sacrament’s dynamic tension between the phenomenology of theatre and theological discourse concerning transubstantiation. It presents the collapsing of biblical and liturgical temporalities of the Host, paradoxically consecrating the stage prop as the body of Christ in theatrical space-time while also placing doubt upon the Real Presence.

Paper c. analyses God as God the Father 'descending' or transforming to engage with human characters that necessitate a momentary break in the action, creating a gap or a suspension of time. God takes on multiple roles as father, creator, teacher, judge, brother, and savior. This paper will examine how these 'gaps in time' from Liber apologeticus provide a more 'present' representation of God in all his guises.