By the Rev. Dr. Philip Zymaris
Since the theme of this issue of PRAXIS is the application of theology in real life, I have decided to write on this subject from the point of view of liturgics, the study of liturgy. Our Orthodox liturgy, our communal worship services and especially the Divine Liturgy, the Eucharist, are the best reflection of this “lived theology.” At first sight this statement might seem surprising, because most people seem to perceive going to church on Sunday as a mere Christian “duty” and not as real “theology.” As it turns out, however, nothing could be further from the truth. This popular conception that divorces theology from what we do in church has emerged relatively recently due to theological developments in western Christianity that have little to do with our own Orthodox teachings, history and traditions. Unfortunately we have been so deeply influenced by these developments that this mentality has taken root even in Orthodox circles today. In the lines that follow, I will try to trace and explain this fundamental connection between liturgy and theology by way of a few examples taken from the way we worship and especially the way we celebrate our sacraments.
Going back to the era of early Christianity, it becomes evident that the Church of Christ in both the East and the West, that is to say, in the one, undivided “holy, catholic and apostolic Church” (to quote the Creed that we repeat at each liturgy), did not distinguish between theology and liturgy as we tend to do today. In other words, theology in the early Church was not conceived of as a discipline or an abstract exercise for special people with specific training. Rather, theology in the sense of liturgical participation was the prerogative of every baptized Christian. This is clear even in the etymology of the word “theology.” The Greek word for “theology” is composed of theos (God) and logos (word), and therefore may be translated as “words appropriate to God,” i.e., communication and relationship with God, which means prayer and especially the prayer of the assembly, the synaxis, as identified with the Eucharist celebrated by baptized Christians, i.e., the communal worship experience of the faithful “in one place” mentioned by St. Paul.
Interestingly enough, the earliest theological definition of the Church verifies this. St. Nicholas Cabasilas in the fourteenth century wrote that the “Church is made known in the sacraments” (the mysteries). We know that all sacraments were actually celebrated in the context of the
Eucharist, and therefore the eucharistic gathering was considered to be the “sacrament of sacraments:’ that which “constituted the Church” theologically. Indeed, regarding the Eucharist, Cabasilas wrote: “it is not possible to go beyond it or add anything to it …for in it we obtain God Himself and God is united with us in the most perfect union.” The fact that these definitions of Cabasilas come to us at such a late date is witness to the fact that no such theological definition was required for the early Christians precisely because they knew through the common worship experience what Church-ecclesia-really meant.
This notion of worship as “lived out” theology that was so natural to the early Christians is preserved to this day in the very structure of our services and even in the particular way our church buildings are set up and decorated. Anyone who has conducted church tours during their parish festival knows how people of other faiths are always struck by the mere experience of entering into an Orthodox church building. Our place of worship is indeed a “feast for the senses;’ and there is a clear theological reason for this. All five senses and our whole psychosomatic being, not only the mind, somehow participate in worship, and this is how real theology-the true experience of God-is communicated to us in our worship. We see and touch icons and rich, colorful church furniture; we smell incense and hear chanting; we taste communion. Through the sermon we receive spiritual food for mind and soul, and at Holy Communion we are offered physical-spiritual food for our body, mind and soul. This way of worshipping actually is a lived out expression of a basic Christian theological teaching, the uniquely Christian dogma of the incarnation, i.e., the fact that Christ took on a human body just like ours and thus blessed our body, our senses and all matter. ”And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and therefore all of these participate in worship.
Rev. Dr. Philip Zymaris is Assistant Professor of Liturgics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He earned an MDiv from Holy Cross in 1991 and a ThD from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2000. Fr. Philip is Presbyter at Assumption Church in Pawtucket, RI.
Praxis, “Theology Matters,” Vol. 12, Issue 1, Fall 2012
