Uppenbara hemligheter

Abstract

In a word play, the article is titled Revealing (or Evident) Secrets: Cloth and Theology in Early Christian and Contemporary Orthodox Practice. Building on a lecture celebrating the recent appointment to docent, the article proceeds from an introductory reflection on human dress, with the help of Roland Barthes and others, to a scrutiny of a hymn by the late antique Syriac poet-theologian Ephrem the Syrian, in which God dresses and undresses in a play between divine and human, which is interpreted in a ritual framework. In the second part, the investigation moves from past to present, and a liturgical setting which employs the sources just consid­ered, namely a couple of Syriac Orthodox congregations in contemporary Sweden. In light of theories on integration and tradition, changes in liturgical attire are considered, with specific attention to gender and the question of women deacons.