Chapter Nine:  The Language of Faith: Symbolism and the Arts

I.  Introduction

A.      Diocletian and Constantine’s efforts to restructure the Empire

1.      division into western and eastern halves; coemperors

2.      Edict of Milan (313)

3.      removal of seat of power from Rome to Byzantium (330 C.E.); renamed city Constantinople -now Istanbul

4.      crossroads of Eurpe and Asia

5.      prosperity flourished until mid-1400s

B.      Orthodox Christianity

1.      Slavic regions of Eastern Europe; Greece; Syria

2.      flowering of art, architecture, music, as w/Buddhism

II.               The Christian Identity

A.      a Small, Dynamic Faith becomes a full-fledged religion

1.      ministering agent:  the Roman Catholic church

dogma:     prescribed doctrine

liturgy:      rituals for public worship

language: Latin, borrowed from Romans

canon:      borrowed from Roman legal system

architecture:  utilized Roman basis of construction

2.      from Diocletian, the emperor:

archbishops:    oversee provinces

bishops:           dioceses

priests:             parishes

Rome:              administrative center of the new faith

Bishop of Rome:  Petrine doctrine, pontiffs as temporal representatives of Christ, inherited as successors to Peter, the First Apostle

3.      uniform doctrine of belief

4.      ecumenical (worldwide) council of churchmen

5.      Council of Nicaea, 325 C.E.; Nicene Creed, 381 CE

6.      commitment to a variety of miraculous phenomena

a.      in place of reason, faith & truth that transcends

b.       classical rationalism to Christian mysticism

c.       shift to God-centered medieval worldview

B.      Christian Monaticism

1.      even before Christ, communal asceticism (self-denial)

2.      Essenes and Buddhists

3.      early Christian monastics arose in Egyptian deserts

4.      fasting, poverty, celibacy:  essential features

5.      Saint Basil in the Eastern church; Benedict in the Western [southern Italy] (529 C.E., same year Plato’s Academy closed in Athens

6.      Benedictine rule:  renunciation of all material possessions, chastity, obedience to abbot

7.      Divine Office, cycle of prayers --- prayer and work

Matins      -  first hour (midnight or daybreak)

Lauds       -  (now with matins, morning prayer)

Terce*      -  third hour

Sext*        -  sixth hour (noon),

Nones*     -  ninth hour (3 p.m.)

Vespers   -  late afternoon, early evening (6 p.m.)

Compline  - after evening meal, now follows vespers

* the “little hours”, now combined as a noonday service

8.      secular clerics (priests) and regular clerics (monastics) but no women in positions of church authority

9.      however, women as nuns:  mystics and teachers

As Greek and Roman souces of education dried up, . . . the task of perserving the history and literature of the past fell to . . . the monastaries. (Fiero, II, 18).

10.the calendar:  established by Denis the Little, 525 and used in the West after Bede the Venerable (673-735 C.E.)

C.     The Latin Church Fathers

1.      Jerome (347 – 420), translated both the Hebrew Bible and the Greek books of the New Testament into Latin:  the “Vulgate”

2.      Ambrose (339-397) fused Hebrew, Greek, and Middle Eastern traditions in Christian doctrine and liturgy; hymns, became bishop of Milan

    [divine light as the unifying theme]

3.      Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604 C.E.); papacy 590; organized church government; sent missionaries to convert England, extended termporal authority of the Roman church; organized liturgical music of earlyChurch

4.      Augustine of Hippo [Roman Africa] (354 – 430)

a.      studied Paul and Plotinus

b.       converted at age 33 after sensual, turbulent youth

c.       lifelong conflict between love of worldly pleasures and love of God

d.       Confessions

e.      dualistic model of the human being

f.         defended faith against charges that Christianity responsible for Rome’s downfall

g.       rationalization of evil as perversion of good

h.       dualism of visible world (matter) and divine order (spirit)

D.     Symbolism and Early Christian Art

1.      iconography:  visual symbols

fish   - ichthys, acrostic of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior

alpha and omega – beginning and the end

pax – chi rho

2.      numbers:  3, 4, 5, 12

3.      catacombs: orans

4.      life of Jesus:  youth, passion of the Christ

5.      few “graven images” – sculptures

6.      diptychs and triptychs; putti; Greek cross

E.      Early Christian Art and Architecture

1.      walkway, narthex, nave, clerestory, transept, apse

2.      Latin cross plan became the model for medieval churches

G.  Byzantine Art and Architecture