The 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).
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