leitourgia

In ancient Greece, liturgies functioned as a form of taxation on wealthy Athenians who were required to provide financial backing for matters of public interest, primarily the maintenance of military vessels and the training and performance of choruses for civic festivals.[i] The term liturgy can be traced to its Greek roots, finding leitourgia (λειτουργ-ία) as a referent of this ‘public service’ performed by Attica’s most affluent citizens.[ii] Greek texts suggest those who funded liturgies could then highlight their service as a means to indicate greater status and heightened virtue for the fulfillment of their liturgical duties, “My ancestors were foremost of the citizens… For who were thought worthy of higher offices, or made greater contributions, or served as choregi more handsomely, or discharged other special public services with greater magnificence?”[iii]

However during the time of the Peloponnesian War, members of the elite class began to find it more difficult to satisfy the rising demand for private funding of public engagement and liturgies became increasingly textually associated with expressions of anxiety for one’s financial security and questioning of the liturgical system, which granted special notoriety to those making the contributions[iv] It is here where we perhaps begin to see a shift in the term as it is democratized to encompass “any service to the country.”[v] Leitourgia also has a specified connotation of public service toward the gods,[vi] which perhaps draws a stronger connection with choruses performed during liturgical festivals, as the likely subject matter involved the Greek’s relationships with their gods. This path may be traceable to a more contemporary interpretation of liturgy. We can find leitourgia used in the Epistles both as “service toward [God]”[vii] and as ministration.[viii] Just as the Greek chorus stems from an oral tradition which often uses stories of the gods to enlighten the populous on virtue and ‘living the good life,’ it seems reasonable to associate the early Christian church with a similar form of ‘public service’ or liturgy.

As the Christian faith grew, so to, perhaps, did an understanding of liturgy more specific to the Christian tradition, “public worship conducted in accordance with a prescribed form.”[ix] Therefore we can view a modern construction of liturgy as sacred ritual within the institution of the church.[x] However other arguments have been made representing liturgical manuscripts as “living literature”[xi] that require less precise ritual and may, potentially, be adapted to fit the public for whom it serves. To this end, liturgies are being reinterpreted to fit both ecological[xii] and feminist frames. Others still, discuss liturgy in relation to the medium through which it is communicated, some expressing concern with new media’s influence on elements of liturgical practice.[xiii] Perhaps such concern, while clearly in reaction to observable changes, may be muted if we consider the evolution of leitourgia. Recent reinterpretation or reconstitution of liturgical practices, in so far as they continue to represent acts of ‘public service,’ may not have veered as far from the Greek or early Christian understanding of liturgy as one might initially perceive.[xiv]

[i] Too, Yun Lee. (2000). Introduction. In D.C. Mirhady & Y.L. Too (Trans.), Isocrates I (pp. 201). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

[ii] Liddell, Henry George & Robert Scott. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press.

[iii] Isocrates. (1980). Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd.

[iv] Christ, Matthew R. (1990). Liturgy avoidance and antidosis in classical Athens. Transactions of the American Philological Association, 120, 147-169.

[v] Christ, Matthew R. (1990). Liturgy avoidance and antidosis in classical Athens. Transactions of the American Philological Association, 120, 155.

[vi] Liddell, Henry George & Robert Scott. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. [vii] Philippians, 2:30.

[viii] Corinthians II, 9:12. [ix] liturgy (1989). In The Oxford English Dictionary. Second Ed. Online. Retrieved at http://dictionary.oed.com.

[x] Jacobs, Janet L. (1993). [Review of the book Sociology and liturgy: Re-presentations of the holy]. American Journal of Sociology, 99,2, 534-536.

[xi] Bradshaw, Paul F. (2002). The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

[xii] Küschner-Pelkmann, Frank. (2009). Courageous prophecy & ecology. Media Development, 56, 2, 42-45.

[xiii] Forsberg, Geraldine E. (2009). Media ecology & theology. Journal of Communication and Religion, 32, 1, 135-156.

[xiv] Word Count: 499.