Foto T omaž Lunder . dr. Tomaž Krpič, on the elements of the theatre community of the Škofja l oka passion play 81 dr. t omaž krpič on the eLeMent S oF the theatre coMMunity oF the ŠkoFJa Loka p aSSion pL ay introduction in the beginning of the 18 th century, f ather romuald wrote a script of a pas - sion play, 1 which was then performed almost every year during l ent until 1768, when it was terminated by the church officials. The Škofja Loka Passion Play is considered to be the oldest preserved dramatic script written in Slovenian language and the oldest preserved regie-book to be found in europe. in the cen- trepiece of its performance is collective amateurism. no matter if the produc - tion of the passion play may eventually be pushed to the highest theatre profes- sional level, the Škofja Loka passion play will always be people’s theatre in search for the passion play community, embracing its religious origins. although the Škofja Loka passion play can be considered a dramatic script or a regie-book, the participants nevertheless strive for more than just religious performance on the four stationaries. in the introduction to his book on com- munity, zygmunt bauman compares community to a firework where one can metaphorically warm hands. 2 a danger lurks outside, while when being inside of the community, one feels safe. and although the concept of the community also has manifold other aspects 3 – a community guarantees members whole- ness of social relationships, material means for life, transmission of knowledge, religious practice, cultural tradition and many more – the metaphor elegantly portrays the main reason why humans build and maintain communities. in Building a Temporal Theatre Community in the Production of ATLAS - LJUBLJANA, 4 i introduced seven analytical elements for the interpretation of theatre community: (a) a group of participants (spectators, actors, performers, theatre directors, scene designers…); (b) theatre conventions; (c) sentiment of 1 matija o grin: t radicija in datacija škofjeloškega pasijona. ed. pavel alojzij florjančič, Pasijon- ski doneski, pp. 49-68. škofja l oka: muzejsko društvo škofja l oka, 2009. 2 z ygmund bauman: Community: s eeking safety in an insecure World. Cambridge: p olity press, 2001, p. 1. 3 see Srna mandič in v alentina hlebec: Skupnost in kakovost življenja: med tradicijo in ino- vacijo. Teorija in praksa, 55, no. 4, 2018, pp. 715-731. 4 Tomaž Krpič: building a Temporal Theatre Community in the production of the performance a Tlas – lj Ubljana . Theatralia, 20, no. 2, 2017, pp. 96–108. pasijon s Ki Dones Ki 2020 15 82 belonging together; (d) non-deliberate construction; (e) wider goals; (f) locality; and (g) relative permanency. recently, i identify an additional element called communal epistemology. in the case of the Škofja Loka passion play self-reflec- tion is its constitutive part. Scholars, researchers and participants of the passion play publish articles, essays or share personal views and experiences in order to produce a distinct collective stock of knowledge about the phenomenon of the passion play. a group oF paSSion pL ay p articipant S e ach time the passion play is staged, it demands more than one year of prepa- rations and several hundred participants: performers and members of the sup- portive crew. in 2015, for instance, over 900 participants performed the passion play at four stations at the centre of the town. The then stage manager, 5 borut g artner, intensively searched for creative ways to enlarge the number of the participants as to make the passion play as close to the masses as possible. 6 al- though all participants do not come from the local area, majority do. only a few were previously professionally, or in any other way, engaged in theatre, although some of them already have taken part in the previous productions of the passion play. a part from the production manager and the stage manager, no one is paid. even those who care for the organization and technical issues are not financially compensated. in this respect, the participants of the Škofja Loka passion play are strictly considered to be amateurs. The stage and the production manager are subject of public call since they are paid by the municipality of škofja l oka’s money. all the other participants are gathered by for the modern theatre standards uncommon ways. There are two methods of casting and both based on communal, parochial, familiar and friend- ly relations: (a) collective; and (b) individual casting. f irst, already in 1999, the scenes of the Škofja Loka Passion Play were ‘justly’ distributed among the local communities in and on the outskirt of škofja l oka, and some local communities in poljane and Selška valley. a t the beginning of the preparations, local leaders are determined and they summon up the candidates from their local commu- nities. The criteria for the selection are certainly not professional in terms of theatre, for the quality of the performance was and still is an afterthought. There 5 t raditionally addressed as ‘magister processionis’ . i am using the expression ‘stage manager’ here, because in the 18 th century the role of ‘theatre director’ was not yet invented, and second, because the passion play leaves the stage manager rather little space for implementation of his or her own theatrical visions. See also rok andres: o treh pasijonih, s tremi režiserji. Pasjonski doneski, no. 13, 2018, pp. 136-150. 6 borut g artner: romualdov škofjeloški pasijon 2009. l judsko ljubiteljsko pasijonsko gledališče. Pasijonski doneski, no. 5, 2010, pp. 93-144. dr. Tomaž Krpič, on the elements of the theatre community of the Škofja l oka passion play 83 are cases when the participation at the passion play is even inherited between the participants of the two generations. Whether one is talented actor or actress is less important than his or her ability to ‘fit in’ with the rest of the participants in the particular scene in order to make a donation to a distinct aesthetic effect, that contributes to building and strengthening of the passion play community. Second, another principle of recruiting is an invitation send to someone for whom it is believed he or she could be interested in and that the project could greatly benefit from his or her participation. u sually such an individual participant contributes distinct profes- sional skills or knowledge about theatre or the passion play. The criterion of one being religious is not the crucial one, although it may subtle ‘beat the track’ , so many passion play participants does not practice any religion in their life. 7 The selected participants are subjects of the process of almost one year preparation for acting the characters or other roles in the procession, which allowed the par- ticipants of the passion play to develop a distinct ‘poor’ and humble aesthetics of their own performing bodies. Foto T omaž Lunder . 7 See also nejc ilc: čemu ribniški pasijon? Pasijonski doneski, no. 8, 2012, pp. 95-97. pasijon s Ki Dones Ki 2020 15 84 theatre c onventionS oF the p aSSion pL ay one theatre regulation of the Škofja Loka Passion Play comes into power in a bit peculiar way. in 2007, of škofja l oka council voted a resolution, that when- ever the passion play is organized by the municipality, it has to be performed in its original version, using the script written by f ather romuald. Whether the municipality’s political decision is an obstacle for the creators of the passion play can be a subject of contestation. on the one hand the creators of the passion play by trying to make only necessary and inescapable changes of the initial passion play script pay a respect and a tribute to its author and the 18 th century creators, while on the other hand modern staging or re-enactment of the passion play undoubtedly demands certain level of adjustments and creativity. in postmod- ern and postdramatic theatre this may even mean that the passion play is (re) written or the text completely withdraw, 8 so that perhaps only the leit-motif of the passion play is preserved. h owever, since the language of the initial text of the passion play, the old škofja l oka dialect, was lately partially re-wrote and proof-read to be closer to the standards of modern Slovenian language, for the participants more teachable and for the audience more comprehensive passion play, this politically induced formal convention is not entirely followed anymore. The Škofja Loka passion play is a combination of theatre elements from the medieval times, theatre conventions, which were used at the time of its origin and some modern theatrical adjustments. The basic form of the passion play is penitential passion religious procession that starts on the outskirts of the town, winds through it and stops at four stationaries in the down-town. The modern passion play procession (so-called the Kokalj’s Passion Play) has twenty scenes of which some are delivered to the audience in the form of tableaux, either carried by the male participants or pulled by the horses. The animals are a distinct ele- ment of the Škofja Loka Passion Play, as the horses and a donkey are considered to be equally important participants. The passion play ends with official defile of the passion play cavalry. The inclusion of the animals has a multiple meaning. f irst, it reminds the audience of importance the animals had for people in the times when jesus lived. Second, since jesus arrived in jerusalem on the back of a donkey, this is a vivid symbol of his humbleness. Third, they function as a cogni- tive mechanism with which the audience return to the once lost, but nowadays again appreciated human relation to the nature. 8 See Seokhum c hoi: Performing the Passion of Christ in Postmodernity: American Passion/pas- sion Plays as Ritual and Postmodern Theatre. ann arbor: proQuest, 2012, pp. 134-207; l ara d . nielsen: Spectres of e xchange. r ights and resources in l oisaida l iberation-theology passion play performance. performance research 13 (3): 2008.18-30. in 1992, the škofja l oka passion play was adapted to be for the second time broadcasted on the Slovenian r adio. in 2000, the theatre director meta h očevar made an adaptation of the passion play in Sng drama. dr. Tomaž Krpič, on the elements of the theatre community of the Škofja l oka passion play 85 The religious background of the Škofja Loka Passion Play is c atholicism. The c atholic c hurch has manifold faces, but the c atholicism in Slovenia is inclined to conservativisms. The passion play in great deal reflects this by focusing on traditional understanding of the life, suffering, and death of jesus c hrist. in this respect, the passion play send to the audience a highly conservative massage. a t least two structural elements of the society need to be addressed here: anti- Semitism and understanding of the position of the women in society. although the c atholic c hurch liberated jews from committed deicide at the Second v ati- can council in 1965, and although in the past some of the passion plays, like for instance the o berammergau’s passion play, 9 in this respect significantly altered the scripts, there are no signs that the škofja l oka passion play community con- siders doing anything similar. in regard to the relationship between the genders the situation is pretty much the same. in 2000/2001, the adaptation of the škofja l oka passion play was staged in Sng drama l jubljana. The theatre director, meta h očevar, split the table of The l ast Supper by gender; on the left side of je- sus c hrist sat five male and on the right six female apostles. Such configuration was not embraced with approval by some of the influential members of the pas- sion play community. 10 one could easily ask whether perception of gender was the reason why her project of the passion play, at the first public competition for staging of the škofja l oka passion play in 1992, was not selected. along with the above formal, theatrical, and religious regulations, there are several social regulations, which are informally constructed during the time the passion play is staged. They are rather less well observable and up to some degree they vary from staging to staging. Their main function is to strengthen integra- tion of the passion play participators and to allow them to construct a temporal theatre passion play community. one of the important generator of such social conventions is also the stage manager’s ‘directorial politics’ . f or instance in 2009, one informal regulation was given by the stage manager, g artner, who insisted on the principle ‘Anybody who is sent, is welcomed!’ 11 9 michael l ambert and t amantha h ammerschlag. The durban passion play: religious p erfor- mance, power and difference. ed. c laire maria c hambers, Simon W. du t oit and joshua edel- man, Performing Religion in Public, pp. 71-86. basingstoke and new y ork: palgrave macmil- lan, 2013; glenn l oney: o berammergau, 1634-1990: the play and the passions. New Theatre Quarterly, 7, no. 27, 1991, pp. 203-216.. 10 marko marin: p asijonske igre. Sopotnice škofjeloškega pasijona. Pasijonski doneski, no. 10, 2015, pp. 43-48. 11 borut g artner: pasijonu na rob. Pasijonski doneski, no. 5, 2010, pp. 147-151. pasijon s Ki Dones Ki 2020 15 86 a SentiMent oF c oMMunaL beLonging t ogether The participations of the passion play express overwhelming and intense feel- ing of being in positive spiritual, social and cultural relation with each other. 12 of all elements of theatre passion play community the sentiment of belonging to- gether seem to be the most important. What brings and holds together a modern theatre community is high level of professionalism of those who works in theatre (actors, theatre directors, dramaturges, scene designers and so on) on the one hand and participative creativity and personal epistemology of the theatregoers on the other hand. 13 yet, since the foundation of the škofja l oka passion play is on the contrary amateurism, a glue that successfully holds theatre community of passion play together need to be searched for elsewhere, for instance in religion. one would expect that the c atholic c hurch is very much interested in having an influence on the passion play, executing thus by the specific cultural form an indi- rect political influence on the local community, as well on the society in general. 14 The catholic religion can certainly be an important ‘social glue’ that holds the theatre community of the passion play together. but, is it possible that sole- ly the religion binds participants in communal relations? The religion provides the participants, and the spectators of the passion play as well, with the story of jesus c hrist. Such story can be socially highly empowering in terms of people’s engagement, especially when it is already ‘packed’ in such a way that it can be bodily performed on the stage, this is in the form of a passion play. 15 one can easily reckon how the passion play story affords the participants to empathically familiarized with the destiny of the protagonist. but the empathic relationship is not only developed towards the protagonist of the passion play, but also towards co-participants of the passion play. The ‘re-enactment’ of the life of jesus c hrist enables the participant to see it as material, bodily fact. While it is not necessary that a participant of the passion play truly believes jesus was a really existent historical figure, although many sincerely do, they must believe that the passion play is a theatrical metaphor which adequately symbolised human suffering, and that this believe is shared widely by the participant of the passion play. 12 n ada Slatnar: Spomini na ustvarjanje škofjeloškega pasijona. Pasijonski doneski no. 11, 2016, pp. 57-59; marija krajnik: p ogled iz pasijonske garderobe. Pasijonski doneski, no. 11, 2016, pp. 61-69 and pasijonci o škofjeloškem pasijonu. Pasijonski doneski, no. 11, 2016, pp. 71-75. 13 on spectator’s creativity in theatre see t omaž krpič: on the researcher’s/reviewer’s b odily presence in Theatre. New Theatre Quarterly, 35, no. 3, 2019, pp. 238-250. 14 mck enna, jennifer. 2014. creating community Theatre for Social c hange. Studies in Theatre and performance 34 (1): 84-89. 15 William a . g amson: h ow Storytelling c an be empowering. ed. karen a . cerulo, Culture in Mind, pp. 187-198. new y ork and l ondon: routledge, 2002; d orothy c hansky: north ameri- can passion plays. The greatest Story e ver t old in the new millennium. The Drama Review, 50, no. 4, 2006, pp. 121-145. dr. Tomaž Krpič, on the elements of the theatre community of the Škofja l oka passion play 87 not all the participants of the Škofja Loka Passion Play are religious. Quite a proportion of them do not practice any religion. consequently, the element of religion cannot entirely explain the establishment of empathic relations among the participants. o ther sources of empathic feelings one found either in profes- sional attachment of some participants to the project or in the participants’ ea- ger search for sense of community in the modern highly individualised society. Foto T omaž Lunder . (non-)deLiberate c onStruction oF the p aSSion pL ay theatre c oMMunity are the participants of the Škofja Loka Passion Play aware that they are build- ing a distinct passion play theatre community or do they entirely focus on the production of the passion play? d o they know what possible impact the passion play has on wider social, cultural and political landscape? in general, the partici- pants forget about the social construction of the passion play theatre commu- nity. instead, they rather focus on the production of the passion play. in ‘forget- ting’ about the construction, they act very much as they act in their everyday life; they become practical passion play theatre community theorists. The expression is borrowed from anthony giddens, 16 who considers a member of the society to 16 anthony giddens: Politics, Sociology, and Social Theory: Encounters with Classical and Con- temporary Social Thought. c ambridge: polity press, 1995, pp. 240-241. pasijon s Ki Dones Ki 2020 15 88 be practical social theorist in the matters and issues important to him or her. of course, giddens is talking about one being a practical social, not a communal theorists, but the difference between the society and the community in this par- ticular case is not of significant importance. although the participants are focusing on the performance, they do not leave out their tacit awareness of building the passion play theatre community enti- rely. That means that the participants are sensitive to the fact that they are part of something new in terms of communal relationship. it is just that they do not focus consciously on it all the time, while from time to time they look back, or around, and surprisingly recognize that they, all along the way, become ‘one big family’ . They associate community more in terms of family relations and less as a professional construction. Wider goaLS The participants of the passion play strive to the several wider goals. The most important goal is to create permanent and stable passion play community over longer period of time. f rom the perspective of successful building of such community, ideally would be to perform the passion play every year. but since this would demand human and financial resources beyond disposable, the con- dition of the passion play community oscillate over time. d uring the year of the preparation, the passion play community grows. Social interactions among the participants are created and they intensify over time, but then when the perfor- mance is over, the relations among the participants slowly decline or stay latent. a s i have already said, the awareness of the passion play as a distinct community is not necessary explicitly present with all the participants. but when one asks the main protagonists about the possible wider goals, the permanent passion play community is high on the list. h owever, since the passion play community is generated through the staging of the passion play, and since the Škofja Loka Passion Play is now performed only every six years, the passion play community is hard to maintain, hence the narrow circle of the passion play’s ‘lamentations’ for the times when the passion play could have been produced every year. 17 d o the main protagonists of the passion play search for the ‘good old’ c atholic community or are they after some new (post)modern religious communal form? This question is not as simple to answer as it might appear at first. one reason for one to see the passion play as an attempt to return to once abandoned his- torical social, cultural and political forms is obvious. The content of the passion play is religious and highly conservative. it engulfs the spectator with the past, 17 alojzij p avel florjančič: l oka in evropasijon. ed. alojzij p avel florjančič, Pasijonski doneski 2, pp. 13-19. škofja l oka: muzejsko društvo škofja l oka, 2007. dr. Tomaž Krpič, on the elements of the theatre community of the Škofja l oka passion play 89 and it presents a model for understanding ontological anxiety and gives models of individual ethical behaviour in everyday life. The Škofja Loka passion play promotes cultural, political and social meaning and values of a distant historical epoch, to which the society cannot return without severe restrains and nega- tive consequences. one cannot expect that by producing the passion play the Slovenian society in general, or perhaps local community in particular, would be significantly transformed. it seems that many of the participants and/or citizens of škofja l oka are well aware of that. Some consider the passion play merely as an important touristic event. o thers find it a significant form of cultural heritage and as such an important generator of local, as well as national identity. a part of the participants sees the passion play as an opportunity to contribute to the transformation of religion towards a new deeper spiritual dimension. h ow this is going to happen and what would be the position of the passion play in all of this, is still yet to be established. one of the earliest ambitions was to put škofja l oka on the european map of the spiritual theatres as a distinctive environment for further development of spiritual theatre. This goal has never been fully reached since there was no Slovenian institution willing to finance the project, which would have in the first place include construction of an open air amphitheatre on the outskirt of škofja l oka. What was the stake of the c atholic c hurch in all of this was never clari- fied, if there was any in the first place. but it is quite possible that the dreams and visions for establishing a centre of spiritual theatre was severely diminish with the economic crisis that started in 2008. LocaLity and reL ative perM anency oF the p aSSion pL ay in the time when f ather romuald lived, the passion play was always per - formed in škofja l oka. after its termination in 1768, the passion play has been performed only a few times, yet not in its integral form, on the stages of several Slovenian theatres or in public places. it was broadcasting twice (in 1931 and 1992) on the Slovenian radio. e ach time either it was reduced to several or even a single scene or re-written and played by professional actors. after more than two centuries, when interest in staging the integral passion play was rather weak, the situation changed in the beginning of the 1990s. yet, there were only a few modern performances of the Škofja Loka Passion Play since its re-emergence (in 1999, 2000, 2009 and 2015). The initial idea was to stage it every year, yet it soon became evident that this was far ‘too big bite’ for the relatively small population and economy of the passion play community. The procession of the Škofja Loka Passion Play starts on the outskirt of the town, at the place called Vojašnica (baracks), temporarily called ‘The passion pasijon s Ki Dones Ki 2020 15 90 play c amp’ , and proceed towards the centre of the town, mestni trg (The town Square), then turns left and ascent towards and through Spodnji trg (The l ower Square), and then it returns to the place where the procession starts. There are two stationaries at each square. The procession moves in a giant irregular circle opposite to the clock’s hands. The reason is practical. There is a rather steep and high slope road between The t own Square and The l ower Square, and it is simpler for the participants and the horses to move down then up the street. The passion play is performed every six years, eight times during l ent. c oMMunaL epiSteMoL ogy oF the p aSSion pL ay l ike in any other theatre community, the participants of the passion play ‘toil’ to establish creative and stable environment for scholarly production of own re- flexiveness. The subject of their research is the phenomenon of the passion play in general, not only their own. The members of the narrow circle of the passion play community select and promote the most knowledgeable persons among the participant, as well as scholars and researchers from outside, who are believed to be in possession of genuine religious or epistemological experiences, cred- ible information or plausible knowledge about the historical, social, religious, and cultural nature either of the Škofja Loka Passion Play or the passion plays in general. a s many aspects of the phenomenon are still unknown, unclear or ambiguous, the main protagonists of the passion play community are strongly interested in building up a trustworthy communal epistemology. i coin the term ‘communal epistemology’ from a combination of marion kant’s concept ‘personal epistemology’ 18 and alfred Schutz’s concepts ‘indivi- dual’ and ‘collective stock of knowledge’ . 19 personal epistemology is a combina- tion of individual’s experiences and knowledge about theatre by which he or she ‘gained meta-personal knowledge of the structural constitution of the theatre as a public space.’ t o acknowledge collective dynamic of the passion play commu- nity, we should fully embrace the epistemological gap between individual and collective stock of knowledge. each individual involved in the preparation and staging accumulates passion play experiences and knowledge in bodily memo- ries, yet only some of them are considered to be significant to become part of the collective stock of knowledge. Those personal experiences and knowledge, which are similar or are believed to be close or identical to authentic experience of the passion play, more easily enter the collective stock of knowledge. Which 18 marion kant: a pproaches to d ance (2): influences. Dance Research, 29, no. 2, 2011, pp. 246-250. 19 alfred Schutz: Collected Papers III: Studies in Phenomenological Philosophy. The h ague, bos- ton, l ondon: martinus nijhoff, 1970. dr. Tomaž Krpič, on the elements of the theatre community of the Škofja l oka passion play 91 personal epistemologies contribute more than others is also a matter of perma- nent negotiation and are space and time specific. every participants of the Škofja Loka Passion Play perceives the passion play a bit different, due to personal preferences and a role one have in the production, but in the case of publications it is upon effort of the editors to carefully select the most significant and precious experiences and views. each year a special monograph of the series titled Pasijonski almanah (passion play almanac) and a special issue of the journal Pasijonski doneski (The passion play contributions) is published. Several other books related to the passion play were also separately published since the revival of the passion play. The passion play project does not directly include the publication process. it is municipality of škofja l oka, in cooperation with Muzejsko društvo Škofja Loka (The museum Society škofja l oka) and local cultural association Kulturno-zgodovinsko društvo Lonka Stara Loka (c ultural and historical Society l onka Stara l oka), which by subsidisation secures the publications and claim the position of the publisher. another very important outcome of creating the communal epistemology of the passion play is to maintain a certain level of control over the production of knowledge about the passion play. The passion play participants would like to send us a powerful massage: ‘This is the way we understand and feel about our passion play, and those are the reasons why we believe the passion play should be executed this way.’ one very important motive for the production of different texts and events in between stagings of the passion plays derives from relatively long time that passes between two performances of the passion play: every six years. in order to reduce negative effects of the time gap, the narrow circle of the participants or members of the passion play community maintain so called ‘passion play con- dition’ or ‘passion play discipline’ . monographs, articles, treaties, lectures, round tables, expert meetings, and similar should keep the condition of the passion play community in good shape. The amateurish character of the Škofja Loka Passion Play is once again re- flected in the development of the communal epistemology. although desires of the main protagonists of the passion play are to produce reasonable objective knowledge about the passion play, the actually reached quality of produced arti- cles and books many times goes along with the participant’s honest opinion and rudimental depiction of their experiences during the preparation for and final staging of the passion play. but from time to time one can find a theoretically solid and methodologically liable explanation of the Škofja Loka Passion Play or the phenomenon of the passion play in general. all in all, the construction of the communal epistemology can be seen as one of the most genuine elements of the passion play community. pasijon s Ki Dones Ki 2020 15 92 c oncL uSionS This article on the elements of the škofja l oka passion play community is a modest, yet consistent attempt to re-evaluate the available information about modern staging or re-enactment of the passion play. consequently my ambition only rarely reaches beyond the provision of the methodological framework for my further research and deeper interpretation of the Škofja Loka Passion Play as a modern social phenomenon imbedded into a distinct religious, cultural, po- litical and historical context. The anniversary year 2021, when the passion play will be performed the next time, will provide an excellent opportunity to trial this methodological framework ‘in vivo’ . While it is evident that the passion play, although its roots derives from the medieval times, and although it originated in the time of baroque, could be with plenty of success staged in the highly modern society, it is, on the other hand, not entirely clear from the perspective of sociol- ogy, what social/communal processes makes this possible. and this is what we should and shall explore. Foto T omaž Lunder . dr. Tomaž Krpič, on the elements of the theatre community of the Škofja l oka passion play 93 o eLeMentih gLedaLiŠke SkupnoSti ŠkoFJeL oŠkega paSiJona Izvleček članek obravnava sedem elementov gledališke skupnosti na primeru škofjeloškega pasijona. elementi gledališke skupnosti so naslednji: a) skupina udeležencev gledališkega dogodka (gledalci, igralci, režiser, tehnično osebje in podobno ); b) gledališke konvencije in pravila; c) občutek pripadnosti gledališki skupnosti; č) nenamerna konstrukcija gledališke skupnosti; d) širši cilji; e) lokal- nost in relativna obstojnost gledališke skupnosti; in še f) skupnostna epistemo- logija gledališke skupnosti. avtorjev namen je prikazati primernost uporabe metodološkega okvirja sestavljenega iz sedmih zgoraj navedenih elementov za analizo tako zelo kom- pleksnega družbenega, kulturnega, religijskega, političnega in estetskega feno- mena, kot je v našem primeru škofjeloški pasijon. a vtor v članku ugotavlja, da gre v primeru škofjeloškega pasijona za vzpostavljanje specifičnega duhovnega in ljubiteljskega gledališča v obliki spokorniške procesije, pri katerem sodelu- je enormno število udeležencev, in pri katerem je prav gotovo večjega pomena samo sodelovanje pri izvedbi pasijona, kakor pa doseganje estetskih standardov, ki jih postavlja moderno gledališče. škofjeloški pasijon vsebuje vrsto konvencij, ki jih delimo na politično-upravne, religiozne in družbeno-kulturne. pasijonski udeleženci izpričujejo zvrhano mero pripadnosti pasijonski gledališki skupnosti; verni zaradi izpolnjevanja svoje religiozne obveznosti do slavljenja jezusa kri- stusa, ateisti pa zaradi želje po pripadnosti skupnosti v visoko razviti moderni brezoblični družbi. pri tem v prvi vrsti oboji skupaj sledijo želji po vzpostavitvi trajne pasijonske skupnosti. ker se škofjeloški pasijon izvaja le na vsakih šest let, predstavlja vzdrževanje visokega nivoja pasijonske kondicije poseben izziv. d a bi uspešno premostili ‘suha leta‘, ko se pasijon v škofji l oki ne izvaja, člani pasijonske skupnosti v vmesnem času intenzivno gradijo tako imenovano pasi- jonsko skupnostno epistemologijo s pomočjo objavljanja različnih monografij, člankov, razprav okroglih miz, javnih predavanj in podobno. n a tak način tudi sporočajo svetu svoje lastno videnja škofjeloškega pasijona in njegovega položaja in vloge v moderni sekularni družbi. a vtor na koncu ugotavlja, da je bilo v preteklih letih o škofjeloškem pasijonu prelitega že kar nekaj črnila, da pa je s perspektive sociološke vede še precej slabo raziskan pojav. a vtor upa, da se bo v stanje v bližnji prihodnosti bistveno izboljšalo.