Fons Vitae

Baptéme, Baptistéres et Rites d'initiation 

II-Vi siécle

sous la direction de Ivan Foletti et Serena Romano

Viella

Les écrits, dont le présent volume est composé, se développent autour d’un noyau central: les modalités et les conditions à partir desquelles s’est développé le rite d’initiation chrétien, le baptême. Il s’agit d’un moment historique où se croisent les mouvements religieux et culturels les plus disparates, tels les cultes de Dionysos ou de Mitra, mais aussi du christianisme naissant. Réunis dans ce livre, les travaux de plusieurs chercheurs mettent en avant des relations inattendues mais aussi d’importants contrastes entre les cultures des différentes religions, et au sein même du christianisme. C’est précisément à l’intérieur de cette complexe culture de l’Antiquité tardive que va se former ce langage textuel et figuratif qui finira par s’affirmer dans le monde chrétien.

I saggi qui raccolti si sviluppano attorno ad un problema centrale: le modalità e le condizioni in cui è nato e si è affermato il rito d’iniziazione cristiana, il battesimo. Si tratta di un momento storico percorso da correnti religiose e da culture disparate, che vanno dai culti di Dioniso e di Mitra al primo cristianesimo. Le ricerche di sette studiosi mettono in luce affinità insospettate ma anche profonde differenze sia tra i culti e le liturgie delle diverse religioni che in seno al cristianesimo stesso. All’interno di questa complessa cultura tardoantica va delineandosi un linguaggio testuale e figurativo che finirà per affermarsi nel mondo cristiano.

Zona liminare

Il nartece di Santa Sabina a Roma, la sua porta e l'iniziazione cristiana

Ivan Foletti - Manuela Gianandrea, authors

Viela

Sulla sommità dell’Aventino si erge la basilica di Santa Sabina, uno dei monumenti più significativi del mondo tardoantico. Il suo ingresso principale è costituito da un ampio nartece, caratterizzato dalla presenza di opere straordinarie, quali l’antica porta lignea, la decorazione a imitazione del marmo di V secolo e l’imago altomedievale della Theotokos. Il nartece, per anni trascurato negli studi, doveva essere, in origine, uno degli ambienti di maggior fasto e importanza dell’intero edificio e, soprattutto, non un semplice spazio a servizio delle opere ma il luogo per cui queste erano state pensate. Destinato con ogni probabilità principalmente ai catecumeni e ai penitenti, doveva connotarsi come una vera e propria zona liminare, mondo tra i mondi, zona di transito fisico e spirituale. Il presente volume intende indagare questo luogo a tutto tondo, con un’attenzione particolare alla sua storiografia, all’archeologia del monumento e alle sue decorazioni, rivelandone la facies tardoantica straordinariamente conservata nella sostanza. Si vuole proporre al lettore uno sguardo sinergico, volto a mostrare come la coesistenza dei diversi media permetta una più esaustiva comprensione dello scenario artistico tardoantico.

 Theologiae Moarlis Compendium 

I. - Theologia Moralis Fundamentalis, Tractus de Virtutibus Moralibus

II. - De Virtibus Theologigcis De Statibus, De Sacramentis, De Delicitis et Poenis

Marcellins Zalba, S.J., author

Bibliotheca de Authores Christianos

"Ad meliorem intelligentiam nostrae disciplinae iuvat breviter exponere notionem et obiectum theologiae moralis, eius relationem similitudins et discrepantiae cum scientiis affinibs, fontes, momentum, divisiones et ordinem, methodum denique adhibendam."  

Forrás: Introductio

Corpus Christi

The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture

Miri Rubin, author

Cambridge University Press

This book studies later medieval culture [c. 1150–1500] through its central symbol: the eucharist. From the twelfth century onwards the eucharist was designed by the Church as the foremost sacrament. The claim that this ritual brought into presence Christ's own body, and offered it to believers, underpinned the sacramental system and the clerical mediation upon which it depended. The book explores the context in which the sacramental world was created and the cultural processes through which it was disseminated, interpreted and used. With attention to the variety of eucharistic meanings and practices - in procession on the feast of Corpus Christi, devotions, prayers, drama, in dissent, abuse and doubt - the author reveals and considers ways in which a religious culture is used as a language for the articulation of order and power, as well as for the most private explorations. The book moves from the 'design' of the eucharist in the twelfth century to its re-design in the sixteenth - a story of the emergence of a symbol, its use and interpretation and final transformation.

Forrás: http://www.cambridge.org/hu/academic/subjects/history/european-history-1000-1450/corpus-christi-eucharist-late-medieval-culture?format=PB#qrX0QSCYrvIHwQ9t.97

The Spiritual Life and how to be attuned to it

by St. Theophan the Recluse

The famed classic of Russian Spirituality: A study in the Science of the Soul

Alexandra Dockham, translator

St. Herman Press

Once, in the middle of the dance floor at some annual ball, a young lady had a sudden glimpse of the immortality of her soul, and as this vision flashed upon her inward eye, she was struck with the thought that all this swirling around the dance floor was utterly futile. Amazed and disturbed, she wrote to the recluse: "Is this normal, or is it a morbid hindrance to a desire for a happy life in the world?" The answer to her question evoked a correspondence which resulted in this volume.

St. Theophan strove to make sure that the young soul of this correspondent would not only be familiar with the principles of spiritual life, but would first of all be able to keenly hear the right "tone" of spiritual life. He attuned her soul to that tone, like an instrument to a pitch, in a way natural to her personality. He helped here first of all hear the movement of her spirit, and only then, using the instument of her soul, did he help her to hearken to the Spirit of God which "bloweth where it listeth" (John 3:8).

This tuning of the soul is necessary for the soul to be in harmony with the voice of God’s Providence, echoing in the instrument of the heart. Therefore, this book can rightly be called a primer to be used before embarking into the realm of spiritual life.

Forrás: https://www.greekorthodoxbookshop.com.au/spiritual-life-n-how-to-be-attuned

Cult and Controversy: The Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass

Studies in the Reformed Rites of the Catholic Church, Volume IV.

Nathan Mitchell, author

The Liturgical Press

In the first part of this book, Father Mitchell traces the evolution within the Roman Catholic tradition of the cult of the Eucharist outside Mass, a change from holy meal to ritual drama that implied significant alterations of content, meaning, and interpretation.

The second section comments on the mandates of Vatican Council II whose call to a return to proper praxis necessitated changes in then current pastoral practice and theological interpretation.

Forrás: https://litpress.org/Products/6050/Cult-and-Controversy