Lecture 24: Eastern Orthodoxy—Holy Tradition
o In addition to movement, the liturgy makes dramatic use of
vision through the iconostasis—the half-wall adorned with
icons—that distinguishes the sanctuary (the holiest area) from
the nave (the place of the people). Ministers move in and out
through the three doors. The arrangement of the icons on the
wall itself has symbolic significance.• In the Orthodox liturgy, the “construction of the world” found in the
New Testament Letter to the Hebrews and the book of Revelation
finds dramatic expression.
o Just as the sanctuary and nave are separated yet linked by the
iconostasis, so is worship understood as a human (visible)
participation in the (unseen) worship of God in heaven by
the angels and saints. Worship is a glimpse of the “truth” of
sanctified human existence: that it participates in the divine life.o In distinctive chants such as the Trisagion—“Holy God, Holy
Strong One, Holy immortal One, Have Mercy on Us!”—
accompanied by bows and ritual gestures, we find a genuine
expression of “the numinous” in religion.The Role of Monasticism in Orthodoxy
• Another distinctive characteristic of Orthodoxy is the critical role
played by monasticism. We have already traced the origins of this
distinctive manifestation of Christianity and will shortly consider its
importance in the West. But in Orthodoxy above all, monasticism
occupies a central place.• Because ordinary clergy (priests) are not required to be celibate,
their lives are closer to those of the laity; they are expected to
exercise pastoral and liturgical roles but not roles of intellectual
leadership. This role falls to monks.
o In the East, monasticism takes three forms: fully coenobitic (life
completely together), semi-eremitical (monks live separately but
share much of their liturgical lives), and eremitical (life alone).