Abstract:
Saint Basil the Great wrote one of the most important and widely acknowledged Eucharistic texts
in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a liturgical anaphora that bears his name. Before the dawn of
the second millennium, this was the main Eucharistic text used in Constantinople and in the
territories under its authority. In the modern time of digital media, the liturgical research methods
have been improved by using the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) database. The emergence of
patristic and liturgical texts in this novel format was able to revolutionise the field of Comparative
Liturgics, allowing to very quickly find the possible internal clues, which prove the basilian
authorship of the anaphora bearing St. Basil’s name. By the quick and accurate computer scanning
of a part of the post-Sanctus prayer, a relatively complete picture of the relatedness of vocabulary,
the author’s theological and ascetical nomenclature, the recurring thought patterns, parallel
passages and hapax legomena, rare terms and their frequency, is obtained.
CONTRIBUTION : The present article aims to demonstrate that Theology has to be connected to
modern research methods because the findings of such an academic approach are helpful for
the development of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, that is so well promoted by HTS
Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies.
Description:
The author is participating as
the research associate of Dean
Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, Faculty of
Theology and Religion,
University of Pretoria.
Special Collection: Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, Romania, sub-edited by Daniel Buda (Lucian Blaga University) and Jerry Pillay
(University of Pretoria).
