Praying and Believing in Early Christianity: The Interplay between Christian Worship and Doctrine

166 Pages·2013·0.93 MB·English

by  Maxwell E. Johnson

All content available from the Liturgical Press website is protected by copyright
and is owned or controlled by Liturgical Press.
You may print or download to a local hard disk the e-book content for your
personal and non-commercial use only equal to the number of copies purchased.
Each reproduction must include the title and full copyright notice as it appears
in the content.
UNAUTHORIZED COPYING, REPRODUCTION, REPUBLISHING, UPLOAD-
ING, DOWNLOADING, DISTRIBUTION, POSTING, TRANSMITTING OR
DUPLICATING ANY OF THE MATERIAL IS PROHIBITED.
ISBN: 978-0-8146-8284-5

Maxwell E. Johnson
Praying and Believing
in Early Christianity
The Interplay between Christian Worship
and Doctrine
A Michael Glazier Book
LITURGICAL PRESS
Collegeville, Minnesota
www.litpress.org
A Michael Glazier Book published by Liturgical Press
Cover design by Jodi Hendrickson. Cover image: Eucharist—Sacrificial Banquet
Icon by Monsignor Anthony A. La Femina, STL, JCD. Used by permission.
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible
© 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
© 2013 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, micro-
fiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means,
known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews,
without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey,
PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States
of America.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Maxwell E., 1952–
Praying and believing in early Christianity : the interplay between
Christian worship and doctrine / Maxwell E. Johnson.
pages cm
“A Michael Glazier book.”
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8146-8259-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8146-8284-5
(e-book)
1. Worship—History—Early church, ca. 30–600. 2. Church history—
Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600. I. Title.
BV6.J645 2013
270.1—dc23 2013007002
In Memoriam
R. Kevin Seasoltz, OSB (+ 2013)
Teacher, Colleague, and Friend
Contents
List of Abbreviations viii
Introduction ix
Chapter 1: Liturgical Praying and the Priority of Grace 1
Chapter 2: Doxology and Trinity 24
Chapter 3: Christ and Mary 68
Chapter 4: Worship and Praxis 95
Chapter 5: Conclusion: Praying and Believing Together 128
Index 144
vii
Abbreviations
ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers
BCE Before the Common Era
CE Common Era
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller
LCC Library of Christian Classics
LEW F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, vol. 1:
Eastern Liturgies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896.
NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
PEER Prayers of the Eucharist: Early and Reformed, edited by
R. C. D. Jasper and G. J. Cumming. 3rd rev. ed.
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1987.
PG Patrologia Graeca
PL Patrologia Latina
SC Sources chrétiennes
viii
Introduction
I remember hearing part of a conversation between two of my semi-
nary professors—one, a professor of New Testament at the Lutheran
seminary where I was enrolled, and the other, a professor of liturgy
at the neighboring Roman Catholic seminary, where in the spring
semester of 1975 I was taking my first serious course in liturgical
history—over the proper place of liturgy in the seminary curriculum.
For the Lutheran professor, the place of liturgy was to be included
naturally in the “Practical Area” of seminary education along with
parish administration, homiletics, parish education, and pastoral care
and counseling, since, in his opinion, the study of liturgy had more to
do with the practicalities of presiding at worship than with theology
and/or history. For the Roman Catholic faculty member, however,
liturgy naturally was to be included in the “History and Theology
Area” of the curriculum both because liturgy constituted an aca-
demic discipline in its own right and because he saw liturgy having
a historic and foundational relationship to theology and doctrine in
general. To my knowledge, this discussion never reached a resolu-
tion with courses in liturgy at the Lutheran seminary remaining in
the “Practical Area” and those at the Roman Catholic seminary in the
“History and Theology Area,” although courses in presiding at the
rites themselves were taught there within the practical area as well.
This discussion has implications for the question of liturgical the-
ology today along the lines of the classic relationship between liturgy
and doctrine, often summarized by the abbreviated Latin phrase of
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390–c. 455): “Lex orandi, lex credendi,” i.e.,
the “law of praying (is, constitutes, or establishes) the law of believ-
ing.” For the Lutheran faculty member referred to above, although
these words would not have been used, the lex credendi (especially
Lutheran confessional and sacramental theology) was to be learned
independently of the church’s liturgy and then, perhaps, applied to
what one did in liturgy. Hence, to put words in this professor’s mouth,
the relationship was that the lex credendi always established the lex
orandi and, of course, the lex credendi was always, therefore, primary.
ix