Hymnography as Theology

The opening section: the Orthodox conviction that liturgical poetry is not decoration upon the faith but a mode of the faith itself — dogma sung — and that hymnography occupies a genuine, if subordinate, place within Holy Tradition.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Byzantine hymnography)

Overview

Before treating any single hymn or poet, this section establishes the claim that governs the whole collection: that in the Orthodox Church theology is not only written and reasoned but sung, and that the hymns of the services carry, teach, and guard the dogma of the Church as surely as the conciliar definitions they so often versify. The first file develops the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi — the rule of prayer as the rule of belief — as it applies specifically to hymnography, showing how the councils’ Christology and Mariology pass into the troparia and canons and are thereby made the daily possession of the praying Church. The second file locates hymnography within Holy Tradition: how a body of poetry, composed by named saints and anonymous monks and received by the Church into her books, comes to bear real doctrinal authority, and what the limits of that authority are.

Files

File Description
hymnography-as-dogma-sung.md Lex orandi, lex credendi; the councils sung; hymnography as the Church’s catechism in verse
hymnography-within-holy-tradition.md How hymns are received into the books and bear doctrinal authority; the place of hymnography within Tradition and its limits

See Also