• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wyatt Graham

Faith | Books | Culture

  • About
  • Podcast
  • Column

A Brief Review of The Byzantine Rite by Robert Taft

July 16, 2018 by wagraham Leave a Comment

The Byzantine Rite: A Short HistoryThe Byzantine Rite: A Short History by Robert F. Taft
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have found nothing of its kind before. If you want to understand the Byzantine Rite, then read this book. Robert Taft provides a great, short summary of how eastern Christians have worshipped.

The two most memorable insights from Taft’s work are: (1) the explanation as to why the Hagia Sophia has so many doorways. Well, it’s for the procession. Processional worship was important during the early centuries for Byzantine worship. Later, once the Monastic spirituality eclipsed the cathedral liturgy, then this became less important.

(2) After the iconoclast controversy came to a rest, the Monastic movement gained political traction, wealth, and prestige. In short, they took over the spiritual and liturgical heart of Byzantine worship.

Worship lost its practical nature (the procession) and became more heavily symbolic. Preaching became formalized and lost its central place in worship. A great synthesis of the cathedral and monastic spirituality occurred. The latter swallowed up the former. Another example of the great changes the Eastern Orthodox church has experienced through its 2,000 years of existence.

Orthodoxy is at once a stable group of Christians from across the globe and yet one with such an internal contradiction. They claim that they have never changed. Yet they have changed and transformed frequently over the years whether in theology (think of the iconoclast council and the later iconodule council) or in worship (described above).

View all my reviews

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Eastern Orthodoxy

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Wyatt is the Executive Director of The Gospel Coalition Canada. He enjoys his family and writing. You'll generally find him hiding away somewhere with his nose in a book.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Want articles in your e-mail? Sign up here!

Could Adam not Have Sinned? Some Augustinian Considerations

April 30, 2022 By wagraham Leave a Comment

Build More Christian Institutions

March 31, 2022 By wagraham Leave a Comment

New and Old Complementarian Thinking: Returning to the Old Paths of Natural Law

March 26, 2022 By wagraham 2 Comments

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2022 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in