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Views from the Choir Loft

Liturgy outside Liturgy

Fr. David Friel · March 25, 2018

UST RELEASED this month, a new book by Professor David W. Fagerberg presents a fascinating study of the liturgical theology of Alexander Schmemann. The new volume explores the interconnectivity of liturgy, theology, and piety in a collection of five very accessible lectures.

Schmemann (1921-1983) was a distinguished theologian and protopresbyter of the Orthodox Church. He served as the long-time dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, NY. His immensely popular book, For the Life of the World (1973), is particularly memorable for his reflection on man as homo adorans: “‘Homo sapiens,’ ‘homo faber’ . . . yes, but first of all, ‘homo adorans.’ The first and basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands at the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God.” 1

Schmemann’s life and writings have been a major scholarly interest for Fagerberg, who is himself a liturgical theologian, lover of Chesterton, and professor at the University of Notre Dame. Among Fagerberg’s other significant books are Theologia Prima (2003), On Liturgical Asceticism (2013), and Consecrating the World: On Mundane Liturgical Theology (2016).

The new book is entitled Liturgy outside Liturgy: The Liturgical Theology of Fr. Alexander Schmemann. It is available on Amazon and elsewhere, both in paperback and electronic format.

Fagerberg explains in his introduction that this new book is a collection of five lectures given in January 2017. Three were given during the course of a seminar on Schmemann at The Academy of St. John in Sweden, while the other two were presented to a doctoral seminar and a group of lay faithful. The texts have not been altered from their format as oral presentations.

The first three lectures draw heavily upon texts written by Schmemann, while the latter two lectures present Fagerberg’s own thought drawn from Schmemann’s work and ideas.

A look at the table of contents will help to demonstrate the timeliness and interest of this book:

Foreword (Chad Hatfield, President of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary)

Introduction

Part I: A Sketch of Alexander Schmemann’s Though on Liturgy, Theology, and Piety

Chapter 1: Should Liturgy Matter Outside the Church? Schmemann on the Study of Liturgy
Liturgy and the World
Defining Antinomy
The Kingdom and the World Meet in Liturgy
The Liturgical Mission to the World

Chapter 2: Can Theology be Done outside the Academy? Schmemann’s Concept of Theology
The East Path Not Taken
The Harder Path We Will Take
Liturgy as Ontological Condition for Theology
A Conversion Required

Chapter 3: Do We Need Liturgy in Our Life? Schmemann’s Connection between Liturgy and Spirituality
What Liturgical Piety is Not
What Liturgical Piety Is
Baptismal Foundations
Cosmic Priesthood
Conclusion

Part II

Chapter 4: Liturgy and the Consecration of the World
Liturgy and Cosmos
Liturgy and Anthropology
Liturgy and Hearts
Liturgy and History
Conclusion

Chapter 5: On Liturgy, Theology, and Asceticism
A Theological Definition of Liturgy
A Liturgical Definition of Theology
A Liturgical Theology of the World

For those not familiar with the writings of Alexander Schmemann, this new volume might well serve as an introduction. For those who are already familiar with Schmemann, Fagerberg’s work will help to raise new questions and synthesize thoughts from across Schmemann’s corpus.




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), 14-15.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Alexander Schmemann Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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