medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:52:50 -0400, Frank Morgret wrote:
>George, the earliest references to liturgy of which I am aware are 1
>Corinthians 10:16 and 11:20-22 and 33-34. Assuming Pauline authorship,
>another contentious issue, the date of these citations would be sometime
>in the 50s AD. You will not learn a great deal from them save that the
>Corinthian Christians had what best might be called a proto-liturgy with
>aspects Paul found objectionable. If we assume 1 Corinthians is a
>genuine Pauline letter from the first century -- again a source of vast
>scholarly food fights -- then we can date the beginnings of a liturgical
>setting for the mass, in the sense that there was a set order in which
>the various actions took place, to the mid first century or earlier (and
>doubtless face acres [or hectares] of opponents).
Right - I'm familiar with the issues there. I seem to recall some discussion regarding Didache's description of the Eucharistic liturgy in ch 9 and 10 possibly
predating that of I Cor. Neither indicate anything about orientation or facing a specific direction. Most of the commentary I've read on I Cor's admonitions
suggest that people were eating in multiple rooms with the wealthy arriving early, etc. Much literature on all aspects of these passages for sure.
Since the Eucharist has its origins in the Jewish sacred meal (more than the Seder of Pesach) it stands to reason that elements of that ritual would be
evident in the early Christian liturgy - which is strongly suggested by Didache's affinity for birkat prayers. . . but again, I'm not familiar enough with the
rabbinical literature of the first cento to know if those meals were taken facing a specific direction. I've heard arguements that they were, although the
person making the arguement could not provide any sources to justify that assertation.
Thanks
George the Less
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|