Alexander Schmemann

3. The Age Of The Ecumenical Councils (50 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 50

There were many sins and much evil in the Byzantine ecclesiastical community, but self-satisfaction was not one of them.
Toward the end of the early Byzantine period it was as if the whole Church were decked in black monastic garb and had taken the road of repentance and self-condemnation. The stronger the outward victory of the Church and the more solemn, rich, and magnificent the outward forms of Christian Byzantinism became, the more strongly sounded this outcry of repentance, the entreaty for forgiveness: “I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have been unrighteous in Thy sight, nor have I done nor have I observed what Thou hast commanded us.”

The surpassing beauty and splendor of St.
Sophia; the holy rhythm, seeming to measure eternity, of the liturgical mystery that revealed a heaven upon earth and transformed the world again and again into its pristine cosmic beauty; the bitter sadness and reality of sin, the awareness of constant downfall — all this was the ultimate profundity of this world and the fruit of the Church within it.

 

Thus outwardly the Byzantine cycle describes Orthodoxy at the end of the first four centuries of the “period of Constantine.” In the seventh century this cycle was only perceptible as yet. The real climax of Orthodox Byzantium would come in the next era, and it is there that we must consider the Seventh Ecumenical Council, since that period overlaps the title of this chapter.

Like every historical form, Byzantinism was of course limited and imperfect and had a number of defects. In the final account, however, unlike other forms, it alone would express the unshakable historicism of Christianity, its link with the fate of the world and of man. Though this marriage between Church and empire was the source of so many weaknesses and sins, all that rejected it in the East at the time became a blind alley, an exit from history, doomed to gradual decay in sterile sands. In the story of Orthodoxy, however, a new time was beginning which would bring new pain but new victories as well.

 

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Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church: Table of Contents

Cf.  Books for getting closer to Orthodox Christianity ||| Orthodox Images of the Christ ||| Byzantium : The Alternative History of Europe ||| Greek Orthodoxy - From Apostolic Times to the Present Day ||| A History of the Byzantine Empire ||| Videos about Byzantium and Orthodoxy ||| Aspects of Byzantium in Modern Popular Music ||| 3 Posts on the Fall of Byzantium  ||| Greek Literature / The New Testament

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