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Books by Mark Roosien

The Spiritual Diary of Fr Sergius Bulgakov, English translation with introduction and extensive n... more The Spiritual Diary of Fr Sergius Bulgakov, English translation with introduction and extensive notes. With Roberto De La Noval

English translation with introduction and notes of Bulgakov's most comprehensive work on the Euch... more English translation with introduction and notes of Bulgakov's most comprehensive work on the Eucharist, written in 1940 but published posthumously.

Description: The debate around the controversial doctrine of the Eucharist as sacrifice has marred relations between Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches since the Reformation. In The Eucharistic Sacrifice, the famous Russian theologian Sergius Bulgakov cuts through long-standing polemics surrounding the notion of the Eucharist as sacrifice and offers a stunningly original intervention rooted in his distinctive theological vision. This work, written in 1940, belongs to Bulgakov’s late period and is his last and most discerning word on eucharistic theology. His primary thesis is that the Eucharist is an extension of the sacrificial, self-giving love of God in the Trinity, or what he famously calls kenosis. Throughout the book, Bulgakov points to the fact that, although the eucharistic sacrifice at the Last Supper took place in time before the actual crucifixion of Christ, both events are part of a single act that occurs outside of time, in eternity.

This is Bulgakov’s concluding volume of three works on the Eucharist. The other two, The Eucharistic Dogma and The Holy Grail, were translated and published together in 1997. This third volume was only published in the original Russian version in 2005, and has remained unavailable in English until now. The introduction provides a brief history of Bulgakov’s theological career, his theology of the Eucharist, and a description of the structure of The Eucharistic Sacrifice. This clear and accessible translation will appeal to scholars and students of theology, ecumenism, and Russian religious thought.

Doctoral Dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 2018

This dissertation analyzes the liturgical commemoration of earthquakes in Constantinople ca. 400-... more This dissertation analyzes the liturgical commemoration of earthquakes in
Constantinople ca. 400-600 CE. Earthquake commemorations were some of the earliest rites created locally for the city’s liturgy. This thesis argues that analysis of this rite, its origins, and its contested reception history illuminates the theological, environmental, and political concerns that shaped the early liturgy of Constantinople. The thesis begins with a reconstruction of the original ritual pattern and theology of the commemoration rite and its evolution. It was comprised of readings, hymns, and a long procession that mimicked the evacuation route taken during earthquakes. Over the course of its performance, which lasted from evening until the afternoon on the next day, the rite depicted earthquakes as manifestations of divine wrath against the people for their unfaithfulness, for which collective repentance is prescribed as an effective response. Next, the thesis locates the origins of the liturgical rite in a ritual repertoire of prayer and supplication that emerged from spontaneous, popular responses to earthquakes in Constantinople. Prior to the practice of commemorating earthquakes liturgically, the late-fourth and early-fifth century preachers Severian of Gabala and John Chrysostom
drew from this ritual repertoire to make theological sense of Constantinopolitan earthquakes. They framed earthquakes as divine manifestations and placed Constantinople at the center of a narrative of God’s providential guidance of history. The thesis then analyzes the five earthquakes commemorated between 438 and 557. With its call for mass repentance in the face of God’s wrath, the commemoration rite challenged
Constantinople’s ambitions as the new capital of the Roman Empire. Those dedicated to augmenting Constantinople’s political and ecclesiastical power disputed the theology of earthquakes as signs of divine wrath, and reframed local earthquakes as signs of divine blessing upon the city and its ambitions. Analysis of the liturgical commemoration of earthquakes illuminates hitherto unexplored tensions between Christianity and classical Roman ideology at play in the formation of the liturgy of Constantinople. By showing how the liturgy connected environmental, theological, and political concerns, this dissertation pursues new avenues for exploring the role played by the natural environment in the shaping of Christian ritual and liturgy.

Articles by Mark Roosien

Armenia and Byzantium without Borders: Mobility, Interactions, Responses, 2023

In late antiquity, the Holy Land was a central hub for the creation of new liturgical feasts for ... more In late antiquity, the Holy Land was a central hub for the creation of new liturgical feasts for the church's growing sacred calendar. From the Holy Land, liturgical rites and practices 'travelled' around the Christian world, as local communities adapted them in different ways. This chapter analyses how the cultural and intellectual environments of various Christian communities shaped the appropriation of liturgical practices from the Holy Land, using the Feast of Transfiguration as a case study. This annual commemoration originated in the Holy Land in the sixth century, and was soon embraced by churches in Armenia, Syria, and Constantinople. Analysis of liturgical manuscripts, homilies, and hymnography reveals the strikingly unique ways in which each of these communities adapted the feast for local use. In Armenia, the feast acquired characteristics of the pre-Christian summer festival of Vardavar; in West Syrian miaphysite circles, the feast took on themes related to the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles; and in Constantinople, the Iconoclast controversy played a role in shaping the local church's adaptation of the feast. The history of the Feast of Transfiguration demonstrates the extraordinary flexibility with which the celebration of liturgical rituals moved between cultures in the late antique Eastern Christian world.

Religions, 2021

This article identifies the upheaval of many people’s experience of time during the COVID-19 pand... more This article identifies the upheaval of many people’s experience of time during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a larger phenomenon of the 24/7 temporality that can be seen to contribute to the environmental destruction and social fragmentation typical of disaster capitalism. It then proposes liturgical temporality as an alternative to 24/7 temporality, framing it as a fitting context for the cultivation of solidarity between human beings and between human beings and the natural world. It argues that modern Jewish and Christian theologies of Sabbath-keeping as a mode of liturgical and ethical praxis have articulated a liberative vision for shared liturgical temporality but have not paid sufficient attention to concrete, collective modes of liturgical time keeping that could contend with the all-encompassing reality of 24/7 life. It concludes by discussing three ways that a more robust spirituality and praxis of liturgical time could support the cultivation of solidarity: a sense of the present that is mindful of the past and future, the invitation of practitioners into a shared story, and meaningful repetition toward the appropriation of a vision of redemption and liberation for human and non-human life.

Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, 2020

This article examines Fr Sergii Bulgakov’s writings on the eucharist. It argues that these texts,... more This article examines Fr Sergii Bulgakov’s writings on the eucharist. It argues that these texts, written at critical junctures at the beginning, middle, and end of his career, constitute a “eucharistic horizon” against which one can envision continuity across Bulgakov’s wide-ranging corpus. Contrary to the scholarly narrative that Bulgakov abandoned his mission to justify Orthodox social action after his exile to Western Europe in the early 1920’s in the interest of building an abstract dogmatic edifice, this article argues that at the core of his thought lies a commitment to the importance of the material world and concomitantly an abiding commitment to collective social action within it. It is argued that the entirety of Bulgakov’s thought can be viewed a resource for restoring a spirit of collective Orthodox social action (as opposed to individual contemplation and ascesis alone) for the transfiguration of human and non-human creation: what Bulgakov called the “common task” of humanity.

Worship, 2016

The fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s prompted a mass return to the Russian Orthodox Ch... more The fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s prompted a mass return to the Russian Orthodox Church. However, seven decades of repression all but erased the memory of pious practices surrounding the seasons of the church year: Lent, Pascha, Christmas, etc. In their efforts to retrieve a sense of connection with the liturgical past, many Russians today have turned to literature for inspiration, especially the novel, The Year of Our Lord, by Ivan Shmelev (d. 1950). The book is a semi-autobiographical account of the author's upbringing in a pious, Orthodox household and is replete with nostalgic descriptions of pious practices, foods, and liturgical services in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Russians today discuss Shmelev online and in person to find ways to imagine and revive a "pre-modern" liturgical past, and, along the way, reinforce a very modern sense of national, Russian identity.

Studia Liturgica, 2013

Scholars have traditionally read John Chrysostom's baptismal instructions, preached in Antioch, a... more Scholars have traditionally read John Chrysostom's baptismal instructions, preached in Antioch, as examples of a new, post-Constantinian paradigm in liturgical theology: the Romans 6 notion of baptism as death and resurrection with Christ. This article argues that the metaphor of "putting on Christ" from Galatians 3:27 is the more dominant metaphor for Chrysostom. He connected the "putting on" of Christ in baptism to the martyrs' imitation of Christ in death. To reinforce this connection, he brought the newly-baptized to the tombs of martyrs on the outskirts of Antioch, where he preached some of the baptismal instructions. He kept their memory of martyrdom alive by allowing martyred bodies to "speak" to a new generation of Christians.

Studia Patristica, 2017

John Chrysostom (d. 407) used the language of awe in his colorful descriptions of liturgical rite... more John Chrysostom (d. 407) used the language of awe in his colorful descriptions of liturgical rites such as baptism and the eucharist. To complement his verbal portraits of the liturgy, Chrysostom encouraged his audiences to imagine angels invisibly present in the church, singing, bowing, prostrating, and keeping reverent silence--in other words, modeling a posture of awe for the people. In addition to encouraging his audiences to emulate the angels in the liturgy, Chrysostom also encouraged them to emulate the actions of angels in the city. His "angelic politeia" was characterized by sharing of goods in common, eschewing social hierarchies, and trading attendance at circuses and games for liturgies and outdoor processions.

Short Essays by Mark Roosien

Public Orthodoxy, 2020

Serbian translation of "Fasting from Communion in a Pandemic"

Translations by Mark Roosien

Novyi Grad 13, 1938

Mother Maria argues that the present age (in France on the eve of World War II) is in fact a more... more Mother Maria argues that the present age (in France on the eve of World War II) is in fact a more Christian age than the Middle Ages or 19th century Russia, because of its apocalyptic nature. She makes her case through a critique of Orthodox monasticism of recent centuries, which she argues is more grounded in this world than in the Kingdom of God.

Novyi Grad 10, 1935

This article was written in 1935 by Mother Maria as a kind of manifesto for the group "Orthodox A... more This article was written in 1935 by Mother Maria as a kind of manifesto for the group "Orthodox Action," a "missionary center," soup kitchen, and hostel located in a run-down property on 77 rue de Lourmel in Paris, where poor Russian émigrés were numerous. Founded in 1935 by Mother Maria, Nikolai Berdyaev, Fr Sergii Bulgakov, and Georgii Fedotov, the group set as its primary task to provide material, pedagogical, and liturgical support to the neediest of the Russian émigré community.

Book Reviews by Mark Roosien

Catholic Books Review, 2022