Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann: The Liturgical Theology of the Symbol

В статье предпринимается попытка актуализировать богословское понятие «символ», существующее в литургическом богословии. Эта попытка осуществляется автором на базе имеющихся по этой теме материалов, опубликованных протопресвитером (1953-1970 гг. протоиереем, 1946-1953 гг. священником) Александром Шмеманом, известным богословом и литургистом Православной Церкви. В своих публикациях отец Александр выражает озабоченность по поводу того, что литургический термин «символ», широко использовавшийся в христианской Церкви уже с древних времён и являвшийся ключевым понятием в богословии и в литургической практике с середины второго тысячелетия, стал трансформироваться и приобретать несвойственные ему значения, что оказало негативное влияние на литургическую жизнь Церкви в целом, и особенно на понимание Евхаристии. Со временем термин «символ» стал терять своё богатое онтологическое содержание и приближаться к понятию «знак». Это понятие усвоено символу во многих современных толкованиях литургической жизни. The article attempts to actualize the theological concept of «symbol» that exists in liturgical theology. This attempt is carried out by the author on the basis of materials available on this topic published by Protopresbyter (1953-1970, Archpriest, 1946-1953, Priest) Alexander Schmemann, a renowned theologian and liturgist of the Orthodox Church. In his publications, Father Alexander expresses concern that the liturgical term «symbol», which has been widely used in the Christian Church since ancient times and which has been a key concept in theology and liturgical practice since the middle of the second millennium, has begun to transform and acquire uncharacteristic meanings which had a negative impact on the liturgical life of the Church in general, and especially on the understanding of the Eucharist. Over time, the term «symbol» began to lose its rich ontological content and approach the concept of «sign». This concept is adopted by the symbol in many modern interpretations of liturgical life.

Called by Beauty: Paul Ricoeur’s (Late) Liturgical Turn

We are now witnessing a great renewal of philosophical interest in the material aspects of religiosity. In this article I show that we have resources for this work in the very late philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, resources that are equally unexpected and deeply moving. In particular, in Ricoeur’s late turn we see the promising beginnings of a sacramental philosophy that links Baptism and the Song of Songs to show how liturgical practice is fundamentally tied to the beauty and sacredness of the natural world. The result is the realization that an ethics of hope is only truly completed in a philosophy of praise, eschatology pointing toward doxology.

Image and Chalcedonian Eucharistic doctrine: a re-evaluation of the Riha paten, its decoration and its historical context

The iconography of the Communion of the Apostles, a theme well established in Byzantine art after Iconoclasm, first appears in a securely dated context in the silver patens from Riha and Stuma. These silver plates were produced in Constantinople sometime between 575 and 578. The iconography with the twofold depiction of Christ is usually explained as a reflection of the liturgical practice of the Eucharist, namely, as a reflection of the two actors in the Eucharistic rite, the priest and a deacon distributing bread and wine. I argue instead that during the early Byzantine period the twofold depiction of Christ is an expression of the two natures of Christ directed against the Miaphysites. I propose that the exceptional appearance of the scene in the two early Byzantine silver patens from church treasures from northern Syria is likely to be explained by its Christological significance with regard to Chalcedonian Eucharistic doctrine during the persecution of the Miaphysites in the 570s.

Reformed Exiles and International Calvinism in Reformation-Era Europe

This chapter evaluates the role of religious exile in the development of confessional Calvinism during the Reformation era. Historians once put considerable emphasis on the widespread experience of exile in encouraging the development of a well-defined international Calvinist movement. This chapter reconsiders this framework from the perspective of theology, ecclesiology, liturgy, discipline, and the relationship to state authority. Drawing on recent research, it argues that, rather than encouraging confessional consolidation, exile was a deeply destabilizing force that helps explain why Reformed Protestantism never developed a unified institutional structure, liturgical practice, or statement of belief.

Sacred Song

The chapter surveys the primary forms that Christian sacred song took in Byzantium, in relation to the relevant manuscript evidence, liturgical practice, and music. It first draws attention to major challenges in relevant research (e.g., the immensity of the evidence, the living tradition of Byzantine liturgy, the disparate nature of the available evidence). Then, the main hymnic forms are presented: the monostrophic troparion, the polystrophic kontakion (for whose later history the chapter proposes an innovative reinterpretation of its supposed “decline” during the middle Byzantine period), the polystrophic kanôn, and the polystrophic stichêra. The chapter concludes with a presentation of various fields of desiderata in the study of Byzantine hymnography.

Lyubimova T. B. (1941–2020): Tradition and Civilization

the article provides an overview of the work of T. B. Lyubimova, an original Russian thinker, a representative of the aesthetic school of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. During her rich creative life, Tatyana Borisovna has explored a wide range of the most intriguing topics: the aesthetic categories of the comic / tragic and the sociology of music, the metaphysical dimension of politics and the ideology of modernization, initiatory traditions and the profanation of the spiritual. She was interested in the issues of the formation of the spiritual elite, the essence of metaphysical goal-setting, theater as a liturgical practice. The big theme of her life was traditionalism as an integral worldview system and a view of the world of a single tradition, the traces of which T. B. Lyubimova reconstructed from ancient philosophy, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Particular attention is paid to the final monograph by T. B. Lyubimova "Philosophy and Countertradition" (Moscow: Golos, 2019, 292 p.), where the author demarcates tradition, pseudo-tradition and anti-tradition and seeks to lead the reader on a razor's edge between the temptations of profaning the spiritual, mass representation of esoteric practices and their vulgar interpretation

The Manuscripts of the Middle English Lay Folks’ Mass Book in Context

This paper, part of a long-term programme of research into the forms and functions of the vernacular in late medieval liturgical practice in England, offers a “cultural map” of the Middle English poem known as The Lay Folks’ Mass Book (LFMB). Comparatively little research has been undertaken on LFMB since Simmons’s edition of 1879. However, new developments in the study of manuscript-reception in particular regions of the Middle English-speaking areas of Britain, combined with greater understanding of the cultural dynamics of “manuscript miscellanies” and of medieval liturgical practice, allow us to reconstruct with greater certainty the contexts within which LFMB was copied and used. LFMB survives in nine late medieval copies, but each copy presented a distinct version of the text. This article brings together linguistic, codicological, liturgical, and textual information, showing in detail how the poem was repurposed for a range of different cultural functions. In geographical terms, it seems clear that the work circulated in Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire, in Yorkshire, and in Norfolk, and can thus be related to other texts circulating in those areas. Some versions are likely to have emerged in parochial settings, possibly owned by local priests. There is also evidence that the text could be deployed in monastic contexts, while other versions probably formed part of the reading of pious gentry. What emerges from a study of the codices in which copies of LFMB were transmitted is that a range of shaping sensibilities for these manuscripts may be distinguished; the authorial role in texts such as LFMB was balanced with that of their copyists and audiences. In the manuscripts containing LFMB creativity was negotiated within textually-transmitted communities of practice.

Icons as punishers. Two narrations from the Vaticanus gr. 1587 manuscript (BHG 1390 f)

The Iconoclastic controversies of the Byzantine Era have provided a rich literary tradition of miracle narrations regarding the various magical aspects of the icon. The second period of Iconoclasm however seems to have given rise to a lesser prominent motif of the earlier traditions, namely that of the icon-agent acting as active punisher against its transgressor. The current article explores the development of this motif after a concise survey of the history of icon-miracle narrations, their representative texts and their role in liturgical practice. The starting point of the study were two previously unedited byzantine texts from the manuscript Vaticanus gr. 1587, testifying unique stories of icons as punishers. Finally, these stories are also perfect examples of the rich historical information popular narrations can provide on a topographical and prosopographical level regarding the era within which they were produced.

Megillot (Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther)

This chapter discusses the primary ancient Greek versions of a group of five books in the Hebrew canon that are called the Megillot or Scrolls. Each book in this collection—which consists of Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther—is associated with the commemoration of a different event in the Jewish liturgical calendar. In the Septuagint, as transmitted by the Church, these books are not grouped together and there is no specific linkage to that liturgical practice. There are, however, some commonalities among the Greek versions, particularly with respect to certain aspects of the translation and transmission histories of most of them, that create some sense of connection, despite the diversity of their content. This has to do specifically with the so-called Kaige tradition, which features a translation approach marked by a significant degree of formal equivalence to the Semitic source text and distinctive translation equivalents.

Music for Martyrs

This article interrogates sacred repertoire produced in late seventeenth-century Salzburg as a reflection of a local Catholic piety that centered on sacrifice, especially the ultimate sacrifice of martyrdom. As an individual principality that was subject to both the Papal court in Rome and the Holy Roman Emperor, Salzburg provides a meaningful case study in the heterogeneous regional post-Tridentine Catholic practices that musicologists and historians alike have only begun to explore. Compositions by Andreas Hofer (1629–84) and Heinrich Biber (1644–1704) present a prime example of sacred music’s ability to manifest a region’s distinct piety. Supported by their patron Prince-Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph von Kuenburg (r. 1668–87), Hofer and Biber left behind musical evidence of this exceptional Catholicism in the feasts they elaborated with substantial concerted compositions as well as the distinct texts they set, which do not align with prescribed liturgies and likely reflect persistent local practices that resonated with the prince-archbishop’s Counter-Reformation agenda. Printed liturgical books and emblems celebrating Maximilian Gandolph further support the claim that throughout the seventeenth century liturgical practice and sacred music in Salzburg maintained a local flavor that concentrated on themes of sacrifice and martyrdom.