Saturated Phenomenon: Orthodoxy interprets and re-presents the Revelation of the life of Christ, the event of Salvation and the means of Theosis. What we learn at the school of the Divine Liturgy is not only orthodox theology of the early ecumenical councils, but Christ himself as an event. As one professor has pointed out concerning the Creed, the orthodox position holds open the rational tension and refuses to dissolve the formula in favor of either the human or the divine.
Theology, whether Scripture, Liturgy or teaching, bears the weight of the incarnation. In order to stay true to the incarnation, however, theology must retain an open space in which God may speak mystery. Again, this is not a vague feeling of mystery or a platonic ecstasy of contemplating the forms. Instead, orthodox theology speaks mystery to mystery, speaks Christ to Christ (cosmic speaks to corporate) so that what we do and that to which we are drawn in the Divine Liturgy is nothing alien.
As members of Christ the Liturgy gives us a place to be more fully Christian and thus to be drawn up into the heavenly realm, or maybe to find it has come down to us and saturated our world. Since the Creed maintains the tension between human and divine which is the heart not only of orthodox theology about the incarnation, but is the essence of the incarnation itself.
Constantly referring to the Trinity is not only a matter of re-enforcing orthodoxy and rooting out heresy. By invoking the thrice-holy name, the church draws the mind to contemplate the ineffable mystery. The mystery invoked by words leaves open a space for communion beyond words. God is not limited by his names or by our doctrines, no matter how orthodox.
Yet, the orthodox symbols of faith are just as sacramental as the dynamic and endlessly-interpretable Scriptures, or the icons of human and angelic faces that draw us into relation with transcendent personages who engage us beyond image toward likeness, or the architecture and design of the worship space which is microcosm of whole cosmos.
By approaching these symbols our minds are eventually overloaded as meaning overlaps meaning and memory hyperlinks with anamnesis and chronos overflows into kairos. The mind cannot take it all in, and so must surrender on some level and allow itself to be transported.
Only orthodoxy can achieve this; every heresy shuts out mystery, the more esoteric it seems at first the more humdrum it turns out to be in practice, familiar as sin. Orthodoxy is a sacrament of Christ, who precisely in his ordinary humanity hands us over to the divine and thus reveals us to ourselves in God.
When western commentators explain our liturgical symbols they do them harm unless their words are more than description and become poetry. Yet, even poetic commentary would miss the point of the liturgy, because what matters perhaps is not our rational or even aesthetic appreciation of symbols, but the action of God through the symbols on us and our actions toward God through the symbols.
Just as the early Church could distinguish canonical scripture based largely on its traditional usage in liturgy, so too orthodox liturgy is distinguished by its ability to bring the worshippers into every aspect of Christ’s life.
Christ is in the community, and the liturgy, like scripture, is there to help reveal that living presence. Christ did not lecture the apostles, but he loved them; and in the liturgy what matters is the presence of Christ and he will do the rest.
Theology, whether Scripture, Liturgy or teaching, bears the weight of the incarnation. In order to stay true to the incarnation, however, theology must retain an open space in which God may speak mystery. Again, this is not a vague feeling of mystery or a platonic ecstasy of contemplating the forms. Instead, orthodox theology speaks mystery to mystery, speaks Christ to Christ (cosmic speaks to corporate) so that what we do and that to which we are drawn in the Divine Liturgy is nothing alien.
As members of Christ the Liturgy gives us a place to be more fully Christian and thus to be drawn up into the heavenly realm, or maybe to find it has come down to us and saturated our world. Since the Creed maintains the tension between human and divine which is the heart not only of orthodox theology about the incarnation, but is the essence of the incarnation itself.
Constantly referring to the Trinity is not only a matter of re-enforcing orthodoxy and rooting out heresy. By invoking the thrice-holy name, the church draws the mind to contemplate the ineffable mystery. The mystery invoked by words leaves open a space for communion beyond words. God is not limited by his names or by our doctrines, no matter how orthodox.
Yet, the orthodox symbols of faith are just as sacramental as the dynamic and endlessly-interpretable Scriptures, or the icons of human and angelic faces that draw us into relation with transcendent personages who engage us beyond image toward likeness, or the architecture and design of the worship space which is microcosm of whole cosmos.
By approaching these symbols our minds are eventually overloaded as meaning overlaps meaning and memory hyperlinks with anamnesis and chronos overflows into kairos. The mind cannot take it all in, and so must surrender on some level and allow itself to be transported.
Only orthodoxy can achieve this; every heresy shuts out mystery, the more esoteric it seems at first the more humdrum it turns out to be in practice, familiar as sin. Orthodoxy is a sacrament of Christ, who precisely in his ordinary humanity hands us over to the divine and thus reveals us to ourselves in God.
When western commentators explain our liturgical symbols they do them harm unless their words are more than description and become poetry. Yet, even poetic commentary would miss the point of the liturgy, because what matters perhaps is not our rational or even aesthetic appreciation of symbols, but the action of God through the symbols on us and our actions toward God through the symbols.
Just as the early Church could distinguish canonical scripture based largely on its traditional usage in liturgy, so too orthodox liturgy is distinguished by its ability to bring the worshippers into every aspect of Christ’s life.
Christ is in the community, and the liturgy, like scripture, is there to help reveal that living presence. Christ did not lecture the apostles, but he loved them; and in the liturgy what matters is the presence of Christ and he will do the rest.
