Four Essays on Orthodox Liturgical Issues: A Collection of Liturgical Commentaries Written from a Traditionalist Orthodox Perspective

Publication Data: Etna, CA: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 1996
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 96
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.3 cm × 13.8 cm × 0.7 cm
ISBN: 0‒911165‒25‒8

   
By Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna, Bishop Auxentios of Photiki, and Father James Thornton

“This collection of essays on various liturgical traditions of the Orthodox Church admittedly deals with problems and issues that are of particular interest to liturgical experts and to those reasonably well versed in the history of Christian worship. But it does not address an exclusively scholarly audience; indeed, many of the issues discussed in the essays are also of interest to a general audience. While we can study worship in a purely academic and scholarly way, we can never wholly separate it from its living form, from that leitourgia that is the ‘proper activity’ of the People of God, the Church’s believers. Nor does any believer, from the simplest to the most learned, fail on at least some occasion to bring to mind questions about the liturgical life, its history, and its significance. If for the pagan sages a life unexamined was a meaningless life, so for Christians, at an intuitive level, ritual carried out without thought is unrewarding. This truth inevitably prompts an almost universal interest in the Church’s worship at one level or another.”
—“PREFACE”

CONTENTS

Preface
Chapter One
   A Brief Overview of the Development of the Orthodox Vespers Service
Chapter Two
   Three Byzantine Commentaries on the Divine Liturgy: A Comparative Treatment
Chapter Three
   “Fear and Trembling” Language in Fourth- and Fifth-Century Liturgical Texts: From Bishop to Schmemann to a Corrected View
Chapter Four
   Historiographical Problematics in the Study of the Origins of Liturgical Vesture
Index