Problems in Early History of Liturgy
2004 New York, New York
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2004
L. Edward Phillips (associate professor of historical theology and liturgical studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois)
Seminar Participants 2004
Seminar members: John Baldovin, Paul Bradshaw, Jill Burnett Comings, Richard Fabian, Thomas Fisch, Daniel Findikyan, Lawrence Hoffman, Peter Jeffery, Maxwell Johnson, Ruth Langer, Lizette Larson-Miller, Jorge Perales, Edward Phillips, Walter Ray, Roy Reed, Dominic Serra, Gerard Sloyan, Bryan Spinks, Geoffrey Wainwright
Visitors: Brooks Gennifer, Harald Buckinger, Glaus-Jügen Ferdner, Robin Jensen, Clemens Leonard, Mark Morozowich, Emmanual Cutrone, Mark Schuler
Seminar Report 2004
On Sunday of our meeting, the seminar discussed seven papers on a variety of topics related to early Christian liturgy. The entire seminar meeting on Monday was dedicated to issues of early Jewish liturgical history.
Harald Buckinger, “Towards the origins of Paschal baptism. The contribution of Origen”
Bearing in mind the recent development of a new sensitivity to the origins of Paschal baptism, this paper gathered together pieces of relevant evidence in the writings of Origen. For Origen, baptism is the key to the exposition of the Passover law; in his commentary on Exod 12:1f, he refers to the “washing of regeneration” (Tt 3:5) and to the baptismal apotaxis. Later on, the Paschal application of blood (Exod 12:7) is interpreted as symbolic of (post-baptismal?) anointing, followed by the partaking in Christ, which is most likely to be understood as Eucharist. Further allusions relate to the process of the catechumenate. Although Origen establishes several clear links between Passover and baptism and thus guides us towards the origins of Paschal baptism in the strict sense of the expression, he does not seem to have been familiar with the celebration of baptism at Easter. In this case, the ritual development is obviously posterior to theological speculation.
Clemens Leonard, “Why is this Night Different From the Rest of the Holy Week?
The paper explains the hiatus between the historicizing character of Holy Week and the contents of the Easter vigil that envisages a broad scheme of salvation history rather than the narrative of Christ’s passion. It argues that the sequence of readings of the Easter vigil emerged not before the fourth century when the contents of the older Paschal vigil were spread over Holy Week leaving the liturgical time of the vigil open for the incorporation of different commemorations drawn from the whole of salvation history.
Maxwell Johnson
Maxwell Johnson gave a short presentation on recent liturgiological research into the origins and use of the Sanctus in the Eucharistic prayer. Johnson offered a summary of Gabriele Winkler’s Das Sanctus. Über den Ursprung und die Anfänge des Sanctus und sein Fortwirken (OCA 267, Rome, 2002), in which, among other significant elements, Winkler pays special attention to the often neglected Ethiopian liturgical sources, in particular to the divided Sanctus and Benedictus within the Ethiopian Anaphora of the Apostles in relationship to the Qedusha appearing in chapter 39 of Ethiopian Enoch in the Pseudepigrapha.
Paul Bradshaw
Paul Bradshaw presented one chapter from his forthcoming book, Eucharistic Origins, which traced the evolution of eucharistic theology in the second century.
Edward Phillips
Edward Phillips gave a brief report on his work (with George Kalantzis) on the Epitome of Apostolic Constitutions VIII, which will provide the first translation of this text into English.
Peter Jeffery
Peter Jeffery gave a presentation of his new translation with commentary of Ordo Romanus Primus, which describes the Papal Mass in early Medieval Rome, and led a discussion of various technical terms, especially those related to objects, such as the “folding chair” used by the Pope.
John Baldovin, “The Fermentum at Rome in the Fifth Century: A Reconsideration”
Baldovin discussed the various theories about the implementation of this practice in the Roman tituli, especially with regard to the structure of the eucharistic liturgy in these churches and distinct, but connected to the Papal Mass. Who communicated from the fermentum? Did the presbyters preside at separate Masses to which the fermentum was added? Or, did the fermentum consecrate through contact, with the liturgy of the tituli, being a “communion service” without a eucharistic liturgy, per se?
Ruth Langer
The whole of the seminar meeting on Monday was led by Ruth Langer, who gave a presentation on what students of early liturgical history need to know about recent historical scholarship on the origins and development of Rabbinic Jewish liturgy. This presentation was especially aimed to help students of Christian liturgical history understand some of the basic terminology and foundational issues.