Liturgical History

The New Testament writings themselves provide only a little evidence for meal nomenclature. “Lord’s supper” (1 Cor 11:20) has been given a unique emphasis by modern interpreters; some claim it was widespread or even prevalent in earliest Christianity. Yet despite Paul’s use of the term, there is no (other) clear instance of “Lord’s Supper” as the name for a distinctive meal of the kind later and more commonly known as “Eucharist” in first three centuries CE. A more adequate account of nomenclature for communal meals in those Christian communities belongs among various elements of the quest for a fuller description of the historical reality of those meals.

Accounts of Eucharistic origins have usually been driven by concern to establish the genealogy of later liturgical practices, and reflect broader narratives of early Christian history as either smooth transition or radical fall from primitive ideals. A more comprehensive account of early Eucharistic practice must give attention to Greco-Roman meal con- ventions, acknowledge the diversity of form and meaning in early Christian meals, and be more cautious about grand narratives. It would allow for consideration not only of the explicit theologies of prayer texts, but of implicit meanings involved in ritual, foods and other elements of meals. Such an emerging new paradigm may provide both a more adequate narrative of the development of the Christian Eucharist in classical historical terms, and richer interpretations of meals as a key aspect of early Christian practice.

Catholics and Orthodox often desire and discuss modern and contemporary liturgical reform. There are many ways to go about such reform. The largest experiment to date occurred from 1964-1967, yet it is little known and little studied. Most scholarship concentrates on the "Novus Ordo Missae" (1969).
My doctoral dissertation attempted to undercover the rationale and methodology for the original reform of the Mass that failed to gain general acceptance at a 1967 Synod of Bishops in Rome. The ambiguous results stemming from episcopal votes on the text and celebration of the "Normative Mass" nonetheless allowed it to survive in a modified version as the skeleton upon which the current dominant order of the Latin liturgy (Novus Ordo Missae) is now enfleshed.
This investigation serves as a point of reflection to consider the adoption of consistent and a priori values of reform before engaging any practical reform process. Any particular or universal Church that does so will likely minimize mistakes and maximize its possibility of achieving its ends.
Finally, this study shows the absolute necessity of a good analogical application of metaphysics (genus, species, specific difference, essential properties) in order first to come to a knowledge of "what specifies a rite" so as to avoid the risk of expunging defining characteristics....the nature of which is often debated among many  liturgists and liturgiologists of the various rites of Christendom.
I have attached organizational charts for individuals who are interested in the actual function of the reforming groups and their interaction with other quasi-agencies of the reform process.

In the following article we will examine at length some of the dynamics by which R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad—the renowned Ben Ish Hai (1834–1909) - integrated Kabbalah into daily life, and the complex way that he combined the teachings of the Rashash with simplified, esoteric practices meant for the general public. Needless to say, the relationship between the Kabbalists of Jerusalem and R. Yosef Hayyim illuminates a fascinating chapter in the history of Kabbalah in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.

http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/2/148.short?rss=1

Developed from the 2002 Barry Marshall Memorial Lecture at Trinity College, Melbourne, this paper considers traditions concerning Jesus as inclusive eater and their use or misuse in contemporary debates about eucharistic inclusion. It suggests that views of Jesus as breaking boundaries of religious tradition unwittingly repeat anti-Judaic assumptions about legalism - and are unsustainable when the texts and traditions are examined more closely.

Until several years ago, the identification of the ancient Church Order proved by E. Schwartz and R. Connolly and known as Traditio apostolica (Apostolic Tradition) – a title that is carved on the statue attributed to Hippolitus Romanus – was widely accepted. The most recent research, however, has questioned the attribution of the statue, the link between the carved titles and the work of Hippolitus, and the very literary identity of the writer. Today is seems risky to use such a document as representative of the praxis of the Church of Rome around the year 215 C.E. This article examines the hypothesis formulated in the last century about this author, the birthplace, and the integrity of the document. It is shown the necessity of approaching the Traditio with a new method that is able to take into account its textual conditions: an aggregation of materials originating from the 2nd to the 4th centuries that are unable to represent the practice of a single Church.

Perhaps no sound evokes the religions of South Asia as succinctly as the "sacred syllable" OM. For Hindu traditions, OM is a central and defining mantra that embodies in its single syllable the entire corpus of revealed texts, the Vedas, as well as the transcendent holism that undergirds all reality, brahman. OM's preeminence was established quite early: already in the Upaniṣads, OM is central to Brahmanical theology and metaphysics, well on its way to becoming the epitome of mantra, yoga, and meditation in Classical Hinduism. But OM has an earlier history in Vedic texts and rituals, one that scholars have rarely addressed: Upaniṣadic OM is the crystallization of more than five centuries of ritual, recitation, and reflection. In the most ancient textual strata, OM is one liturgical syllable among others, unindividuated and unremarkable; and yet it emerges in later strata as the preeminent syllable of the Vedas, Classical Hinduism, and South Asian religions.  How did this happen? How old is OM? When and where is it first attested? Why OM from among the thousands of other sounds in the Vedic liturgies? Surprisingly, such questions about the world's most famous syllable have never been resolved—the story of OM remains to be written. This study explores a neglected but significant chapter of OM's history. Inspired by the work of Frits Staal, I argue that Vedic traditions of liturgical song, sāmaveda, were integral to OM's early development. There is music in OM: the syllable emerges from melody and song.

This paper argues that the origin of the Seven Sacraments in Orthodoxy has been incorrectly catalogued in the past.

Secondly, the real source for adoption of said sacraments derives from lesser known Greek sources and proto-Scholastic Peter Lombard. The Seven Sacraments -I argue- have been mistakenly said to derive from Latin influence of II Lyons (1274). Not only do I debunk this myth, but show the great individuality, really idiosyncrasy, even creativity, in each famous author's adoption of the 7 sacraments in Byzantium. Furthermore, I claim to discover both Nicholas Cabasilas and Symeon of Thessalonica citing from Peter Lombard's "Sentences." If my thesis proves acceptable, it should mean that the entire narrative of the adoption and origin of a sevenfold sacramental system in Byzantium will need to be greatly revised.

NB, subsequently a colleague of mine alerted me to one error in the paper. Wherever 1260 or 12 60 synod occurs please read "so-called" for it is more probable that the so-called synod was invented with a terminus ante quem 1283

1) « L’abandon de la communion dans la main (IVe–XIIe s.) », Mélanges Gilbert Dagron, Travaux et Mémoires, 14, Paris, 2002, p.79-94. 2-17
2) « L’Eucharistie au centre de la vie religieuse des communautés chrétiennes (fin 4e -10e siècle) », Eucharistia, éd. P. Brouard, Paris, 2002, p.125-143. 18-35
3) « La communion du soldat et les rites religieux sur le champ de bataille » (avec J.C. Cheynet), Pèlerinages et Lieux saints dans l'Antiquité et le Moyen Âge. Mélanges offerts à Pierre Maraval, éds. B. Caseau, J.C. Cheynet et V. Déroche, Paris, 2006, p. 101-119. 36-54
4) « Sancta sanctis : Normes et gestes de la communion entre Antiquité et haut Moyen âge », Pratiques de l’eucharistie dans les Églises d’Orient et d’Occident, (Antiquité et Moyen Âge), éds. N. Bériou, B. Caseau et D. Rigaux, Paris: Institut des Études Augustiniennes, t. 1, Paris, 2009, p. 371-420. 55-104
5) « Autour de l'autel: le contrôle des donateurs et des donations alimentaires », Donations et Donateurs dans le monde byzantin, Actes du colloque international de l’Université de Fribourg (13-15 mars 2008), éds. J.-M. Spieser et E. Yota, Paris, 2012, p. 47-73. 105-131
6) « Les chrétiens et la pratique du jeûne durant l’antiquité et les débuts du Moyen âge », Communio, t. 39, Jeûne et eucharistie, p. 47-58. 132-138
7) « Monastères et banquets à Byzance », Pratiques et discours alimentaires en Méditerranée, de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance, éds. J. Leclant, A. Vauchez, M. Sartre, Cahiers de la Villa “Kérylos”, n. 19, Paris, 2008, p. 223-269. 139-186
8) « Byzantium », Companion Food to the Ancient World, éds. J. Wilkins, R. Nadeau, Oxford, Wiley Blackwell, 2015, p. 365-375.
9) “Le cérémonial imperial”, Economie et société à Byzance (VIIIe - XIIe siècle). Textes et documents, éd. S. Métivier, Paris : Publications de la Sorbonne, 2007, p. 19-32. 203-216
10) « Le tabou du sang à Byzance : observances alimentaires et identité », Pour l'amour de Byzance. Hommage à Paolo Odorico, éds. Ch. Gastgeber, Ch. Messis, D. I. Mureşan, F. Ronconi, Frankfurt am Main, 2013, p. 53-62. 217-226

In a short time, Hillsong has become a powerful congregational presence across the world and deserves more focused scholarly attention. Hillsong Church is part of an ongoing elaboration of evangelicalism, much of which has recently merged with a softer form of Pentecostalism (often called Charismatic Christianity), encouraging sermons and songs to be more conversational, and embracing a more therapeutic emphasis on emotional well-being with the promise of immediacy to an intimate God whose Spirit-filling empowerment energizes even the most mundane activities of work and family in everyday life. Arising out of Australia, Hillsong has become a worldwide commercial enterprise, distributing music and related products to Christian consumers who are entrained to a particular rhythm of religious sounds. Hillsong is also a philosophy of ministry that represents a set of theological convictions, an approach to pastoral leadership, and a type of networked ecclesial organization. In the end, Hillsong is more than just a church, a collection of music, a style of worship, an approach to ministry, or a set of corporate entities—it is an impressive ecclesial force, a global phenomenon that builds on a set of historical developments that comprise a wave of understandings and practices zooming into our religious future.

Numerous books have been published in the last fifty years that either attempt to explain, defend, or attack the Consilium and its work of reforming the "Tridentine Mass." This study (a project for St. Anselmo's "Commissio ad Lauream") hopes to lay to rest doubts, arguments, and questions on what really happened whenever a rite of the Mass (or other ritual) underwent revision. Any supposed critiques or explanations of liturgical reform and its process must be judged according to whether or not these accurately understand the very method of reform. If an author does not comprehend the nuts and bolts of the reform, his observations risk being specious indeed! The roles of Cardinal Lercaro and Annibale Bugnini are listed, perhaps for the first time, in all their detail. The other famous Fathers and periti of the Consilium may finally be viewed from an objective perspective with respect to their positions and potential influence.
The present study is very helpful for writers to use as a timeline, whereby they can check a date or document and see it in relation to any other events, whether proximate or remote. Additionally, the detailed descriptions of the process of reforming individual rites and its procedures are helpful to avoid errors in terminology and in misappropriating activities to persons or offices, some of which came into and went out of existence during diverse periods of the reform process.

Although witnesses of the presanctified liturgy exist in almost all Eastern
traditions, so far, a complete liturgical text of an Alexandrian liturgy of
the presanctified gifts has not been published or made known. This study
will publish and analyze for the first time the only such text known in the
Alexandrian liturgical tradition, the Presanctified of Mark from the 13thcentury
codex Sinai ar. 237. The text appears in 3 folios of this codex, and
appears clearly to be a presanctified liturgy based on the Liturgy of St.
Mark in its Greek Melkite recension. This article includes the original Arabic
text, followed by an English translation, and a detailed analysis of the
liturgical units comprising this unique text that seeks to situate it in its
proper liturgico-historical context.

In order to provide a new theoretical basis for reassessing the late fifteenth-century motetti missales and their interaction with liturgy in Sforza Milan, this paper starts not with the missales specifically, but rather with the broader issue of ‘hearing the mass’. This precept was central to the life of early modern Christians, but in how many ways could the faithful fulfil it? How many forms of attention and participation were deemed acceptable? What role did sonic elements play in it? And conversely, how did these conceptions influence musical choices? Through the study of treatises, methods, and other documents, the first sections of the paper explore the theory and practice of attending mass and examine problems such as the synchronization between ritual actions, individual devotion, and collective experiences. Focusing back on the motetti missales in light of the background thus delineated, I argue that the motetti missales were performed during votive low masses. In the conclusions, I put this practice in the perspective of the early modern era and suggest that the low mass may have been an important venue for the performance of motets throughout the period.

"The tenth-century Palestinian codex Sinai Gr. 957 contains one of the oldest
redactions of the Constantinopolitan nuptial rites of Engagement and Marriage. In addition to copying the marriage practices of the tradition of the Byzantine capital, the euchology also includes local marriage rites celebrated at the nuptial bedchamber. These nuptial-chamber blessings have been overlooked or misinterpreted by Byzantine liturgiologists. This article dispels the misunderstandings surrounding these prayers, places them in their historical context, and shows how these prayers from the Byzantine periphery came to influence the development of the Byzantine Rite of Marriage as we know it today."

A look at the common Biblical origins of the holiday practice of Judaism and Christianity. Why and how was there a parting of the ways with respect to the liturgical calendar and the interpretation of holidays? Messianic Jews today stand at the receiving end of the religious practices of the Church and the Synagogue. While identifying with the cultural and religious tradition of their people they are at the same time an integral part of the Christian Church, in particular of Evangelical Protestantism. In order to understand and appreciate Messianic Jewish holiday practice, it is imperative to look at the three sources from which this phenomenon draws: biblical, Christian and Judaic. This will also sheds light on the discussion how to 'rectify' the decisions of church councils with respect to the feasts of Israel and how to 'return' to the biblical roots of original Judeo-Christianity.

Much scholarship has recently been done on the Satanology (Satan-concept) of New Testament books or writers. This study attends to the Satanology of early "non-canonical" Christian writings, which have been comparatively under-researched. The literature examined includes the so-called Apostolic Fathers and other texts that can be reliably dated to c. 100-150 C.E., namely Ascension of Isaiah, Apocalypse of Peter, Odes of Solomon, Gospel of Truth, Ptolemy's Letter to Flora and Justin Martyr's writings. Over 160 certain or probable references to Satan, under various designations, are identified. Analysis of this data set proceeds in two directions. The first looks at the concept's explanatory power: for what kinds of evil did Satanology help to account? The discussion traverses various loci of perceived satanic activity, from the human heart to community boundaries to earthly political authorities to a dualistic cosmos to the abstract realm of ideas. The second analytical section explores ways that Christian writers and communities incorporated Satanology into their religious life through liturgical forms, hermeneutics for reading the Jewish Scriptures, and theological debates about the nature of God and evil. Satanology is found to have been a pervasive and distinctive feature of Christianity in the early subapostolic period.

One striking feature of the documents of the Second Vatican Council is the extent to which liturgical texts and rites are quoted and alluded to in a variety of theological contexts. In this essay, I seek to cast light on this aspect of the conciliar texts by exploring the relationship of theology and liturgy in the writings of Cipriano Vagaggini and Yves Congar, two major protagonists in the development of the texts of the Second Vatican Council. I first describe the life and ministry of Vagaggini and present a synthesis of his articulation of the role of liturgy as a source for theology in Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy. I then describe the life and ministry of Congar, treat of several aspects of his liturgical formation which are significant for understanding his theological work, and present a synthesis of his views of liturgy as a source for theology in La foi et la théologie and La Tradition et les traditions. I conclude by examining the place of liturgical texts within the third chapter of Lumen gentium in light of the theoretical exposition of Congar and Vagaggini, suggesting that the liturgical references provided in this chapter provide an excellent example of the appeal to the liturgy as a monument of Tradition in line with the principles articulated by Congar and Vagaggini.

Pentecostalism, found over the past century in the dramatic surge of “Spirit-filled Christians” across the globe, is an astounding phenomenon of religious innovation. Pentecostal believers across categories of race, class, and education congregate in passionate communities (small and large, independent and fully networked) to worship in churches often characterized as promoting emotionalism, informality, absence of historically rooted liturgical traditions, visible interaction with invisible spirits, and full-bodied participation. Certainly, there are multiple Pentecostalisms. Nevertheless, amid the variety of Pentecostal expressions, a consistently distinctive feature of their experience of worship is what I label the power–surrender dynamic.

Well established standards imply that changes in art cannot be theoretically approached if the background of different kinds of contexts is not taken into account. Of course, the way we structure and articulate this contextual background throughout our interpretations can bring fruits of very different sort, taste or quality. Present research aims at such a contextual structuring of historic changes in Byzantine art through certain achievements of contemporary semiotics. Complicated network of relations among icons, their archetypes and their beholders has been analyzed and reinterpreted through the prism of famous (tripartite) categorization of signs according to their relation with the signified, introduced in sign theory by Charles Sanders Peirce.
[THE IMPRINT] The idea of high-level-of-presence of archetype in icon, characteristic for the earliest development phases of Byzantine art, is thus related to the semiotic notion of index. Through the interference with the cult of relics on one side, and sphragistic practices and metaphors on the other, the early image of a saint is recognized as a sign that is causally, almost physically connected with its archetype. [This is why the term imprint was the most appropriate title for the first part of this study.] What Peirce regarded distinctive for a specific indexical category of signs, can be recognized as the key semiotic mode for positioning pre-iconoclastic art in the ecclesiastical context virtually hostile to visual representations. ‘The index is physically connected with its object; they make an organic pair, but the interpreting mind has nothing to do with this connection, except remarking it, after it is established’. Raised spontaneously, apart from magisterial theological trends of the epoch, the cult of icons was tending – correspondingly – to hypostatize some kind of objective, causal relation between the image and its archetype, with little concern about the interpretational potentials/dangers of this relation. But, exactly that kind of indexical accents – so important at the beginning – became a stumbling stone for the iconophile theology and, consequently, a problem that should be solved in post-iconoclastic culture. Even the role of the very palladium of victory over iconoclasm, the relic-imprint-image of Mandylion, together with its miraculous derivate, Keramion, had to be carefully rethought in worship and in arts. Their physical withdrawal from the (public) liturgical life of the imperial city – as relics – was curiously followed by their gaining a very important structural position in the Byzantine system of pictorial representation – as icons (frescos). Such a confusing cognitive shifts could be explained only by interpreting the medieval icon as a composite sign (with its indexical, iconic and symbolic aspects), structured through the changes of semiotic accents, according to the needs of historical or ecclesiastical contexts. [Hence the basic methodological frame for tripartite structuring of this theoretic research.] Thus, though icons of Christ and saints could never have been completely deprived of (need for) their indexical dimension, after the iconoclasm such a requisite had to be less conspicuous and fulfilled in different, more abstract, more theological manner – without referring to the cult of relics and sphragistic practices/metaphors. That is why the other two (Peircean) categories of signs happened to be much more useful in interpreting the developments of post-iconoclastic art.
[THE PICTURE] What Peirce named iconic signs is not related to Byzantine icons, save the fact that the concept of likeness was, more or less, congruent to both. This is why the second part of this study, dedicated to the application of semiotic notion of iconicity in the research of Byzantine art, is marked by contextually neutral term – picture. At first glance, the concept of likeness in this art occurred so pervasively molded by the pressure of its indexical aspects, from one side, and its symbolic aspects, from the other, that detection of specifically iconic aspects of the icon seemed almost impossible. But the fact that similar problems confronted the implementation of the concept of iconicity in semiotics (on most general level) throughout second half of XX century, turned out to be very fruitful when applied to the Middle Ages artistic realms. If the relation between the sign and the signified is based on likeness, then the symmetry of this relation confuses the motivation of semiotic processes and, consequently, searching for similar features could lead us to recognition of the iconic relation between any two entities in our world. While trying to resolve those problems [the, so called, argument of symmetry and argument of regression], contemporary semioticians noted that – from the perspective of such an endeavor – the Middle Ages turn out to be a real ‘night of all iconicities’. The truth is that in those times (almost) everything could mean (almost) everything, while – what’s more important for this study – iconic symmetry was abundantly demonstrating its confusing powers exactly in the realms of visual arts. Experiencing bodily appearance as an image of the image(s) was not reserved for mysterious subconscious levels of human existence, but was a legitimate expressive tool in arts, literature and life. Thus, not only the likeness of the image to its archetype was important, but the likeness of the human to (his/her) image was an issue that configured the horizon of Byzantine (visual) culture. In late Antiquity the experience of human bodily existence was directly influenced by such twofold relations, recognizable today under the generalized notion of ‘living image’, but after the iconoclasm that motif was going to get an even more complicated, picturesque dimension. The most obvious demonstration of this expressive shift can be recognized in the specific late Byzantine architectural arrangements, which enabled persons of saintly status to take part in church worship through the (open) window of their own living space. Framed by other icons of the wall decoration system, their faces (and, partly, their bodies) were presented (to the community) as ‘living images’ in a context radically different from the late antique one. At the beginning, human ideal bodily appearance was adjusted through the comparison with stillness and monumentality of statues – with the lonesome figure of stylite, rising as a monument, in the very centre of early Byzantine iconic horizon – but, at the end, it was entering the theologically structured (and framed) pictorial narration that was providing the most powerful image of ascetic excellence and the semiotic frame for activation of iconic symmetry mechanisms. If initial appropriation of the ‘living icon’ concept by ascetics can be interpreted in terms of rebel or (even) concurrence to the official imperial/hierarchical power networks, then the ‘living icon’ of late Byzantium had to be pacified and ‘flattened’ by the fact that monks became a cornerstone of the very power-network itself. The fact, that ‘living icon/saint’ was framed as an element of structure that provided a huge and stabile picture of the eschatological world, was the most appropriate possibility for the radical exercise of iconic symmetry in late Byzantium. While such an inspiring influence of images on human body could be detected through the research of ascetic practices, it gets easier to understand why the power of iconic symmetry was so abundantly used in liturgy. If exemplary figures of Byzantine Christianity – the emperor and the monk/bishop – could be proud to become (like) pictures, then such an intensive influence of images on human body could not escape being integrated in worship, on different popular levels. The cognitive gap opened by haptic, bodily distancing of the congregation from liturgical rituals was spontaneously inhabited (and, thus, closed) by images. Icons were not only the means of being ‘in touch’ with physically absent saints, but they virtually reframed the eschatological presence of the Body of Christ which was in the centre of medieval clerical mystifications and prohibitions. Instead of taking part in rituals, laics were enabled to watch them on images, in the domain of weakened iconic presence, while the growing power of images – on the other hand – exercised its influence on liturgy itself. Moreover, liturgy was not simply interpreted by (painted or embroidered) icons – it was actually consisted of those icons, which were physically covering what was prohibited and – in return – discovering the same reality (that was longed for), in a different, iconic medium. (...)
[from the abstract of the theoretic part of artistic doctoral project defended at University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts, on 28 October 2015; for the integral abstract open the document].

Au milieu du XIIe siècle, l’Occident chrétien assiste à l’apparition d’un nouveau rituel liturgique au cours duquel le prêtre élève au-dessus de sa tête l’hostie qui vient d’être consacrée et transformée en corps du Christ. Selon l’historiographie, ce que l’on nomme « élévation de l’hostie » doit permettre aux fidèles de voir et d’adorer l’objet pour pallier la diminution progressive de la fréquence des communions depuis la Réforme grégorienne dans le dernier quart du XIe siècle. Or, cette thèse apparait problématique dans la mesure où les textes liturgiques ainsi que les conciles synodaux ordonnent aux fidèles de s’incliner, de s’agenouiller, de baisser les yeux et même de se prosterner. De plus, une multitude d’obstacles physiques comme des jubés, des clôtures, des rideaux ou un certain nombre de clercs ne peut que limiter la visibilité de l’objet. Ensuite, du point de vue théologique, on ne cesse de rappeler qu’il est impossible de voir Dieu par les yeux du corps et que la visio dei, qui relève des yeux spirituels, ne peut se réaliser en cette vie. Une foi réelle doit d’ailleurs se passer de la vision, de la science ou de la connaissance, car comme le disent les Écritures, « heureux ceux qui ont cru sans voir ». Il en résulte une certaine ambivalence, voire parfois une dévalorisation de la vision corporelle. Sens le plus spirituel, il est aussi le plus dangereux lorsque mal utilisé.

La présente recherche porte sur l’apparition, l’évolution et la fixation du rituel de l’élévation de l’hostie du milieu du XIIe siècle à la fin du XIVe siècle et tente de démontrer que sa fonction n’est pas de montrer l’hostie aux fidèles qui sont largement découragés, par une multitude de moyens, de la regarder et qu’elle possède une fonction sociale et liturgique indépendante de leur regard.

This article gives an account of the reform of the sign of the cross and the imposition of hands over the gifts in the Roman Canon during the post-conciliar period. There follows a consideration of the significance of these gestures in the context of the reformed liturgical text.

Although Christmas is widely-assumed to have been borrowed from Roman solstice festivals, awareness of possible dates for Jesus' birth is attested long before the liturgical celebration of Christmas or the Christianization of Roman holy places and times. It is more likely that dates for Christmas and Epiphany were based on assumptions about the date of Passover and the first Easter, linked with assumptions about divine action in cycles of human history.

Reservados todos los derechos. De acuerdo con la legislación vigente, y bajo las sanciones en ella previstas, queda totalmente prohibida la reproducción y/o transmisión parcial o total de este libro, por procedimientos mecánicos o electrónicos, incluyendo fotocopia, grabación magnética, óptica o cualesquiera otros procedimientos que la técnica permita o pueda permitir en el futuro, sin la expresa autorización por escrito de los propietarios del copyright.

This paper analyzes Paul's Christian initiation as the Model for 4th century Christian rites and analyzes Paul's use of language and Luke's theology to understand technical terms such as "calling on the name of the Lord", "filled with the Spirit," and "seal (sphragis)."

La diaconia dei Santi Cosma e Damiano sul foro è uno dei più interessanti edifici della Roma tardoantica. Alle sue decorazioni musive sono stati dedicati numerosi saggi anche in tempi recenti FIG. . 1 La basilica e le sue decorazioni sono inoltre sistematicamente citate in testi generali fondanti per la storiografia romana. 2 Da quasi cinquant'anni manca però uno studio d'insieme. 3 Due sono le più importanti questioni rimaste in sospeso: quella delle ragioni della diversità compositiva e formale tra l'arco e l'abside e, quindi, quella relativa a una comprensione iconologica globale delle decorazioni. Il presente intervento vorrebbe riflettere su entrambe con particolare attenzione alla relazione tra spazio, immagine e liturgia.

Jonas Lundblad analyses two late cycles of organ music by Franz Liszt, Missa pro Organo and Requiem, both of which were intended exclusively for the Catholic liturgy, more specifically the spoken or Low Mass, and were composed in an introverted, austere and, at least at first glance, simple style. Liszt here eschews the outward drama and technical challenges of his previous organ music as well as much of the expressiveness of his vocal church music. Both works are based on Mass compositions for male choir and organ, but the substantial differences in relation to the original vocal works, while related to the different liturgical contexts of the respective compositions – the sung and the spoken Mass, respectively – are also the fruit of a new conception of the function of (organ) music in the liturgy. Liszt here moves beyond the idea of purely devotional music (intended to express or enhance [the congregation’s] religious feelings), but neither does he wholly subscribe to the total subservience of music to the proclamation of the kerygma that in the Cecilian movement led to the cultivation of an archaic musical style. Instead, according to the author, in these works Liszt intends to support and express the manifold living interaction between the individual believers and the ‘objective’ drama unfolding in the liturgy. He does this through an innovative approach to harmony which avoids traditional cadential resolutions in favour of enharmonic or semitone-based connections and destabilizes the keys of individual movements, subordinating them to the tonality of the cycle as a whole.

Mark of Ephesus and his theology of Eucharistic consecration has been discovered, ironically, to be exactly reflected in the latest Roman Catholic edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1992). Essentially, Mark held an explicit doctrine that both the words of institution (dominical words at the last supper), the epiclesis, and the three accompanying signs of the cross are all together necessary for any valid transmutation of the elements of bread and wine. While his position was opposed at the Council of Florence by the Dominicans, it had strangely coincided with the Eucharistic theology of Bonaventure in his Commentary on Lombard's Sentences.

The entire debate at Florence actually marked a misrepresentation of Catholic dogma as it existed in the 14th century in favor of theologoumena or theological opinions that were predominant in the universities but that also enjoyed no dogmatic status. The Latin arguments on behalf of the Eucharistic transmutation or transubstantiation mark such a case. The Dominican that was entrusted with the debates attempted to require of Greeks Aquinas' "instrumental causality" of the priest as the real or a truly formal cause of changing bread and wine. Ironically, it was principally the Franciscans that reproved this doctrine as contradictory and simplistic. Furthermore, the Latin arguments against Mark of Ephesus required them to ignore and fail to address parts of both Aquinas' ST (affirming the authority and existence, for example, of the anaphora of James the apostle), and even Augustine. What is more one crux of the debate lie in the interpretation of the Roman canon by Nicholas Cabasilas, which subsequently proves to be correct by commentaries and comparison of Cabasilas' argument with Lombard's own tradition and sources.

Both Latin and Greek tradition knew of a consecratory epiclesis in their respective Latin and Greek liturgies until a gradual theological shift began in the thirteenth century in the West. Mark of Ephesus and Nicholas Cabasilas surprise us in their explanation of the epiclesis by coinciding with traditional Latin exegesis of St. Ambrose of Milan, through Medieval Latin authors, even until St. Bonaventure. The Dominican approach of John Torquemada has interesting holes and lacunae, some of which must be accredited to the patristic and historical deficits in Aquinas' own research.

The story of the "moment/s" of consecration has really never been told from the perspective of the sources and underlying controlling idea of the Theotokos at the Annunciation as the universal point of departure for theological reflection on the transmutation of the gifts. Perhaps an ancient, if forgotten, starting point may finally overcome thomistically inspired preoccupations by recourse to the Fathers and to the solutions lurking within the Franciscan tradition of the Eucharist?

This paper seeks to highlight the richness of the Church’s worship in the East and West from the fifth to the ninth century, as well as the unwarranted antagonism that sometimes characterized its factions, through an investigation of the Trisagion or “Thrice-Holy” hymn. Controversy surrounded the Trisagion in the East after the Council of Chalcedon (451) as the rift between those that accepted and rejected the validity of the council steadily widened. While both sides agreed that the hymn was an earthly manifestation of heavenly worship and thus a touchstone of orthodoxy, the accepted meaning of the hymn diverged and ossified on either side: Chalcedonians only addressed the hymn to the Trinity, while non-Chalcedonians only addressed the hymn to Christ. The fierce polemic between these factions, based in the cities of Constantinople and Antioch, respectively, was absent in Egypt, Hispania, and Gaul, where tropings and varied liturgical contexts allowed the spinning out of images of a judging, saving, and, often, crucified Christ in the Trisagion. Vestiges of these images of Christ in Western liturgies suggest that disagreement on the subject of the Trisagion may have been briefly rekindled in the West in the suppression of the Gallican liturgies and their refashioning and reincorporation in the developing Carolingian liturgy. The introduction of the Trisagion into the Carolingian Good Friday Adoration of the Cross ceremony in the late ninth century, with diverse elements accrued from the chant’s history in East and West, may thus be viewed as a small-scale ecumenical synthesis with respect to Christian tradition.

This article is made available here through the kind permission of The Institute of Mediaeval Music.