Christian Liturgy Research Articles

Isaiah 28:11-13 and Tongues as Spiritual Languages in Christian Liturgy in The Nigerian Context

Isaiah 28:11-13 and Tongues as Spiritual Languages in Christian Liturgy in The Nigerian Context

Ethnological-Historiographic View on Seven Ancient Extant Christian Liturgies

The author analyses comparatively seven ancient extant Christian liturgies: Roman Catholic Tridentine mass, Byzantine liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, four liturgies of the Oriental Orthodox Churches: Alexandrian-Coptic, Antiochian-Syriac, Armenian and Ethiopian, and finally the liturgy of the Churches of the East: Assyrian and Ancient. Furthermore, the author researches inculturation of Antiochian-Syriac liturgy and Churches of the East liturgy in South India, as well as liturgies in Eastern Catholicism and Western Orthodoxy. This study explores historical events that are crucial to understanding the origin and development of ancient liturgies, as well as major architecture, painting, drama and music aspects of liturgies from ethnological perspective.

The Influence of African Traditional Beliefs and Practices on Neo-Prophetic Christianity: An Analysis

The rapid expansion of the neo-prophetic strand of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Africa has resulted in much public and academic scrutiny against the backdrop of perceived appropriation of elements of indigenous African faith. Even though African countries have retained secularism in place of a state religion, many African states, notably Ghana, have remained steadfastly committed to their traditional religions, sometimes even working in tandem with monotheistic Abrahamic religions like Islam and Christianity. Unquestionably, indigenous African religious beliefs have had a significant impact on African mental matrixes, which in turn has affected the practice of Christianity. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate how Ghanaian Christianity was impacted by traditional African beliefs and customs. In particular, a study of neo-prophetic churches at Manso Dome-Beposo within the Ashanti Region of Ghana was employed. The data for the study was gathered using interview guidelines and qualitative approaches. The data collected was thematically analyzed in line with the reviewed literature. The study found that most prophetic explorations involve the use of rituals, artefacts, and stylistic forms, which are similar to Abisa in the Akan spiritual cosmology. The study found out again that, there are several elements suggestive of African traditional religious influence on Christianity. For instance, it was observed that the notion of the existence of evil spirits in Akan cosmology has strongly influenced contemporary prophetism in Ghana. The study concluded that although the idea that Christianity has been affected by African traditional religion may not have empirical validity, there are plenty of visible indicators to back up this assertion. It has been recommended that with the evidence of possible syncretism, a clear distinction should be made between the culture and the religious activities of the people since at times the church wrongfully accuses members even when they are performing culturing duties. This will help the church authorities to inculturate Christian liturgy. Keywords: Inculturation, African Traditional Religion, Syncretism

Medieval Liturgy and the Making of Poland: A Study in Early Medieval Political Identification (c. 960s—c. 1030s)

ABSTRACT Although the issues of premodern ethnogenesis, early medieval state formation, and political identification are central fields of inquiry in recent historiography, scholars rarely refer to liturgical sources even when discussing the significance of political rituals. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to examine identity formation in the Piast realms based on liturgical evidence. First, the paper analyzes the meaning and spread of the name Polonia proper, as applied c. 1000 for the territory under the Piast ruler. Second, the paper analyzes how Christian liturgy enabled leaders to shape and internalise Polish political identity through the liturgical invocation of the name of a ruler. Finally, based on the Carolingian, post-Carolingian, and Slavic analogies, the paper argues that the political message conveyed by liturgical phenomena should not be seen as exclusively limited to the members of the clergy, but rather that it could have reached a broader audience as well.

Examination of Christian Liturgy in the Journal Islamska misao

What characterizes Islam is its openness to other religions and the “spirit of dialogue”, which is one of the essential ideas of the Holy Qur’an. For the dialogue to take place, the Other is required, the one who will try to understand. The journal Islamska misao (Islamic Thought) was partly dedicated to the said idea, which is substantiated by the texts that we aim to analyze in this paper. All of this testifies to a slow opening that characterized the period in which the journal was published, and both political emancipation, as well as the need to understand others to whom Muslims are directly addressed in their totality. Special emphasis is placed on the Christian ritualistic aspect, where we show numerous conceptual similarities in many religions, as well as peculiarities, all of which contribute to a more diverse religious spectrum which is in Islam perceived as a reflection of the divine plan or will. This is what Muslim authors had in mind when choosing topics in the journal.

Climbing the Trail to Heaven: Traditional Funerals and Burial Practices in Dane-Zaa Territory-An Ethnographic Account from Northeastern British Columbia

The purpose of this research is to investigate two customary funerals conducted by the Dane-zaa First Nation of Northeastern British Columbia, known as the Doig River First Nation. Both funerals included a lot of drumming, singing, and dancing around the fire in keeping with the Dane-zaa custom. Still, there was one key distinction between the two rituals. The funeral held in 2019 for Janice Askoty was a hybrid service that included a Christian liturgy and customary rituals. Such a ritual highlighted the conflicts that already existed among community members over faith and belief systems. There were no conflicts throughout the Christian service that was part of Annie Oker's 2020 funeral. In this paper, the researcher use the notion of syncretism and my observations to illustrate how Christian practices have been merged with indigenous cultural practices, symbols, and beliefs to create new blended practices. Simultaneously, the researcher highlight how certain customs (such as drumming, singing, and dancing around the fire) have endured to this day because they have not been altered by outside forces. Finally, the researcher discuss how the history of colonialism continues to show itself in funerary celebrations and how the community members view, confront, and resist it.

“Holy to the Lord”: The Material Conversion of the Cammarata Finials

This article sets out to trace the trans-religious journey of two objects in the western Mediterranean at the end of the fifteenth century. The expulsion of Jews from all Spanish territories in 1492–1493 instigated the movement of objects from Jewish to Christian hands. Among these were a pair of Torah finials that belonged to the Jewish community of Cammarata, Sicily, where they were set on top of the rods around which the Torah scroll was rolled. These two finials were sold in Sicily and, through a chain of merchants and ecclesiastics, arrived at the Cathedral of Palma and were incorporated into the local Christian liturgy, a process that continued well into the twentieth century. This article analyzes the use and performance of the finials in their different liturgical settings and examines their conversion from Jewish ceremonial objects to ecclesiastical implements. It concludes with a discussion of temporality in studying converted objects, a factor that played a key role in the finials’ migration between socio-religious contexts and resulted in the creation of multifaceted objects.

Piano Concert by Y.N. Hummel No. 2 in a Minor Op. 85 in the Context of Biedermeier's Art of "Light" Pianism of the First Half of the 19th Century

The purpose of this study is the analysis of Y.H. Hummel's Second Piano Concerto from the perspective of Biedermeier's positions of "light" ("diamond") pianism of the Restoration era, which deployed saving the spiritual foundations of Rococo in the conditions of secularised art of the post-Vienna school. The methodological basis of the research is the intonation approach of the school of B. Asafyev in Ukraine, which is embodied in the works of D. Androsova, O. Markova, O. Muravska, L. Shevchenko and has direct implications for the institutions of Chinese musicology (see the works of Ma Wei, Wu Golin, others). The specifics of the methods of historical-descriptive, musicological analytical, cultural, stylistic comparative, interdisciplinary approach make up the specifics of the research apparatus of the author of the essay. The scientific novelty of the work is revealed in the fact that, for the first time in Ukrainian and Chinese musicology, the so-called Concerto of Y.H. Hummel is analysed in the light of the positions of Biedermeier's "diamond" pianism of "light play" in the continuation of Mozartianism in piano works (based on the works of D. Androsova and L. Shevchenko) and in the development of the concept of neo-symbolism of post-avant-garde modernity according to O. Markova in relation to the performing revival of Hummel's heritage. Conclusions. Piano concert by Y.N. Hummel's A-moll op. 85 is marked by the advantages of pianistic lyrical flourishes over the manifestations of theatrical drama. The predominance of the lyricism of piano flourishes feeds the positions of romanticism against the background of Biedermeier's ideal expressive instructions, inspired by religious sobriety and, like Rococo art, addressed to the ideal aspirations of the soul and a harmonious worldview. In the Concerto, we rely on Mozartian tectonics (the theme of the soloist in the second exposition, mainly a compensatory function of the orchestra), the structure is dominated by exposition, which "washes away" the sonata relations. The predominant position of "piano lyricism" of ultra-fast finger "small technique", the presence of genres (signs of march, nocturne, anthem) in the expressiveness of themes, "obliteration" of tempo-textural contrasts between the extreme and middle parts of the cycle are evident. The features of crescendoing drama with increasing movement intensity from the beginning to the end of the concert cycle in a two-phase (Parts I-II-III) presentation of energy accumulation are revealed, which corresponds to the two-phase nature of the early Christian liturgy honoured by the Biedermeier culture.
 Keywords: piano Mozartianism, pianism, "easy", "diamond" playing style, musical genre, style in music, concert.

J.N. Hummel’s Piano Concert h-moll op. 89 in the Context of Mozart’s Nineteenth-Century “light” pianism

The purpose of this research is to analyse J. Hummel's Third Piano Concerto from the perspective of Biedermeier's establishments of Restoration "light" pianism, which embodied the spiritual aspirations to preserve the Rococo savings in the context of the adoption of the secularised art of the New Vienna School. The research methodology is the intonation approach of B. Asafiev school in Ukraine, which has direct analogies to the principles of Chinese musicology (see works by Ma Wei, Wu Go Ling). The specifics of the methods of historical and descriptive, musicological analytical, cultural, stylistic comparative, and interdisciplinary methods constitute the specifics of the apparatus of researching the works of the named author. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time in Ukrainian and Chinese musicology, J. Hummel's Concerto is analysed in the light of the positions of Budermayer's "light play" pianism in continuation of the Mozartian line of piano creativity (according to the works of D. Androsova and L. Shevchenko) and in the development of the concept of neo-symbolism of post-avant-garde modernity according to O. Markova. Conclusions. J.N. Hummel's Piano Concerto h-moll op. 89 is marked by an impressive breadth of pianistic lyrical fioritura and the absence of theatrical drama, which corresponds to the instructions of Biedermeier, who tended to the ideal beginnings of worldview and religious humility of expression. The Concerto reproduces certain signs of Mozartian constructiveness (the second exposition with the soloist's theme, mainly the compensatory function of the orchestra), strophic expositionality that "blurs" sonata relations. The main thing is the dominant position of "piano lyricism" of ultra-fast finger movement, signs of waltzing, nocturnal, hymn-like themes in the presentation of themes that correspond to Biedermeier's mythological and religious settings, based on the crescendoing dramaturgy of increasing the intensity of movement from the beginning to the end of the concert cycle in a two-phase presentation of the energy flow in the spirit of early Christian liturgy, adopted by the salon style of Biedermeier.Key words: piano Mozartianism, pianism, "light" pianism, musical style, musical genre, concert.

Stefanos Alexopoulos and Maxwell E. Johnson, Introduction to Eastern Christian Liturgies

Stefanos Alexopoulos and Maxwell E. Johnson, <i>Introduction to Eastern Christian Liturgies</i>

George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke, eds. Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions

George Kiraz and Sabine Schmidtke, eds. <i>Scribal Habits in Near Eastern Manuscript Traditions</i>

A Musical Allusion in the Faerie Queene

We owe a great debt to Judith Anderson for teasing out so many meanings in the first line of The Faerie Queene, ‘A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine.’1 But there is yet more to discover. The line surely alludes to ‘pricksong’, music sung from notes ‘pricked out’ on a page, and ‘plainsong’, music ‘developed for the unaccompanied unison singing of Christian liturgies’ (plainsong, n., OED 1). The two invariably appeared together in treatises on music. The Protestant theologian Thomas Becon (1512/1513–1567), in his Relikes of Rome (originally published in 1560), argued that neither form of signing, enjoyable as they undoubtedly were, should have been permitted into the true church: Pope Gelasius, Pope Gregory ye fyrste S. Ambrose with other, brought in fyrst of all ye playne song into the churches … Pope Vitalian being a lustye singer and freshe couragious musition hymself, brought into the church pricksong descant, & all kynde of sweete and pleasaunt melodye. And bycause nothing should wante to delight the vayne, folysh and ye idle eares of fond & fantastical men, he ioyned ye Organs to ye curious musike. Thus was Paules preaching & Peters praying tourned into vaine singing & childysh playing, unto ye great losse of time, & unto ye utter undoing of Christen mens soules, whiche live not by singing & pipyng, but by every worde yt coometh out of ye mouthe of God.2

Joyful Silence in the Liturgical Practices of Ghanaian Christianity

Noise and silence are both integral parts of Christian liturgy. The focus of this paper was to carry out an appraisal of silence in the liturgical activities of Christians in Ghana and its effect on the spiritual as well as environmental health of Kumasi. Using the descriptive approach, the liturgical celebrations of some selected churches from all five strands in Kumasi Metropolis were assessed. The study revealed that silent liturgies exist among the churches in the metropolis, even though the degree of emphasis varies from one strand to another. Also, some of the strands belittle the significance of silence in the liturgy primarily due to their misunderstanding and misinterpretation of scriptures relating to noise and silence. The study thus recommends proper theological and religious education to sensitize Christians on the contextual interpretation of the Bible. Keywords: Silence, Joyful silence, liturgy, Ghanaian Christianity

Climbing the Trail to Heaven: traditional funerals and burial practices in Dane-zaa territory - an ethnographic account from North-eastern British Columbia

ABSTRACT While performing fieldwork in Fort St. John (July 2019-August 2020), I attended two traditional funerals organised by Doig River First Nation, a Dane-zaa First Nation of North-eastern British Columbia. As per the Dane-zaa tradition, drumming, singing, and dancing around the fire were key components of both funerals. Nevertheless, there was an essential difference between the two ceremonies. The 2019 funeral celebrated for Janice Askoty was a blended ceremony where traditional practices were performed alongside a Christian liturgy. Such a ceremony underlined existing tensions between community members regarding faith and systems of beliefs. These tensions were absent in the 2020 funeral celebrated for Annie Oker, where there was no Christian liturgy. Drawing on my observations and using the concept of syncretism, in this paper, I highlight how indigenous cultural practices, symbols, and beliefs have been integrated with Christian practices to the point that new blended practices have been established. At the same time, I point out how some traditional practices (i.e. drumming, singing, and dancing around the fire) have not been modified by external influences, surviving until now. In conclusion, I describe how colonialism’s legacy still manifests itself during funerary celebrations and how community members perceive, face, and counter it.

Celebrating Synodality: Synodality as a Fundamental Aspect of Christian Liturgy

AbstractA synodal church makes assumptions about our basic ecclesial experience which takes place when we assemble liturgically, especially when we act eucharistically. The basic assumption is that we are a genuine human community knowing and relating to one another as brothers and sisters in baptism. Only real communities can authentically image the church's nature. This is a ‘bottom – up’ activity. If we wish this, then we must rediscover our liturgy and celebrate it in a new way as flowing out from a community and helping it to discover its own nature. This, in turn, makes demands on our understanding of ministry and its structures. While many Catholics endorse synodality, their willingness to change the shape of the presbyterate is uncertain.

The Dynamics of Liturgy. Joseph Ratzinger's Theology of Liturgy: An Interpretation by D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D.

Reviewed by: The Dynamics of Liturgy. Joseph Ratzinger's Theology of Liturgy: An Interpretation by D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D. Roland Millare D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D. The Dynamics of Liturgy. Joseph Ratzinger's Theology of Liturgy: An Interpretation San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2022 187 pages. Paperback. $19.95. One of the central contributions of Joseph Ratzinger has been his theology of liturgy, which will continue to inspire the Church for decades to come. This recent work of one of his former doctoral students is a great contribution to the growing literature on the topic. Fr. Vincent Twomey's experience and wisdom as a professor, a theologian, and as a priest-missionary is helpful in presenting Ratzinger's theology of liturgy. The unifying theme of the varying chapters of Twomey's book are the "dynamics" of grace, mission, and faith. Underlying these is the dynamism of human nature, which is oriented towards self-transcendence as expressed in ritual. Twomey's experience in the Major Seminary of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands was the impetus for his inquiry into a potential relationship between aboriginal and Christian rites (Chapter 1). Ratzinger helped Twomey to appreciate how the universal human experiences of birth, death, meals, and marriages "create community, fellowship, not only horizontally, with our fellows, but with God" (45). In all world religions, Ratzinger notes that "sacrifice, the core of worship, invariable involves a meal, communion with the Divinity and with those participating in the offering of sacrifice" (45). [End Page 131] Worship was transformed definitively within the New Testament via the logos. The Pauline understanding of worship as a logike latreia (Rom 12:1) is a central theme in Ratzinger's theology of liturgy, which Twomey underscores. The notion of liturgy or worship is no longer limited to ritual animal sacrifice. Christian worship extends to the transformation of everyday life in light of the Eucharist. According to Ratzinger, the liturgy leads us into a "dynamism of transcendence" that "tears us away from the visible, the present, the comfortable—and directs us toward the future city" (49). Pope Benedict understands the cosmic liturgy as the world itself transformed into "worship of God, an oblation in the Holy Spirit" (57). Twomey notes that in Ratzinger's theology of creation, the covenantal relationship between God and humanity is characterized by the centrality of worship by the entire cosmos. Further, the Temple worship transformed with the New Covenant of Christ as it was brought into Christian worship. Twomey comments that both the cosmic character of the liturgy and the roots of Christian liturgy in Temple worship have been "practically ignored" in the post-conciliar reforms of the liturgy, which has left the Church with a "truncated liturgy" (60). The brief exposition of the cosmic character of the liturgy (Chapter 2) is foundational for Twomey's discussion of sacred art and architecture (Chapter 3) and sacred music (Chapter 4). Beauty, truth, and liturgy are inherently related such that sacred architecture, art, and music should lift the faithful up into the dynamic of transcendent cosmic worship within the liturgy. In the name of post-conciliar reforms, the sacred and the beautiful have become displaced by a neo-iconoclasm governed by minimalism, functionality, and utility. The most striking principle of Ratzinger on sacred music is "A Church which only makes use of 'utility' music has fallen for what is, in fact, useless" (90). Utility music falls short of the spiritualization and glorification which are characteristics of an authentic cosmic liturgy. In the latter part of his work, Twomey returns to his focus on sacred ritual (Chapter 5) where he highlights the great wisdom that anthropologists such as Victor Turner have to offer in our understanding [End Page 132] of changes to the liturgy. Twomey maintains in his outlines of the significance of ritual in Turner's work: "The effectiveness of the ritual is due in great part to the regular repetition of the same rite that, apart from insignificant changes, is understood by all participants as unalterable by those responsible for conducting the rituals: all must abide by the (mostly unwritten) rubrics" (106). Authentic participatio actuosa allows for what Turner describes as communitas, that...

Religion and Cinema as Subversive Memories: A Possible Relationship in the Brazilian Context

Brazil has been defined as a country without memory. On the other hand, Brazilian cinematography is rich in dealing with the theme of memory. In this scenario, Brazilians gather weekly in religious services to celebrate the memory of the Easter of Christ in the Eucharist, to remember the deeds of God in time and space, and to celebrate the memory of the Gospel embodied in the culture and memory of the Brazilian people. This article intends, therefore, to establish a relation between the lack of critical and political memories and the memory present in the narratives of Brazilian films as spaces of resistance, and the religious and subversive memory in the Christian liturgy. The methodology adopted will be, firstly, descriptive and analytical, focusing on the facts of the Brazilian reality. Secondly, memory and liturgical memory will be treated in the liturgy, ascertaining the role of this paschal memory not only as an exercise of memory, but also as a subverting and political memory in the past, present, and future. Here, relations between liturgy and Brazilian cinema will be established.

Musical Composer’s Interpretation of Sacred Text

When a composer in the Western music tradition of the last 500 years sets a text to music, they make certain choices about that relationship, which may depend on their emotional reaction to the text or to their pictorial perception of it. Emotional and pictorial linkages between music and sacred text are described in two examples, one a musical setting of a Christian liturgy, and one a variation set on a Christian folk hymn in which the variations draw on the texts of successive stanzas. These linkages are part of an extensive history of usage of devices by which a composer responds to textual inspiration. Because of the centuries during which associations between music and text have been developed in the minds of composers, performers and listeners of Western countries, the music can become an enhancement of, or even a substitute for, elements present in the text.

The Lacerated Body of the Book: Bloody Animation of the Passion in a 15th Century Devotional Book

The body and blood of Christ are essential to Christian liturgy and passion devotion. In medieval devotional books, this came to the fore in an overtly material way. The skin of the pages, the red ink, the words, and the images constituted more than a symbolic representation of the body of Christ. The corpus of the book was experienced as the Corpus Christi, the living Savior. This is particularly evident in one specific manuscript from the British Library, BL MS Egerton 1821, in which the skin of several folios was covered with red ink almost as if the pages have seeped in the blood from Christ’s wounds. The article investigates the material, fluid, hyperreal, and mechanical strategies that animated the body of Christ in the hands of the owner, focusing in particular on blood and milk as the substances of life.

Bulgaristan’dan Geç Antik Mozaik Döşemelerinde Krismonlar ve Haçlar

The article examines the cases of placing of the Early Christian Christograms/Staurograms and crosses in diverse iconographies and different number on the Late Antique mosaic pavements from the ancient provinces of the present-day Bulgarian lands/ mostly in the Central and Eastern Balkans. The history and the criteria of the cross in Late Antiquity are traced in the Early Christian liturgy, decoration and art, the official and tacit regulations, laws and bans in that aspect, the exceptions and the reasons causing them.