Reverse Perspective, New Perspective

The other day on a long straight run of highway I paid attention to the effect of geometric perspective and the vanishing point. Because of the geometry from our vantage point, lines (or highways) that are in fact parallel, appear to converge – coming together at a vanishing point on the horizon.

One useful effect of geometric perspective is the sense of distance it conveys. This effect is strengthened by the related effect of distant objects appearing smaller than they really are.

The effect perspective conveyed to me that day was one of “I’m here, this is the place I am, this is where my consciousness is, and whatever might be at that vanishing point is not here, is not affecting me, is less real than where I am.” My immediate environs, what all I was taking in through peripheral vision, was “what’s happening”, so to speak.

Icons depict backgrounds in Reverse Perspective. One of the resultant effects is that whatever is portrayed on the icon is the “here and now”, the “what’s happening”, and I as the observer am the one at the vanishing point, I’m the “not here”, and I’m not “what’s happening”. Here’s a crude illustration:

Reverse perspective also has, to me at least, a magnetic effect. An icon done in this way seems to be inviting participation – pulling us in. In fact, the effect seems to be one of drawing everything in – my surroundings as well as myself – functioning to reconcile here and there, then and now. Their now becomes my now, and their there becomes my there.

New Testament Presupposes Liturgical Service

From Dom Gregory Dix, widely respected Liturgical Scholar, in his work The Theology Of Confirmation In Relation To Baptism

We know now, too, that the Apostolic paradosis of practice, like the Apostolic paradosis of doctrine, is something which actually ante-dates the writing of the New Testament documents themselves by some two or three decades. It is presupposed by those documents and referred to more than once as authoritative in them. This paradosis of practice continued to develop in complete freedom from any control by those documents for a century after they were written, before they were collected into a New Testament ‘Canon’ and recognized for the first time as authoritative ‘Scripture’ beside and above the Jewish ‘Scriptures’ of the Old Testament, which alone formed the ‘Bible’ of the Apostolic Church. Now that the history of the Canonization of the New Testament is better understood, we can begin to shake ourselves free from the sixteenth century — or rather the medieval — delusion that primitive Christian Worship and Church Order must have been framed in conscious deference to the precedents of a New Testament which as such did not yet exist. The purely occasional documents now found in it do not contain, and were never intended by their authors to contain, anything like the Old Testament codes of prescriptions for the rites of worship. That was governed by the authoritative ‘Apostolic Tradition’ of practice, to which it is plain that the scattered Gentile Churches adhered pretty rigidly throughout the second century. I am not for a moment seeking to question the authoritative weight of the New Testament Scriptures for us as a written doctrinal standard. I am only trying to point out that there is available another source of information on the original and authentic Apostolic interpretation of Christianity, which the Scriptures presuppose and which must be used in the interpretation of the Scriptures. I do not deny that in time the recognition of this fact will be bound to lead to some considerable readjustment of ideas for more than one set of people. But tonight all I would say is that the liturgical tradition can be shewn to be older in some of its main elements than the New Testament Scriptures, and that down to the end of the second century, at least, it was regarded as having an ‘Apostolic’ authority of its own independently of them. We cannot look, therefore, for any attempt in this period to conform the practice of worship to them artificially. Nevertheless, the two do illustrate one another in a remarkable way.

Some thoughts on this passage:

1. “there is available another source of information on the original and authentic Apostolic interpretation of Christianity, which the Scriptures presuppose and which must be used in the interpretation of the Scriptures”… to discard this other source is to lose the ability to interpret Scripture in a consistent way, hence the extreme splintering amongst post-reform confessions.

2. “The purely occasional documents now found in (the NT) do not contain, and were never intended by their authors to contain, anything like the Old Testament codes of prescriptions for the rites of worship.”… hence the wide variety of worship rites practiced amongst the churches spawned from the reformation – a sola scriptura approach leaves one without a coherent instruction in worship

3. “in time the recognition of this fact will be bound to lead to some considerable readjustment of ideas for more than one set of people”… Dix put this out in about 1948. It’s not unusual to see a lag on the order of a couple decades between the time scholars begin publishing on a topic and the time the effects are measurable among the general populace. So I think Dix was correct judging from the growing number of converts from protestant circles to Roman Catholic and Orthodox liturgical communions.

Thanks to a guy named Andrew over at Energetic Procession for the Dix quotation.

It’s an Issue of Blood

The Gospel reading during today’s Divine Liturgy included Luke’s accounts of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter and of the woman with an issue of blood who was healed when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. I was more engaged during the whole service today than usual, including during the readings. For twelve years this woman struggled with her health crisis, which became also a financial crisis. And Jairus’ daughter was 12 years young when she… died. One family had a joyous event 12 years prior, and one woman began her personal nightmare that same year. Now both the woman and the girl’s father ended up in the same place this day, both showing up with faith in Christ, and both drew near at about the same time. And the woman’s faith ended up bolstering the faith of the father when, after he heard the news of his daughter’s death, Jesus turned to him and used very similar words as He just used with the now-healed woman – she’ll be “made whole”. Our priest emphasized the woman’s faith that brought her there, and said she received more than she came for – she was made whole.

Sometimes when I feel that maybe it’s been too long since I’ve last been to confession, I figure that I shouldn’t go forward to receive communion. I was in that situation today – should I go forward or wait until after confession. In these situations, the words of the Church always strike me, “in the fear of God, and with faith and love draw near”. The woman with the health crisis did just that, and my mind was drawn back to her when I decided to go forward. I need Christ, and I want to push through the crowd and at least touch His hem and be made whole.

In the back of the line, I couldn’t see what was happening up front, only the back of people’s heads. But I could see people way at the front bending down (kids receiving communion), doing things… commotion. The activity up there showed that He was here, and everyone wanted to get forward (“…as he went the people thronged him”). We were more orderly than the crowd that day. As I got closer, I thought about the woman getting closer to her turn. And as always, I got more nervous the closer I got. Judging from the woman’s reaction after her healing (“…she came trembling, and falling down before him”), I’m thinking she was also pretty nervous when she first approached, before anyone knew she was there. She wasn’t so brazen as to approach from the front (she “came behind Him”), and she used anonymity to cloak herself. I had no such anonymity. It was my turn, and I was “outed” just before I got there, (as she was after her encounter)… “the servant of God, George…” Announced by name no less, and with every reason to tremble and fall down before Him as the woman had when she “saw that she was not hid”. Being immediately before the King of Glory who is surrounded by throngs of angels, and your name gets announced. I didn’t fall down before Him, but I did tremble, if only inwardly, and received the Body and Blood of Christ.

The Epistle reading today (from Ephesians) serves as a most appropriate commentary to the Gospel – “by Grace you are saved through faith, not of works…” and, we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works”. The woman was clearly saved by Grace through her faith, and apparently continued in good works. We know from the Church historian Bishop Eusebius that she later erected a statue honoring Christ in Ceasaria Phillipi. Eusebius actually saw this statue sometime around 300 A.D., and mentioned a plant that grew up onto the hem of the sculpted cloak and had healing properties.