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 Encountering Each Other

Jane Idleman Smith

in Muslims, Christians, and the Challenge of Interfaith Dialogue

Three hypothetical dialogue encounters between Muslims and Christians introduce the reader to some of the issues that can arise in interfaith conversation. The first is a dialogue set up by a local ... More

Three hypothetical dialogue encounters between Muslims and Christians introduce the reader to some of the issues that can arise in interfaith conversation. The first is a dialogue set up by a local ecumenical council and involves Christians and Muslims from a range of backgrounds. The second is a conversation among African American Muslims and Christians, and the third involves Roman Catholic and Muslim women. In these three different kinds of dialogues the reader can begin to get some sense of the breadth of possibility for bringing Muslims and Christians in the contemporary United States together for better understanding and the possibility of serious friendships.Less

The Promotion of Christian Almsgiving

Richard Finn Op

in Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire: Christian Promotion and Practice 313-450

This chapter details the direct and indirect promotion of almsgiving in Christian discourse, especially in sermons where it featured regularly at times when it would be heard by a large number of the ... More

This chapter details the direct and indirect promotion of almsgiving in Christian discourse, especially in sermons where it featured regularly at times when it would be heard by a large number of the faithful. Preaching on almsgiving was more extensive in Lent, but also at times of shortage. In direct promotion or exhortation, all who could, and not only the rich, were encouraged to give alms. Almsgiving was promoted indirectly as it featured in the portrayal of holy men and women, both in sermons, but also in apocryphal texts and saints' lives, where it sometimes served as a marker of orthodoxy. Pagan almsgiving by contrast was not encouraged by sustained promotion.Less

Prohibitions and Impediments

David Cressy

in Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England

This chapter examines prohibitions and impediments to marriage in Tudor and Stuart England. Though marriage required readiness to marry at any convenient time, the early modern church maintained a ... More

This chapter examines prohibitions and impediments to marriage in Tudor and Stuart England. Though marriage required readiness to marry at any convenient time, the early modern church maintained a religious calendar prohibiting marriage during many holy seasons of the year. These include Lent, Rogationtide and Trinity in the late spring, and Advent before Christmas. Strict adherence to this matrimonial timetable required not only awareness of the seasonal prohibitions but also a knowledge of the correct information about which days in any given year they applied to.Less

Feria, fast, and feast: The rhythm of the liturgical year

Joan Greatrex

in The English Benedictine Cathedral Priories: Rule and Practice, c. 1270-1420

The chronological structure of the previous chapters is interrupted here in order to illustrate the structure of the liturgical year. The sequence of the liturgical seasons, with their observances ... More

The chronological structure of the previous chapters is interrupted here in order to illustrate the structure of the liturgical year. The sequence of the liturgical seasons, with their observances and celebrations, includes a brief survey of the few surviving manuscripts for mass and office, but is largely based on information provided by the accounts kept by obedientiaries, who recorded their receipts and expenditures connected with the celebration of feasts such as Christmas and Easter, and also fasts such as Lent. The chapter also deals with musical performance by monk organists and singers in company with others, and with the daily and weekly mass rotas for monk priests. Similarly, it discusses rotas for the periodic blood-letting followed by a relaxation of routine.Less

Crowds and Collective Affect in Romanos’s Biblical Retellings

Georgia Frank

in The Garb of Being: Embodiment and the Pursuit of Holiness in Late Ancient Christianity

This chapter examines the role of internal groupings within the biblical episodes retold in Romanos the Melodist’s (ca. 555) hymns (or, kontakia). Performed for liturgical festivals, these sung ... More

This chapter examines the role of internal groupings within the biblical episodes retold in Romanos the Melodist’s (ca. 555) hymns (or, kontakia). Performed for liturgical festivals, these sung sermons allowed congregations to sing along with various biblical groups, whether the three youths in the furnace, the magi, Herod’s army, the Ninevites, or Jesus’s disciples. Shaped by recent work on the collective voices in Greek tragedy, this essay considers how groups allowed congregations to share in the emotional world of the biblical characters, sing for those silenced by ignorance or cowardice, and sing to repent with sinners and repudiate villains.Less

Fasting and Food Habits in the Eastern Orthodox Church

Antonia-Leda Matalas, Eleni Tourlouki, and Chrystalleni Lazarou

in Food and Faith in Christian Culture

This chapter examines fasting and food habits in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Orthodox dietary rules require periodic vegetarianism through the avoidance of all animal food, with the exception of ... More

This chapter examines fasting and food habits in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Orthodox dietary rules require periodic vegetarianism through the avoidance of all animal food, with the exception of mollusks and crustaceans, which are permitted on many fasting days. Some plant-based foods, such as wine and vegetable oil, are also prohibited during some fasting periods. The Greek Orthodox religious calendar includes four extended fasting periods before each of the principal feasts: Lent (preceding Christmas—in the West called Advent), Great Lent (preceding Easter), Fasting of the Apostles (after Pentecost), and the two weeks preceding the feast of Assumption of the Theotokos on August 15. Fasting is prescribed for a total period of 150 to 180 days a year. The duration of fasting periods can range from seven weeks, in the case of the Great Lent, to a single day. In addition, meat is prohibited throughout the year on Wednesdays and Fridays.Less

Fat Thursday

James H. Johnson

in Venice Incognito: Masks in the Serene Republic

The climax of the Venetian carnival came not on the Tuesday but on the previous Thursday, giovedi grasso, nearly a week before Lent put an abrupt end to the long season of festivity. At its center ... More

The climax of the Venetian carnival came not on the Tuesday but on the previous Thursday, giovedi grasso, nearly a week before Lent put an abrupt end to the long season of festivity. At its center was a lavish spectacle that brought all ranks together in common celebration. The staged events, repeated every year after year, century after century, affirmed the Republic’s image and put the government’s own vision for the season front and center. The state-glorying pageant was high spirited, but it also employed pomp to keep hilarity firmly in check. Anything revelers might do after such a display was bound to be anticlimactic. This was exactly what the day’s planners intended. This chapter discusses the giovedi grasso which signaled the end of the Venetian carnival. It discusses the transformation of the Venetians to docility, gentleness, and reverence. On the advent of Lent, most Venetians found themselves caught-up in the festivities of carnival and masking and then gave up their masks to observe Lent. This religiousness, a sudden intrusion of piety, seemed almost comic to those who did not know Venice. Alongside families of the parish and honest workers in their street clothes, the visitor could see harlequins, demons, and men dressed as women. The contrast between the costumes and this final destination was great, however their impulse and intention was sincere. Venice showed that there were two things a person could not be: a gentleman and a Christian.Less

The Early Operas (II):: Demetrio e Polibio, L’equivoco stravagante, Ciro in Babilonia, La pietra del paragone

Richard Osborne

in Rossini: His Life and Works

Gioachino Rossini was 12 when he wrote six 12-string sonatas. At much the same time, he took the first step towards translating these precociously developed instrumental skills into his mother’s ... More

Gioachino Rossini was 12 when he wrote six 12-string sonatas. At much the same time, he took the first step towards translating these precociously developed instrumental skills into his mother’s world of stage play and song. They were piecemeal efforts, of course; as was Demetrio e Polibio, the opera he assembled at the request of the Mombelli family to a libretto by Vincenzina Vigano-Mombelli whilst still a student in Bologna. Technically it is his first opera, though it was not staged professionally until 1812. L’equivoco stravagante was Rossini’s second professional opera but his first in the longer two-act form. Ciro in Babilonia was Rossini’s first essay in the semisacred genre deployed to comply with regulations governing the use of theaters during Lent. Rossini’s first Milanese opera was La pietra del paragon, a melodrama giocoso by one of the Teatro alla Scala’s house librettists, Luigi Romanelli.Less

Quadragesima. Lent

Philip H. Pfatteicher

in Journey into the Heart of God: Living the Liturgical Year

Lent as we now have it seems to derive from four separate practices, both individual and communal;as it is now observed, preparation for baptism is a prominent feature. At the beginning of the sixth ... More

Lent as we now have it seems to derive from four separate practices, both individual and communal;as it is now observed, preparation for baptism is a prominent feature. At the beginning of the sixth century the preparation was gradually extended to create a pre-Lenten period before Ash Wednesday. In the present calendar, Ash Wednesday, now an abrupt interruption without a preparatory introduction, may be regarded as a beginning of the liturgical year; the ashes are a rich symbol of mortality, repentance, cleansing, and healing. A basic image of the season of Lent is the pilgrimage, following Abraham in his archetypal journey to the promised land, our true home. The First Sunday, focusing of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, serves as an overture to the Paschal mystery: obedient discipline leading to victory and anticipating glorification;the Fourth Sunday, mid-Lent, offers a brief respite on the way;the Fifth Sunday still bears traces of the former two-week Passiontide. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the Eastern Church’s observance of Lazarus Saturday as a prefiguring of the resurrection of Christ and consequently of his people.Less

Patriarchal Proclamations: Encylicals for Easter, Christmas, and Great Lent

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

in Speaking the Truth in Love: Theological and Spiritual Exhortations of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

This chapter presents the Patriarch's Easter, Christmas, and Lent encyclicals.

Syrian Christian Calendar Rituals

Susan Visvanathan

in The Christians of Kerala: History, Belief and Ritual Among the Yakoba

This chapter discusses the calendrical rituals of the Syrian Christians, covering ritual feasts and fasts, Lent, and prayer. These rituals regulate the time perception of Syrian Christians in ways ... More

This chapter discusses the calendrical rituals of the Syrian Christians, covering ritual feasts and fasts, Lent, and prayer. These rituals regulate the time perception of Syrian Christians in ways which are different from the Hindu calendar, even while the latter is used by the community for various practical purposes such as the building of houses or the making of horoscopes. The sacred calendar of the Syrian Christians commemorates the origin of a new worldview, a mytho-historical event that is elaborated with every ritual celebration.Less

Remembering Africa Comparsas and Candombe, 1870–1950

George Reid Andrews

in Blackness in the White Nation: A History of Afro-Uruguay

The Carnival is an annual tradition that precedes Lent when citizens don their costumes and join everyone in the streets to celebrate the annual overturning and remaking of daily life. This chapter ... More

The Carnival is an annual tradition that precedes Lent when citizens don their costumes and join everyone in the streets to celebrate the annual overturning and remaking of daily life. This chapter focuses on the modernization of the Carnival and the incorporation of African-based music, song, and dance in the Uruguayan Carnival. It describes the black and white comparsas, groups that parade through the streets during the Carnival. The Raza Africana (African Race), Pobres Negros Orientales (Poor Uruguayan Blacks), and the Negros Argentinos comprise the black comparsas. The white comparsas are Carnival groups that dye themselves black. These blackface groups include the Negros Lubolos and the Negros Esclavos.Less

The Ideology of Fasting in the Reformation Era

Ken Albala

in Food and Faith in Christian Culture

This chapter studies the practice of fasting. Despite the efforts of the early Christians to distance themselves from the legalism of Levitical food prohibitions, the Church had managed to invent its ... More

This chapter studies the practice of fasting. Despite the efforts of the early Christians to distance themselves from the legalism of Levitical food prohibitions, the Church had managed to invent its own intricate food rules, the most important of which was the compulsory fast during Lent. Fasting was always to be accompanied by prayer, and was construed essentially as an act of contrition, to facilitate forgiveness of sins and earn salvation. Meat, which is conceptually corrupting because it is inherently pleasurable, nutritious, and invigorating, and is linked directly to the libido, is excised from the diet as a form of self-punishment. The fast is also a proactive curb to the cardinal sin of gluttony, the first of the seven deadly sins. In sum, eating in a particular way and avoiding certain foods during specific times of the year is considered a devout act of piety.Less

‘Salute!’ (Cheers!) Drinking to Your Health

Sandra Cavallo and Tessa Storey

in Healthy Living in Late Renaissance Italy

Regulating one's diet had traditionally lain at the heart of healthy living advice, but is a less dominant element by the late Renaissance. The chapter summarizes the principles of food advice, ... More

Regulating one's diet had traditionally lain at the heart of healthy living advice, but is a less dominant element by the late Renaissance. The chapter summarizes the principles of food advice, already the subject of extensive scholarship, before exploring lay perceptions of healthy eating and the tensions surrounding Lenten diets. The second half of the chapter is an analysis of drinking, focusing on the lively printed medical debate around the safety of drinking artificially chilled or heated drinks, and explores issues of circulation, readership, and the relationship between author-physicians and their publics. New drinking practices and health concerns contributed to the material culture of drink, affecting the production of wine coolers and heaters, the shape of glasses and possibly of lids. The chapter charts a medical profession under pressure from fashion and social change, and reveals how lay concerns about eating and drinking tended to mirror those articulated by physicians.Less

The Secret Gospel and the Alexandrian Lectionaries

Peter Jeffery

in The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled: Imagined Rituals of Sex, Death, and Madness in a Biblical Forgery

This chapter addresses the claim that the Secret Gospel was initially read in secret initiation ceremonies in the Alexandrian church. It disproves the former belief that Lent in Egypt started at ... More

This chapter addresses the claim that the Secret Gospel was initially read in secret initiation ceremonies in the Alexandrian church. It disproves the former belief that Lent in Egypt started at Epiphany, with the Secret Gospel taking precedence, when it is John's gospel that was more relevant than Mark's gospel. This chapter emphasizes the fact that the Nicodemus' conversation with Jesus in John 3 was the most general text for Lenten baptismal theology, rather than the raising of Lazarus.Less