The Homiliae Toletanae and the Theology of Lent and Easter
by N. Chase
This book takes seriously the need for a two-fold shift in methodology within the field of liturgical studies and serves as a model for future historical work. The first shift necessary in liturgical studies is a shift to sources other than the central liturgical texts, i.e. the Missal, breviary, lectionary, and books of rites. The second shift necessary in the field is a greater appreciation of the diversity of liturgical celebrations within the Church. In order to engage in such a study, this book analyzes a non-traditional liturgical source within a little-studied liturgical tradition. The source that provides the basis for this study is the Homiliae Toletanae (British Library, Add. 30853), a homiliary for Mass found in the Hispano-Mozarabic Rite. The Homiliae Toletanae dates to circa the seventh/eighth centuries and survives in one tenth/eleventh-century manuscript. It contains homilies for every major temporal and sanctoral feast in the calendar of Toledo. The Homiliae Toletanae is a valuable manuscript for reconstructing and understanding the liturgical practices of seventh/eighth-century Toledo. This study looks only at the Lenten homilies found within the Homiliae Toletanae in order to supplement what is already known about the Lenten practices of late Visigothic and early Mozarabic Spain. In reconstructing the practices of Lent in seventh/eighth-century Spain, this study explores the two major themes of Lent, penance and initiation, and their relationship to one another. It reflects on what some scholars consider a crisis in the thematic understanding of Lent in the seventh/eighth centuries. Coupled with this crisis is a shift from adult initiation to infant initiation in this period. This study argues that this crisis of meaning and the subsequent shift to a more penitential understanding of Lent was a direct result of the decline in adult initiation in this period. The dominant role that fasting and almsgiving played in the Lenten life of late Visigothic and early Mozarabic Spain is also analyzed. In order to conduct this study, this volume utilizes textual criticism as well as the comparative method in liturgical studies. The comparative method is based on the work of Anton Baumstark, the Mateos School, and Paul Bradshaw. This method is used to reconstruct liturgical practices based on the manuscript evidence. The first part of this book contextualizes the Homiliae Toletanae within the larger Hispano-Mozarabic and Christian tradition, and discusses its origin, dating, composition, and general content. The second part of this book is an in-depth look at the twenty-three homilies of Lent found within the Homiliae Toletanae. The goal of this volume is to show that liturgical traditions, like the Hispano-Mozarabic Rite, have a profound creativity and uniqueness. Their patrimony is rich, and they contain many liturgical insights, both historically and pastorally.
- By (author) N Chase
Other Titles in this Series
Should we Declare War on the Turks?
Petrus Nannius' "Declamatio de bello Turcis Inferendo" (Leuven: Rutger Rescius, 1536)
Volume 60
Hac Nocte in Aeternum Diem Renascentes Populi Procreantur
Christian Initiation and the Easter Vigil in the Missale Gothicum
Volume 58
Capita ascetica Serdicensia (An Early Byzantine Anthology of Christian Precepts)
A Critical Edition of the Greek Text with an Introduction and English Translation
Volume 59
La résistance d’Akindynos à Grégoire Palamas. Enquête historique, avec traduction et commentaire de quatre traités édités récemment. Volume I
Traduction des quatre traités de la «Réfutation du Dialogue entre un Orthodoxe et un Barlaamite» de Grégoire Palamas
Volume 50
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
