The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer by Stephen C. Headley

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer by Stephen C. Headley Hannah Hunt Stephen C. Headley. The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer. Volos, Greece: Volos Academy Publications, 2020. 253 pp. Stephen C. Headley's credentials for writing this exploration of poetic forms of prayer are his decades of experience as an Orthodox priest and his self-described experience as a "cultural anthropologist" who worked for many years in Indonesia as well as more recently in Moscow and South India. He draws therefore on some non-Christian examples of prayer practice in addition to the familiar territory of early Eastern Christian monks, providing some interesting insights into the global—one might even say, universal—hunger for communion with the Divine or a higher being. Part exegesis of patristic and scriptural writings, part celebration of the contemporary practice of prayer traditions, part theological reflection, The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer asserts the important contribution to human salvation offered by a personal encounter with God through private and communal prayer, in addition to participation in the church's sacraments. The book is divided into three sections, loosely covering "Poetic Prayer," "From Poems to Prayer," and the all-encompassing "Hope." There is no introduction providing a map of the route to be taken. Instead, Headley [End Page 278] dives straight into an overview of theological anthropology, drawing on the writings of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, mentioning (but does not dwelling on) fourth-century Palestine, Saint Isaac of Nineveh's emphasis on silence, the Liber Graduum, and Saint Gregory of Sinai. He then migrates to discussing the Great Lavra and Saint John of Damascus, illuminated by some observations about modern hymnography. Section 2 takes us to a consideration of "Indian respiration" where (perhaps as a parallel to Evagrius's concept of logismoi) thoughts control the celebrant's actions, and the relationship between word and sacrifice in Vedic tradition is explored. The connection between this and some Sufi traditions and Christian practice is hinted at, with the significance of silence in contemplative prayer being a shared experience. Chapter 5 aims to move "from anthropology towards a theology of prayer," however (as elsewhere), the stated intentions of the chapter are sometimes not entirely followed consistently, and the author's argument becomes interrupted by extensive citation. Here, Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Ephrem, Feuerbach, and Bulgakov are placed in dialogue with each other. A further comparison between Eastern Christian and Asian religious practice is again explored in the differences between oral and written prayers, with a peregrination into the physical gestures and rituals employed in Indian temples. I found myself wanting a little more analysis of how this related to the Christian context and more actual explanation of the details presented. A chart on page 161, for example, needed glossing so that the terminology would be clear to the uninitiated reader. The final section opens with a question: how in Europe, both Western and Eastern, should we understand secularization? This is an important consideration and could have been flagged as a topic in a more substantial and focused introduction to the book. For answers, Headley mines the work of the twentieth-century Saint Justin Popović, before returning to Saints Ephrem, Isaac, and Maximus. This part of the book shifts away from the earlier analysis of poetic forms of prayer into a more general theological reflection and contains some lengthy digressions. Chapter 8 takes us from the twentieth century back to Saint Maximus and Saint Isaac once again for a discussion of eschatology, reminding the reader that both scripture and tradition arise as events of truth incarnate in Christ's body. The insights of contemporary theologians Christos Yannaras and Metropolitan John Zizioulas are set against more citations from the Philokalia (here amounting to a nine-page extract from the Four Centuries of Maximus). Chapter 9 introduces an exegesis of New Testament eschatology that also refers the reader to the Orthodox Study Bible. The book concludes that "There is no End to Hope in God," a comforting message of pastoral support. There are many nuggets of wisdom and pastoral insight in this book, but I did find myself unsure at...