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Mark Roosien
Lecturer in Liturgical Studies at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School. My research focuses on late antique and Eastern Christian liturgy with a special interest in its connection to ecology. I am also interested in modern Orthodox thought, especially the works of the 20th c. Russian emigres
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Description: The debate around the controversial doctrine of the Eucharist as sacrifice has marred relations between Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches since the Reformation. In The Eucharistic Sacrifice, the famous Russian theologian Sergius Bulgakov cuts through long-standing polemics surrounding the notion of the Eucharist as sacrifice and offers a stunningly original intervention rooted in his distinctive theological vision. This work, written in 1940, belongs to Bulgakov’s late period and is his last and most discerning word on eucharistic theology. His primary thesis is that the Eucharist is an extension of the sacrificial, self-giving love of God in the Trinity, or what he famously calls kenosis. Throughout the book, Bulgakov points to the fact that, although the eucharistic sacrifice at the Last Supper took place in time before the actual crucifixion of Christ, both events are part of a single act that occurs outside of time, in eternity.
This is Bulgakov’s concluding volume of three works on the Eucharist. The other two, The Eucharistic Dogma and The Holy Grail, were translated and published together in 1997. This third volume was only published in the original Russian version in 2005, and has remained unavailable in English until now. The introduction provides a brief history of Bulgakov’s theological career, his theology of the Eucharist, and a description of the structure of The Eucharistic Sacrifice. This clear and accessible translation will appeal to scholars and students of theology, ecumenism, and Russian religious thought.
Constantinople ca. 400-600 CE. Earthquake commemorations were some of the earliest rites created locally for the city’s liturgy. This thesis argues that analysis of this rite, its origins, and its contested reception history illuminates the theological, environmental, and political concerns that shaped the early liturgy of Constantinople. The thesis begins with a reconstruction of the original ritual pattern and theology of the commemoration rite and its evolution. It was comprised of readings, hymns, and a long procession that mimicked the evacuation route taken during earthquakes. Over the course of its performance, which lasted from evening until the afternoon on the next day, the rite depicted earthquakes as manifestations of divine wrath against the people for their unfaithfulness, for which collective repentance is prescribed as an effective response. Next, the thesis locates the origins of the liturgical rite in a ritual repertoire of prayer and supplication that emerged from spontaneous, popular responses to earthquakes in Constantinople. Prior to the practice of commemorating earthquakes liturgically, the late-fourth and early-fifth century preachers Severian of Gabala and John Chrysostom
drew from this ritual repertoire to make theological sense of Constantinopolitan earthquakes. They framed earthquakes as divine manifestations and placed Constantinople at the center of a narrative of God’s providential guidance of history. The thesis then analyzes the five earthquakes commemorated between 438 and 557. With its call for mass repentance in the face of God’s wrath, the commemoration rite challenged
Constantinople’s ambitions as the new capital of the Roman Empire. Those dedicated to augmenting Constantinople’s political and ecclesiastical power disputed the theology of earthquakes as signs of divine wrath, and reframed local earthquakes as signs of divine blessing upon the city and its ambitions. Analysis of the liturgical commemoration of earthquakes illuminates hitherto unexplored tensions between Christianity and classical Roman ideology at play in the formation of the liturgy of Constantinople. By showing how the liturgy connected environmental, theological, and political concerns, this dissertation pursues new avenues for exploring the role played by the natural environment in the shaping of Christian ritual and liturgy.
Description: The debate around the controversial doctrine of the Eucharist as sacrifice has marred relations between Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches since the Reformation. In The Eucharistic Sacrifice, the famous Russian theologian Sergius Bulgakov cuts through long-standing polemics surrounding the notion of the Eucharist as sacrifice and offers a stunningly original intervention rooted in his distinctive theological vision. This work, written in 1940, belongs to Bulgakov’s late period and is his last and most discerning word on eucharistic theology. His primary thesis is that the Eucharist is an extension of the sacrificial, self-giving love of God in the Trinity, or what he famously calls kenosis. Throughout the book, Bulgakov points to the fact that, although the eucharistic sacrifice at the Last Supper took place in time before the actual crucifixion of Christ, both events are part of a single act that occurs outside of time, in eternity.
This is Bulgakov’s concluding volume of three works on the Eucharist. The other two, The Eucharistic Dogma and The Holy Grail, were translated and published together in 1997. This third volume was only published in the original Russian version in 2005, and has remained unavailable in English until now. The introduction provides a brief history of Bulgakov’s theological career, his theology of the Eucharist, and a description of the structure of The Eucharistic Sacrifice. This clear and accessible translation will appeal to scholars and students of theology, ecumenism, and Russian religious thought.
Constantinople ca. 400-600 CE. Earthquake commemorations were some of the earliest rites created locally for the city’s liturgy. This thesis argues that analysis of this rite, its origins, and its contested reception history illuminates the theological, environmental, and political concerns that shaped the early liturgy of Constantinople. The thesis begins with a reconstruction of the original ritual pattern and theology of the commemoration rite and its evolution. It was comprised of readings, hymns, and a long procession that mimicked the evacuation route taken during earthquakes. Over the course of its performance, which lasted from evening until the afternoon on the next day, the rite depicted earthquakes as manifestations of divine wrath against the people for their unfaithfulness, for which collective repentance is prescribed as an effective response. Next, the thesis locates the origins of the liturgical rite in a ritual repertoire of prayer and supplication that emerged from spontaneous, popular responses to earthquakes in Constantinople. Prior to the practice of commemorating earthquakes liturgically, the late-fourth and early-fifth century preachers Severian of Gabala and John Chrysostom
drew from this ritual repertoire to make theological sense of Constantinopolitan earthquakes. They framed earthquakes as divine manifestations and placed Constantinople at the center of a narrative of God’s providential guidance of history. The thesis then analyzes the five earthquakes commemorated between 438 and 557. With its call for mass repentance in the face of God’s wrath, the commemoration rite challenged
Constantinople’s ambitions as the new capital of the Roman Empire. Those dedicated to augmenting Constantinople’s political and ecclesiastical power disputed the theology of earthquakes as signs of divine wrath, and reframed local earthquakes as signs of divine blessing upon the city and its ambitions. Analysis of the liturgical commemoration of earthquakes illuminates hitherto unexplored tensions between Christianity and classical Roman ideology at play in the formation of the liturgy of Constantinople. By showing how the liturgy connected environmental, theological, and political concerns, this dissertation pursues new avenues for exploring the role played by the natural environment in the shaping of Christian ritual and liturgy.