Theology of the Byzantine liturgical office

This article is the transcription of a course given by André Scrima at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, in Lebanon, devoted to the theology of the Byzantine liturgical office (BLO). Belonging to liturgical theology, it proposes a systematic and theological approach to the BLO as a living reality, without retracing its history. The central idea is that the BLO constitutes a theology in act: consubstantial with the divine Economy, it articulates Scripture, liturgy and Trinitarian revelation according to a pneumatological and cosmic structure. Scrima identifies the reasons for the universality of the Byzantine rite — the Pentecostal principle of translation, the synthesis of Syrian and Greek traditions, original hymnographic creation — and draws from it three levels of theological reading. The major contribution of the article is to show that the BLO functions as a criterion of orthodoxy, a method of spirituality and a living hermeneutic of the work of Christ.