Lecture 15: The Extension of Christian Culture
o Christian liturgy in large spaces began to take on the
characteristics of such public liturgy. We find open-air
processions, elaborate rituals (bowing, genuflecting, arm
gestures), rich garments, and the use of musical chants.o The anaphora, or formal Eucharistic prayer, became a lengthy
and public profession.o Just as “sacrifice” was at the heart of Greco-Roman religion, a
holy act carried out by official priests on behalf of the populace
and the city-state, so did the Christian Eucharist lose the sense
of an intimate meal and develop more fully the sense of a
sacrifice offered for the populace by a class of priests.• The Greco-Roman love of art and adornment found new
expression through the portrayal of specifically Christian themes
rather than, as before, the themes of gods and goddesses in
Greco-Roman mythology.
o Statuary was dedicated not to the portrayal of the gods but
to the portrayal of biblical figures and, eventually, to those
whose holiness placed them at a level above the merely human,
the saints.o Painting (in the form of frescoes), mosaics, and funerary art
(on sarcophagi) displayed biblical themes, including stories
from the New Testament.• Movement from place to place in public became a prominent
feature of imperial Christianity.
o In the city of Rome, “station churches” represented stopping
points for liturgical processions, with the chanting of hymns
during the procession and prayers carried out in each
station church.o Pilgrimages were made to the tombs of the martyrs, where
the sharing of a sacred meal (the refrigerium) was a popular
form of veneration of the saints; the pagan antecedents of this