Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 4.2
What you will learn
- Explain the difference between altar and table and how the traditions use each word.
- Describe the early custom of praying toward the east and the later debate over orientation.
- Explain the symbolism claimed for the Orthodox church and its iconostasis.
- Explain how Gothic light symbolism arose and what historians say about it.
The big idea
Church buildings carry meanings that their builders and users have named. The altar or table is the center of the Eucharist, and traditions disagree on whether it is a place of sacrifice or a table of fellowship. Early Christians prayed toward the east, which has shaped church layout. The Orthodox church is an image of the heavenly kingdom, and the Gothic cathedral was designed for light. Some meanings are well documented and others were added by later interpreters, so a student must separate the two.
Key terms
- Altar
- The central place of the Eucharist, traditionally a table of stone or wood. In Catholic and Orthodox teaching it is the place of the sacrifice of Christ made present.
- Holy Table
- The Orthodox and Anglican name for the altar. Reformed churches use communion table.
- Orientation
- The direction in which worshipers and the building face. Early Christians commonly faced east.
- Ad orientem
- Latin for toward the east. A form of celebration in which the priest and people face the same direction.
- Iconostasis
- A screen of icons in an Orthodox church that separates the nave from the sanctuary.
- Sanctuary
- The part of a church around the altar.
- Gothic
- A style of church building that began in France in the twelfth century, with pointed arches, ribbed vaults and large stained glass windows.
Background
The earliest Christian writers describe praying toward the east. Tertullian in the late second and early third century mentions that Christians pray toward the rising sun, and Origen, in On Prayer, says the same and gives a reason: the east is the direction of the light. The east also recalls Paradise in the east (Genesis 2:8) and the return of Christ, which Matthew 24:27 compares to lightning from the east. The Didascalia and later church orders give directions for building churches with the sanctuary at the east end.
Buildings take on meaning in two ways. Their builders and the church’s liturgical commentators give explanations, and visitors and later writers add their own. This lesson tries to say which explanations come from the tradition and which are modern.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Altar and table
The New Testament speaks of the Lord’s table (1 Corinthians 10:21) and of an altar in Hebrews 13:10. From the second and third centuries Christian writers call the place of the Eucharist an altar. Catholic and Orthodox churches use the word altar and teach that the Eucharist is a sacrifice, since it makes present Christ’s one offering. Anglicans use both table and altar, and the Prayer Book of 1552 speaks of the Lord’s Table. Lutherans kept the word altar without teaching that the Mass is a sacrifice offered by the priest. Reformed churches use communion table in order to stress fellowship and to avoid any suggestion of a sacrifice made by the church. These words signal differences in doctrine.
Step 2: Which way to face
For centuries both priest and people faced east during the prayer, which in many churches meant that the priest stood at the altar with his back to the people. In Roman basilicas, by contrast, the altar was often at the west end so that priest and people faced east, toward each other. After Vatican II many Catholic churches placed the altar so that the priest faces the people, which the council did not directly require but which the new Missal assumed as a possibility. Defenders say that it highlights the meal and the gathering. Critics, including Pope Benedict XVI when he was a theologian, argued that it risks turning the assembly in on itself. The Orthodox and many Anglicans and Lutherans keep the eastward position, while others celebrate facing the people. This is a matter of debate, and no tradition denies the other’s sincerity.
Step 3: The Orthodox church
The Orthodox church building has a nave for the people, a sanctuary with the Holy Table at the east end and an iconostasis separating them. Orthodox commentators, such as Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century and later Germanus of Constantinople, interpret the church as an image of the cosmos and as heaven on earth. The dome is the heavens with Christ Pantocrator at its top, and the sanctuary is the place of the divine mystery. The iconostasis has roots in the chancel screen of the early centuries. Its full development with several rows of icons came later, mostly in Slavic lands from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Orthodox believers say that it unites, and does not divide, the people and the sanctuary, because the icons are the saints and Christ present with the people.
Step 4: The Gothic cathedral
Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis, near Paris, rebuilt the choir of his abbey church in the 1140s. He wrote that he wanted the church filled with new light, and he used the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, a late fifth-century or early sixth-century theologian, who spoke of God as light. Many historians have taken Suger as the founder of Gothic style and its light theology. Others caution that Suger’s own words show a love of precious things and of light, but do not show that Gothic cathedrals as a whole were planned according to Dionysian philosophy. Stained glass windows taught Scripture and the lives of saints to a mostly unlettered people, which is a view held by medieval writers such as Gregory the Great, who said of images that they are the books of the unlearned. Not every medieval writer agreed that images should be used to teach.
Step 5: A person alone
Facing east in private prayer is an old custom that anyone may adopt, and no tradition forbids it. A person may also learn the meaning of the elements of a building by visiting, reading or studying. What a person cannot do is turn a table into an altar of the Eucharist or an iconostasis into a sacred screen, for these belong to consecrated places in the traditions that use them. For a person who prays alone, simple surroundings with Scripture and perhaps a candle are sufficient.
- What is at the center of this building?
- In what direction do the people face during prayer, and why?
- Does the tradition call the central object an altar or a table, and what does the name say?
- What reasons do the builders or liturgical writers give for its form?
- How old is the explanation, and who first wrote it?
- Which explanations are doctrinal and which are only pious?
Examples
An iconostasis
An Orthodox parish church has three doors in the iconostasis, with icons of Christ and the Virgin on either side of the central royal doors. The deacon goes in and out through them at set moments in the Liturgy. The arrangement mirrors the church’s teaching that the heavenly kingdom is entered through Christ.
A Reformed table
In a Presbyterian church the communion table stands below the pulpit, with the words In remembrance of me carved on the front. It is a plain wooden table that is used four times a year. The elders carry the elements to the pews.
A Gothic window
The windows of Chartres Cathedral tell Bible stories in colored glass. Historians still discuss how far such windows were designed to teach and how far to express glory.
Different perspectives
Catholic
The altar is both table and sacrifice, and a symbol of Christ himself. The Catechism says that the altar of sacrifice is the table of the Lord around which the people are invited. Churches of different style, from Romanesque to modern, are accepted, so long as they serve the liturgy.
Orthodox
The church is heaven on earth and an icon of the kingdom. The building’s form is received from the tradition and its meaning is given in the commentaries on the Liturgy.
Lutheran and Anglican
The building should serve the preaching of the word and the sacraments. Altar and table are both used, and the churches differ on orientation, decoration and ceremony.
Reformed
The table is a place of fellowship and the building is simple. The pulpit is central so that the word is heard. Beauty is valued by some Reformed traditions but never at the expense of the word.
Scholarly
Art historians stress that later symbolic readings are not always the original intention of builders. Where a medieval source states a meaning, it should be cited, and where it does not, interpretations must be called interpretations.
Why it matters
Understanding the meaning of the altar and the direction of prayer shows how closely worship and doctrine are connected. It also trains a student to ask whether a symbolic explanation comes from the builder, from the church or from a later writer. That habit prevents repeating attractive but unsupported claims, which the last module develops.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Early Christians built every church facing east.
Correction: The preference for the east is early and widespread, but there are many exceptions, including Roman basilicas whose entrance was in the east.
Misunderstanding: Gothic cathedrals were built to a single theological plan.
Correction: Suger’s writings give one important statement of light symbolism, but cathedrals were built over decades by many hands and for many reasons. Symbolic readings need evidence.
Misunderstanding: The iconostasis hides the Liturgy from the people.
Correction: Orthodox teaching says it unites. The doors are opened at points in the service, and the people hear the prayers, and in many places the screen is low or partly open.
Misunderstanding: Altar and table are two names for the same thing in every tradition.
Correction: The two words often carry different doctrines. Choosing one over the other may express a view of the Eucharist as sacrifice or as meal.
Knowledge check
Why did early Christians pray toward the east?
Writers such as Tertullian and Origen mention the custom. The east is the direction of the rising sun and the light, recalls Paradise in the east and the return of Christ compared to lightning from the east. It became a rule in later church orders.
What does the choice of altar or table signal?
Altar usually signals the understanding of the Eucharist as sacrifice, in Catholic and Orthodox teaching. Table is preferred by Reformed churches to stress fellowship, and Anglicans and Lutherans use both words in different ways.
How do Orthodox commentators interpret the church building?
They see it as an image of the cosmos and of heaven, with the dome as the heavens and the sanctuary as the place of the divine mystery. The iconostasis unites the people and the sanctuary. Its later form with several rows developed from the fourteenth century in Slavic lands.
What do historians say about Suger and Gothic light?
Suger wrote of filling his church with light and used Dionysian ideas, and many see him as an originator of Gothic. Others caution that his texts do not prove that Gothic cathedrals generally were designed to Dionysian theology.
Think it through
- What does the position of the pulpit and the altar say about what the church considers most important?
- Is it good for the priest to face the people or the east, and what is the best argument for the other side?
- How might beauty serve faith, and how might it distract?
- How could you tell whether a claim about a building’s symbolism is old or new?
Independent assignment
Check a symbolic claim
In your own notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Choose one symbolic claim about a church building, such as that the nave is a ship, the dome is heaven or the windows are books for the unlearned. Find the earliest source that states it, give its date and state whether it is the builder’s own explanation or a later commentary. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church Read selectively on the Orthodox view of symbol and image.
- Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church Read the description of the church building and its services.
- Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World See how an Orthodox theologian speaks about the church building as part of worship.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Look up the section on the altar and sacred places.
- 1 Corinthians 10:21 The table of the Lord.
- Hebrews 13:10 We have an altar.
- Matthew 24:27 As the lightning comes from the east.