Hymns, Homilies & Hermeneutics
Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics in Byzantium , ed. Sarah Gador-Whyte and Andrew Mellas (Leiden: Brill, 2020). The collection of papers in Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics explores the literature of Byzantine liturgical communities and provides a window into lived Christianity in this period. The papers reflect a growing interest in the social aspects of the liturgy, begun by pioneering scholars like Mary Cunningham, Pauline Allen, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, and Wendy Mayer. The research questions addressed within are vital for understanding the impacts of the liturgy on the lives and religious understandings of ordinary people, as well as the theologians and clerics of the Byzantine church. Many of the papers in this book identify hymns and homilies as a means of moral formation in Byzantium. These liturgical texts are a way of shaping listeners’ responses to scripture and encouraging introspection and repentance. In John Chrysostom’s sermons, there is an intriguing connection betwee...