The Geography of SalvationSession 1. Introduction to Byzantine Cosmography and Soteriology

Much important information for this series taken from the book Landscape, Nature, and the Sacred in Byzantium, by Veronica dellaDora, Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Landscapes in the drama of salvation and the history of God and Christ in the world of human affairs

Landscapes were important in defining God's interactions with the people of ancient Israel. And landscapes were important in Jesus' own ministry. Desert, mountain, sea, city and village - places, topía/topoi, where the drama of salvation was played out in the Gospels. Those same landscapes became important in Orthodox tradition, in the writings and meditations of the church fathers and mothers, but even more crucially in the iconography and hymnography of the church.

While the letters of the apostle Paul have been the prime sources of much of what the church has taught about salvation in Christ, the iconography and hymnography of the church have been guided by the Gospel narratives and the typological interpretation of Old Testament events. The symbolism of places and landscapes allows for a more direct experience of what Jesus Christ brings into our lives. The Gospels show us that Jesus was very much connected to the land where he walked and where he brought people into direct knowledge of God.

Consider two famous mosaics from the 14th century in what is today Istanbul but was then Constantinople. These two mosaics are in the Church of the Khora, now known as Kariye Camii in Turkish. Khora (Χώρα) literally means place, space, country. Why Khora? These two mosaics tell us why.

Kariye Camii Mosaic of Μarythe Theotokos, Η Χώρα του Αχωρίτου. She is the space which contains the uncontainable.

Kariye Camii Mosaic of Christ, Η Χώρα των Ζώντων, The Land of the Living.

Both mosaics contain the word Χώρα. Both Christ and His Mother are represented as spaces of life. She is the space which contains the One who is uncontainable, namely Christ, vividly shown as if contained in her womb. Christ, who is God, cannot be contained in any space; and yet, in the miracle of the incarnation, He comes to be contained in her womb. In words of space and in vivid iconography, the incarnation is boldly represented. You can't miss the play on the word Χώρα. She is Χώρα of the one who is beyond χώρα or χῶρος, beyond any idea of space - he is αχώριτος. Amazing theology in just a few words and a beautifully crafted mosaic.

Christ is αχώριτος, beyond any conception of space or containment. But in the parallel mosaic in the same church He is Χώρα. Χώρα of what? Of the Living - Χώρα των Ζώντων. He who is beyond space took on existence within the dimensions of space in order to become for us the place, the space, where we receive Life! He is the Land of the Living! And that's about as good a definition of salvation as one can give in one or two sentences.

The title of this series of classes is “The Geography of Salvation” – or, “Topoi of Salvation.” Topos is a word similar to Khora, but usually it indicates a particular location. But Topos is more than a location; it carries theological weight and meaning, just as kairos is more than clock time and carries theological and liturgical weight and meaning. Through his incarnation, Jesus Christ turned the oikoumene (another hugely significant word in the Byzantine lexicon) into the stage/topos of global redemption.

Orthodox iconography and hymnography fully exploited the landscapes in which the drama of salvation played out, both in the Old and the New Testaments. Different topoi - mountains, deserts, seas, rivers, caves, gardens, towns, villages - became places of judgment and redemption in the Old Testament; but they took on new meanings when Jesus entered these topoi in the Gospels. We will come to understand the dynamics of salvation by looking at the meaning of places and spaces where salvation became the story. These sacred topoi became gateways to the cosmic drama of divine-human interaction. They are icons, but on the much vaster canvas of cosmic creation and redemption.

All creation derives meaning from God’s purposes for it. The beauty of creation was to be found in its telos, the end for which it was created. St. Basil in Hexaemeron 4.6:“A pleasant sight indeed is the sparkling sea, when deep tranquility possesses it; and pleasant also when, ruffled on the surface by gentle breezes, it reflects colours of purple and iridescent blue to the spectator. However, we must not think that the meaning of Scripture here is that the sea appeared pleasant and beautiful to God in this way. Instead, its beauty is determined by the purpose of the creative activity."

The Orthodox Christian tradition does not know the adoration of nature promoted by modern spiritual seekers. But this does not mean that the biblical mind cannot recognize the environmentalist concern for the natural environment. Quite the contrary, because creation is so important to God’s purposes all the more is it incumbent on humans to recognize the value of creation! Today many people seek “spiritual” or shamanic power in places like Sedona, Arizona, or Ayers Rock in Australia. But they become mere tourist destinations as a result. The adoration of nature rarely honors creation as part of God’s good purposes.

Creation is iconic; it points beyond itself, just as icons do. The idols of the ancient pagans and their modern New-Age counterparts are self-worshipping; they do not point to anything beyond their self-referential boundaries. Icons look beyond appearances and see the world transfigured. Scholars speak of the Byzantine “ekphrastic gaze”, a distinct way of looking at space and time. It was a gaze that saw the entire world in relation to the invisible realm of God. “From the creation of the world the invisible things of God are made clear by the visible creation,” John of Damascus wrote in the 8th century. He could see the burning bush of Moses as prefiguring the Theotokos; the sea, the water and the cloud of the Exodus foreshadowing baptism; and so on. The whole earth became a living icon of God’s presence and activity.

Gregory of Nyssa used the story of Moses and his ascent on Mount Sinai as an allegory of the soul ascending to mystical union with God. He saw the journey of the Israelites through the desert as katharsis, purification from the attachments of the ego; Moses’ ascent of Sinai as photisis, the illumination of the soul by the Holy Spirit; and his entry into the darkness of the cloud as the final stage of redemption, theosis, deification.

Two old Byzantine icons of Moses’ mystical ascent of Mount Sinai

Modern Icon showing Moses and the burning bush as type of Mary and Christ. Many older icons show the same juxtaposition. Typology is important aspect of Orthodox tradition.

A similar, older icon, showing Moses at different stages of his ascent to Mount Sinai. The goal is again the vision of Mary in the Burning Bush. But note also the hand of God at the top handing the Law to Moses.

Ekphraseis (vivid literary descriptions) were never meant to be about the actual appearance of places; but as with icons, they were about spiritual realities behind the visual appearance. “Ekphrasis was a mode of seeing and making sense of space and time. The Church Fathers…interpreted human salvation history and indeed the earth itself as a series of prefigurations and repetitions of archetypal topoi that were found in Scripture…. For the Byzantines, nature constituted a vast reservoir full of familiar symbols through which the Creator revealed Himself.” (Veronica Della Dora, pp 59-60)

Contemplation of these prefigurations, especially in the Old Testament, constituted what we call typology – as for example, the burning bush being a type of the Theotokos.

“God pervades and fills all things” (Gregory of Nazianzus, Homily 2). But this is not pantheism. Nature is not God; but it is permeated by the divine energies and by the Logos. The Logos directs and orders everything, according to St. Irenaeus of Lyon (2nd century). Some Orthodox writers even speak of the material universe as an incarnation of the Logos – just like the flesh of Christ was incarnation of the Logos!

The vespers service is the formal beginning of each liturgical day and it opens with a splendid hymn of cosmic praise, Psalm 104(103):

Bless the Lord, O my soul.O Lord my God, you are very great.

You are clothed with honour and majesty,wrapped in light as with a garment.

You stretch out the heavens like a tent,you set the beams of your chambers on the waters,

you make the clouds your chariot,you ride on the wings of the wind,

you make the winds your messengers,fire and flame your ministers.

You set the earth on its foundations,so that it shall never be shaken.

You cover it with the deep as with a garment;the waters stood above the mountains.

Note the many topoi just in the first six verses of this psalm. And there are 29 more!

The Byzantines saw the church building as a microcosm. Through liturgical celebration, the entire cosmos was renewed, sanctified and re-centred on Christ – as in the Pantokrator at the dome of every church – or the ceiling of our church in Portland.

The Byzantine word telesis is still used in modern Greek to designate the performance or carrying out of a liturgical or sacramental rite. But the word also designates completion, as it derives from telos. Through liturgical celebration, the entire cosmos was renewed, sanctified and re-centred on Christ – as in the Pantokrator at the dome of every church. Each liturgical celebration represented the ministry of reconciliation that was entrusted to the church by Christ and the apostles. And before we can even conceive the reconciliation of all human beings, we celebrate the reconciliation of humanity and God with all God’s creation! In the same manner as an icon, so also the liturgy is a sym-bolon, joining together two realities, earthly and heavenly. What the icon does in space and matter, the liturgy does “in praise and time,” in the beautiful expression of John Chryssavgis.

Everything we say about liturgical and iconographic recognition of topoi is in line with Orthodox understanding of salvation as a continuous process of renewal and sanctification rising to theosis and transfiguration. Liturgy and Icon are faithful and transformative communications of Orthodox faith. They are central to our faith.

The Byzantines represented all theology in Liturgy and Icon. And the writings or spoken teachings of the Fathers (and Mothers) simply put into words what the church experienced in worship. The Byzantine genius for holistic, experienced theology is beautifully expressed in this paragraph from the book by Veronica della Dora.

“As with liturgical performance, creation was a telesis. It was not a historical episode limited in time, but a continuing presence, a continual creation, a continuous process of cyclical renewal – ‘a moving image of eternity.’ If Byzantines perceived creation iconically, they celebrated and responded to it liturgically. In Gregory Palamas’ words, the entire earth was a huge ‘burning bush of God’s energies’. Through creation the Creator concealed and revealed himself, in the same way he had done to Moses through the burning bush. Everything in the world was therefore ‘a seed and a sign’ in the vast topographic inventory through which God manifested his presence without violating his unknowability.” (Della Dora, pp 89-90)

Next Week’s Class: It all began in a garden.