A worthy read

I just finished reading Through Their Own Eyes: Liturgy as the Byzantines Saw It. [See the Touchstone article for their review.] It has something for everyone. For the experienced liturgical scholar it has pages and pages of background information with occasional references that reminded me of the Navarre Bible series; 20% material / 80% background information.

For someone who just wants to know more about why suchandsuch is done a certain way, how it developed, or when a practice faded into disuse there is a special section at the end of each chapter where Fr. Taft does a Q&A with the people that attended the lecture. It's at times intriguing and at other times amusing. He is not afraid to poke someone in the side or let loose a barb when the mood strikes him.

A more detailed biography on this luminary can be found at the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA where he has lectured in the past.

• Receiving on the tongue or hand? Which was the earlier practice.
• Origin of the spoon in offering the eucharist.
• Did the unwashed masses understand what they were hearing?
• Are you familiar with the link between Arianism and the processions in the Early Church?
• People didn't pray silently, nor was there uniform reverence during the liturgy. He explains why all the "Arise." "Be attentive." etc. was put in there.
• Many people cite that the point beyond "The doors! The doors!" was the moment at which the catechumens had to leave because they could not receive the eucharist. There was a lot more to it than that.
• A short history of confession. How it started as public penance for apostacy, adultery, or homicide and then the growth of private penance from the monasteries in Ireland and the Greek East later in history.
• And much, much more . . .