Toronto, Ontario
2022
To bring together an ecumenical group of scholars to critically analyze early Christian liturgical poetry as prayer and pedagogy in order to give exposure to a significant and underdeveloped voice in contemporary Christianity.
Project Summary
The Recovering Hymnography project brings together an ecumenical group of scholars for a Spring Symposium on the campus of the University of Chicago to critically analyze early Christian liturgical poetry on a scholarly and aesthetic level for a diverse audience of students, scholars, and Church leaders. The results of this symposium will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies.
What questions about worship and your discipline will be guiding your project?
In our study of ancient Christian hymnody, our method of inquiry is historical with an eye to the actual. Our questions include: how hymnody might inform a Christian understanding of time?. How does the combination of ritual embodied prayer amplify, assist, and instruct worshipers along with sung verse? We also looked at the resources the hymnographic tradition of Greek and Syriac to see what proposals could be offered to overcome discriminatory language against women , utilizing the rich examples in Syriac poetry that extol of biblical heroines and the mothers of martyrs. We further interrogated how these hymns both distill the history of biblical interpretation and how they form the Christian imagination.
How do you envision this project will strengthen the worship life of congregations?
Our immediate impact offered 314 participants in Chicago. This included several parish groups from Catholic, Orthodox, and protestant congregations. It also drew regional participation from South Bend, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. The event offered both historical awareness of Christian prayer through the centuries and exposed them to a theology of worship. We expect that our workshop papers brought into view these hymns and the questions we asked of them before the gathered group, which included clergy, graduate students, and interested laity. Our written work will be a resource for seminary instruction and generate further scholarly conversation that will aid in the self-understanding of the communities who utilize these hymns. Our video recording of the keynote lecture will continue to draw attention to he synthesis of worship, doctrine, and life in Christian worship East and West.
What do you expect might be your greatest challenges (or challenging opportunities)?
Given the strong response for the live performance, keynote, and seminar, one of the challenging opportunities will be how develop and scale this inaugural event into a regular series that will facilitate this exchange between scholars and worshiping communities. We will also need to consider further fundraising to support open access of our articles. I hope to learn further creative pathways people use to disseminate research and information as well as best practices to scale and plan for a more regular follow up.
What do you hope to learn from the Grants Event and other grant recipients?
I hope to learn further creative pathways people use to disseminate research and information as well as best practices to scale and plan for a more regular follow up.