Recent reading: Byzantium, the surprising life of a medieval empire

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Several years ago I had the opportunity of completing a History Honours degree that I had had to leave unfinished because of lack of funds. I had to choose three papers out of several on offer, and one of them was Medieval History. I asked the professor what it covered. “Diplomatic and political history of England, France and Germany,” he told me. I lost interest, and enrolled for courses on other places and periods.

The syllabus illustrates the prejudice among Western historians, from the Renaissance to the present, that Judith Herrin’s book attempts to counter. Perhaps it was just as well that I was put off from taking the course on Medieval history, because this book was not available back then, and so even if the course had covered the so-called Byzantine Empire, I would have lacked an important resource for understanding it.

The term “Byzantine Empire” is itself an invention of Western historians, and a reflection of their prejudices. None of its citizens regarded themselves as Byzantine, or would even have known what it meant. In their own view they were Romans and the empire was the Roman Empire, founded in 753 BC. But even if we do regard it as Byzantine, it lasted for 1123 years, from 330 to 1453, which is longer than any other polity in Europe.

Herrin’s book is about the life of the Empire. She touches on diplomatic and political history, but includes far more. Economics and trade, religion and spiritual life, education, art and everything else. The way she tells the story is fascinating, and she gives a rounded picture.

The book is an excellent introduction for anyone who wants to study Byzantine history in more detail. But even if one reads nothing else on the subject, it plugs a significant gap in many people’s knowledge of world history.

As an Orthodox Christian I found it especially interesting, because it helps to place much church history into context, and especially the divide between the Christian East and West, which was fixed by the Western occupation of Constantinople in 1204. Herrin maintains that it was in an attempt to justify this that the West denigrated the Byzantine empire, and Western historians did so down to the present. Twenty years ago, just before the outbreak of the Wars of the Yugoslav Succession, the Western press was full of op-ed articles trying to re-awaken the old prejudices. We have learnt since that a lot of this was the work of public relations firms hired by Croatian and Slovenian secessionists. Herrin notes the essence of it, quoting an Irish historian, William Lecky

Of that Byzantine empire, the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilization has yet assumed. There has been no other eduring civilization to absolutely destitute of all forms and elements of greatness, and none to which the epithet ‘mean’ may be so emphatically applied… The history of the empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude.

That there were intrigues and conspiracies there can be no doubt, and Herrin describes many of them, but such things were not lacking in the West either, nor, indeed, in other parts of the world. The book is also helpful in understanding Christian-Muslim relations over a period of many centuries.

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Here’s another review, from the person who recommended the book to me: Notes from a Common-place Book: Search results for Herrin: “I finally finished Judith Herrin’s Byzantium: the Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. I highly recommend the work. The book is arranged topically, and is accessible to the general reader, as well as containing enough meat for the more advanced Byzantinist.

The area of Byzantine studies has made great strides since the middle part of the 20th-century. The old stereotypes are falling away, and the civilization is increasingly seen in a new light, both among the general public and academics alike. The author seeks to counter any lingering misconceptions about the Empire among her peers. In her concluding chapter, Herrin chronicles the growth of prejudice against Constantinople in medieval Europe, and how this led to the prejudicial views of Gibbon and other 18th and 19th-century historians.”

The “just war” that was illegal and immoral

Over the last few days I’ve been watching, on Sky News, reports on the British inquiry into British involvement in the Iraqi-American War.

What I’ve heard and seen so far has confirmed my impression at the time, back in 2002-2003, that there was no real reason for the war other than that the leaders of Britain and the US wanted one. It was George Bush’s second, and Tony Blair’s third, since he was also one of the foremost proponents of the Nato war against Yugoslavia in 1999 (see earlier post).

The inquiry evidence is all couched in careful diplomatic terms, presenting the evidence. But for evaluation of the issues at stake, this piece from the Telegraph, of all places, tells it like it is.

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk First find the heart, Tony. Your Attorney General told you, in writing, the year before you invaded, that it would be an entirely illegal enterprise. International law is there for a reason: To prevent the waging of bad wars. And the Iraq war has turned out to be catastrophically and wickedly wrong. Ultimately that is not only about illegality. It is about immorality. The principles of the “just war” have been around since the time of Cicero and, in Christian thought, the principles of jus ad bellum were laid down by Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. They invariably include defence of the innocent and military force as a last resort. Blair’s actions were not only illegal, as now conclusively demonstrated by Lord Goldsmith’s evidence, they were also entirely immoral in the judgment of his own, universal Church. We can only presume that he confessed all this and sought absolution when he was received into the See of Rome.

The war that could have been prevented

Yes, we all knew about this all along, except that many of us didn’t, because it wasn’t the way the story was spun in the Western media.

clipped from www.morningstaronline.co.uk The trial of Radovan Karadzic in The Hague, which has been stalled by the former Bosnian Serb leader’s refusal to show up in court, is likely to be used by the West to justify NATO’s current policy of “humanitarian intervention.” At a time when the NATO-led operation in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly unpopular in countries which have committed troops to this theatre of war, Western officials are likely to propagate the generally accepted notion – created by Western governments to cover up the real, geo-political motives for their involvement in the Yugoslav civil war – that it was NATO intervention which ended the Bosnian war and put an end to Karadzic’s “genocidal policies.” The German government encouraged feelings of nationalist secession within multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, principally in Slovenia and Croatia, with the assistance of Ustashe exiles, second world war-era Croatian fascists.

Record review: “Story” by The Sout Project

I’m not really the right person to ask to write record reviews, and I’ve found this one very difficult to write. It’s not so much a review as my own response to the record, and to and trying to analyse my own response.

Story by the Sout Project collective, was produced in Cape Town. As the producers describe it story | The Sout Project:

This fresh expression of ‘world emergent’ music has been conceived and recorded in Cape Town South Africa.

While deeply engaged in diverse musical traditions and oozing creative musicality ‘Story’ is more than just an album it represents a vision woven into song. Eclectic and ecumenical the music emerges from a spiritual journey which is being shared by many others across the world.

I listened to it a couple of times. It was pleasant. It was OK. But I find it difficult to get excited about it.

I would describe it as “restaurant music” — something to be played as the background to conversation over a meal. There seemed to be remarkably little variation in tempo or volume or style from one song to the next, and that is one of the characteristics that make good restaurant music, something heard in the background, but not overpowering, where no one is listening to the words. In some parts, especially the beginning, this impression was strengthened by the words being drowned by the accompaniment.

Saying that worries me, because it feels like damning with faint praise. So perhaps the fault is with me rather than with the music. That is why I say I am probably the wrong person to be asked to review this kind of music. And I can think of two reasons for that:

First, I’m the wrong generation.

The music in Story might well appeal to young people today, people in their 20s. But I am a child of the 1960s. Back then “contemporary Christian music” was modernist and dull. “Relevance” was all the rage, and most Christian theologians and musicians were trying to make Christianity “relevant” to the modern world, and especially urban industrial society. So most of the hymns of that period oozed modernity, like Ayn Rand’s heroines saluting smoking factory chimneys as signs of entrepreneurship and progress.

God of concrete, God of steel
God of piston, God of wheel

The use of contemporary jargon characterised the “contemporary Christian music” of that period, and there are echoes of this in Story, where there are phrases like “unsustainable ways”. There is some advance, though, in the recognition that the “concrete and steel” lifestyle was not sustainable in the long term, but the use of contemporary “relevant” jargon dates it quickly.

Back in the 1960s the best “contemporary Christian” music (or spiritual, because it wasn’t all Christian) was produced by secular pop groups. Mass in F Minor by the Electric Prunes was one example. But instead of using contemporary “relevant” terms and language, it was actually a setting of the old Latin Mass. They also did a version of the Kol Nidre, the Jewish mourning ritual. There was also Missa Luba, a setting of the Latin Mass to Congolese folk tunes.

But then I asked my son to listen to it, to get a different generation’s opinion, and he said it was not really his kind of music, though he knows some people who would like it.

The second problem is that I am the wrong culture, the wrong church

After being an Orthodox Christian for over 20 years, I suppose my tastes and expectations for spiritual music have changed. Two other Orthodox Christians, both of my generation, listened to Story with me (one was my wife), and their response was more or less the same as mine. It is pleasant enough listening, but doesn’t excite us. My wife said she wouldn’t listen to it at work. She listens to old pop music or Russian chant.

So perhaps it’s a cultural difference as well, or a denominational one, if you prefer.

The producers were clearly aware of the multi-cultural nature of South Africa’s society, and tried to include different languages — English, Zulu, Xhosa, Hindi. There were also different instruments from different cultures, though the differences seemed to be obliterated as all seemed to be shaped into a common style, with a single tempo, a single volume.

It reminded my wife of The Fisherfolk, a Christian group that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s. It reminded me of Era, a group that my son likes, though he didn’t seem to like this one as much.

If Sout are to produce another album, I would suggest that they check the balance of the singing and accompaniment, as the accompaniment often drowns the singing. And also perhaps vary the tempo and volume occasionally. It was the same percussion all the way through that made it seem monotonous. But perhaps that was what is intended, and is part of the signature style of the group, and so it might not be a good suggestion.

I’m sorry I can’t be more positive about it. I feel a bit like the bloke in the car ad a few years ago who said that the car (a Fiat Palio) was nice, and the owner objects. “Nice! You are calling my car ‘nice’? A cup of tea is ‘nice’, Mrs Warren at the nursery school is ‘nice’.” But that’s about all I can say about this record. It was quite pleasant to listen to, it was OK.

But I’m probably the wrong person to ask. I don’t have an iPod, I don’t download music, I don’t listen to podcasts, I don’t even have speakers on the computer on which I’m writing this.

The Bible in five statements

My blogging friend Matt Stone of Glocal Christianity tagged me: Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people.

Here’s my Bible summary:

1. Good
2. Evil enters
3. God sets bounds
4. The Kingdom strikes back
5. Whose side are you on?

I tag: James Hargrave, Matushka Donna, Terry Cowan, Roger Saner, Jenny Hillebrand.

 

The Church as the Liberated Zone

Father Daniel Syosyev, the Moscow missionary priest who was murdered last week, said something very interesting in an interview shortly before his death. He was explaining why Christians should go to Church on Sunday, and his explanation reveals something of what the Church is. You Wish to See Many Miracles – You Should Become a Missionary or a Martyr: Fr. Daniel’s Autobiography and the Interview with Him on the Occasion of the Opening of the Missionary Centre:

If you will, all we Christians are terrorists. We are the members of a rebellious army, which is revolting against the prince of this world (the devil). Churches are linking stations. There we get information from our governing body: ciphers (New Testament), reinforcement (Holy Communion), and we get support through mutual communication. We master all kinds of tricks in order to commit terrorist attacks against the prince of this world, that is, we learn how to do good. Obviously if an agent of the Holy Kingdom shirks attending the headquarters and does not keep in touch with the command center, he can easily get lost, lose his power, and fall in battle.

I have some reservations about the term “terrorist” as a model for Christians. Terrorists are those who use terror-inspiring methods, but as Christians we are to remember that “perfect love casts out fear”. But, as has often been said, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The enemies of freedom like to call freedom-fighters “terrorists”, whether they are really terrorists or not, and in that sense, perhaps one can liken Christians to terrorists. And once I had a bumper sticker that read “Read the Bible: it’ll scare the Hell out of you.” Perhaps the idea of inspiring terror is not entirely absent.

Generally I prefer the image of freedom fighters.

But the thing that interests me especially is that Fr Daniel uses the image of guerrilla warfare. We are revolting against the prince of this world, the devil. And so Father Daniel uses imagery that comes from the ecclesiology of the church as the liberated zone. It is imagery that comes from guerrilla fighters and liberation struggles.

And it is biblical imagery too. The Bible gives the image of the world as enemy-occupied territory. The world lies in the power of the Evil One (I John 5:19). Satan, the devil, is described as the “ruler” or “prince” (archon) of this world. But in the midst of this world, this enemy-occupied territory, our Lord Jesus Christ has established a liberated zone of the Kingdom of God. And the Church inhabits that liberated zone until Christ comes again and the whole world is liberated.

In baptism we are called to leave the enemy-occupied territory, and enter the liberated zone, just as in the Exodus the children of Israel left the realm and jurisdiction of Pharaoh by crossing the Red Sea. So we renounce the devil, and breathe and spit upon him, and we turn to the east, and acknowledge Jesus Christ as our king and our God. We transfer our alliegiance from the devil to Christ, and we are transferred from the “authority of darkness” to the Kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13).

There is a Western hymn

Conquering kings their titles take,
From the lands they captive make;
Jesus, Thine was given Thee
For a world Thou madest free.

another translation from the Latin is worded slightly differently:

Conquering kings their titles take,
from the lands they captive make;
Jesus, by a nobler deed,
from the thousands he hath freed.

In either case the contrast is clear — there are conquerors and liberators, and Jesus is counted among the liberators.

Ironically, perhaps, the hymn was quite popular in Victorian times, and Queen Victoria took one of her titles from one of the lands her soldiers had made captive: Empress of India.

If conquering kings are so bad, why then do we speak of Jesus Christ as a conqueror? doesn’t that make him the opposite of a liberator?

But the symbol of IC XC NIKA (Jesus Christ conquers) actually symbolises the opposite. The letters surround the Cross, which the Romans used to execute their foes and any would-be liberators in the lands they conquered. Jesus Christ did not come to trample upon life and liberty, like the kings of this world led by the Ruler of this World, but to trample down death by death.

I’ve read many words written by Western Christians about the emerging church and the missional church and the emerging missional ecclesiology. But I think the missional ecclesiology of Fr Daniel Syosyev has been around for a long time, for 2000 years or more. “Ecclesiology” is a relatively new subdivision of theology, and only emerged in the 20th century (in the 19th century it was concerned primarily with ecclesiastical architecture). But it seeks to answer the question “What is the Church?” And, if I read him correctly, Fr Daniel answers, in effect, that the Church is the liberated zone of the Kingdom of God in the midst of the enemy-occupied territory that we call “this world”.

I looked for the original Latin from which the hymn “Conquering kings their titles take” was translated, and found a version on this blog here: Bad things in new hymn books and other sad tales: Conquering Kings their titles take:

Victis sibi cognomina
Sumant tyranni gentibus;
Tu, Christe, quanto dignius
Ab his capis quos liberas.

If you know Latin, you can judge for yourself which of the versions above is the better translation.

The blog on which I found it laments that this hymn has been omitted from some modern Western hymnals, and speculates that the reason for this may have been that it was one of those cases where the hymn is condemned because it appears to indicate that we go happily to death for Christ’s sake. You’ll see that, in verse 4, we say “Joyfully for him to die is not death but victory”. Possibly, or possibly the editors of the new hymnals were too squeamish to accept the liberation theology espoused by the hymn.

I don’t know if it was that verse or that sentiment that made them reject the hymn, but look at it:

Rather gladly for that Name
Bear the Cross, endure the shame;
Joyfully for Him to die
Is not death but victory.

I can’t think of a more fitting epitaph for Fr Daniel.

Father Daniel, priest and martyr

Fr Daniel Sysoyev

The murder of Father Daniel Sysoyev last week has shocked Russia. Father Daniel, aged 34, was shot by a masked gunman at St Thomas’s Church in southern Moscow last week. The parish choir director, Vladimir Strelbitsky, was wounded in the shooting.

Father Daniel worked in a multiethnic suburb of Moscow, where people of many different nationalities lived, including many Muslims. He was active in mission and evangelism and more than 30 former Muslims had been baptised in the Church. Shortly before his death Father Daniel said he had received death threats because of his missionary work.

There is an interesting interview with Fr Daniel about his missionary work at Orthodox/Islam — Voices from Russia:

I last met with Fr Daniil just last week… I was going to write an article about his missionary school. He opened it two years ago at his parish, St Thomas church. Classes meet twice a week, the curriculum includes a comparative analysis of Islam and Orthodox Christianity, the strengths and weaknesses of each religion, and in-depth study of both the Koran and the Bible. Fr Daniil, himself half-Tatar in ancestry, was the only priest in Moscow who advocated preaching Orthodoxy amongst the migrants and guest workers. His clerical colleagues called him the “Orthodox Wahhabi” for the fire gleaming in his eyes and his passionate speeches.

Last Sunday was the 24th Sunday after Pentecost — Tone 7 (9th of Luke). Afterfeast of the Entry Into the Temple.

The Prokimenon for Tone 7 has the verse:

The Lord shall give strength to his people
The Lord shall bless his people with peace.

And the Epistle reading, Ephesians 2:14-22, seemed very appropriate for the work of Father Daniel

14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

In his life and ministry Father Daniel tried to bring people from all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds into the inclusive fellowship of the household of God.

But some people do not like that.

In Genesis 12 God promised Abraham that he would make his descendants a powerful nation, and they would be a blessing to all nations. But Abraham’s descendants found it easier to remember the first part than the second. They remembered the “powerful nation” part, but forgot the part about being a blessing to all nations.

And those of us on the new calendar were also commemorating the Afterfeast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple. She came to the old temple, made with hands, but she herself was the new temple, giving birth to the One who would draw all men to Himself.

Today is the prelude of God’s goodwill
and the prophecy of the salvation of men
the virgin appears openly in the temple of God and foretells Christ to all
so let us cry to her with loud voices
rejoice, thou who art the fulfilment of the Creator’s providence.

She who is to give birth to the one who breaks down the wall of separation.

People have recently been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the breaking down of a wall of separation in Berlin, yet even as they celebrate, another wall has arisen in Israel/Palestine. But Christ breaks down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile, between Russian and Azerbajani, between Pedi and Shona, between white and black. He is our peace.

The Lord shall give strength to his people
The Lord shall bless his people with peace.

So I preached on Sunday in Mamelodi. And so Father Daniel preached in Moscow. But he didn’t merely preach it, he lived it, and died for it.

 

Priest shot in Moscow

I received the following e-mail from Fr Maxim Obukhov of Moscow:

Fr Daniel Sysoev shot in Moscow

Fr Daniel Sysoev was of Tartar origin (ethnic Tartar, turk people in the
east of Russia, mostly muslems) had Muslem background. He knew Islam and
Tartar culture and was active missionary, wrote some Christian polemic books
about Islam. His books were not agressive against Islam and muslems, but it
was regular missionary work. They described the difference of Islam and
Christianity. Fr Daniel baptized a number of Muslems. As he wrote in his
blog, that he recieved 14 threats to kill him from islamic radicals.

Fr Daniel was shot yesterday by a man in mask, in the Church of st Thomas,
in the south of Moscow and died in hospital this night.

Fr Maxim Obukhov, Moscow

What is Google installer, and why is it trying to access the Internet?

I just reinstalled Zonealarm on all our computers. After paying for more bandwidth, we ran out in a day. Either some malware us using one or more of our computers for spam, or Telkom’s meters need need recalibrating. No way are we uploading 50 to 70 Megabytes a DAY!

So I reinstalled ZoneAlarm from scratch, not as an update, which means revoking all previous permissions. And then I get lots of messages saying “Google installer is trying to access the Internet”.

Well, I ask SmartAdvisor for advice, and it says:

1. If you do not know what Google Installer is, or why it is trying to connect, deny it permission. You can always grant permission later if you need to.
2. After you deny permission, determine whether Google Installer still performs the functions you need it to. If it does, no further action is required. If it doesn’t, use the Programs tab to grant access permission.

Right, well I don’t know what it is, or why it needs to access the Internet every ten minutes, so I’m denying it permission. Maybe it has been responsible for thase massive uploads.

And then I see these advertisements — get R1500 off your new laptop if you sign a contact for 250 Mb of Internet access each month for two years. 250 Mb? Are they joking? That’s about one day’s Internet access nowadays. And if you work out the cost it’s about 80c a megabyte. Telkom charges about 7c a megabyte, and I can’t afford that at the rate they bill me for it.

 

Nativity Fast blogging challenge – failed

Observations from an Empty Well: 30 (40) Days of Blogging; Calendars, Old and New:

Some of you may have come across the website for The Preacher’s Institute, started by Arizona’s own Fr. John Peck, the priest serving the Orthodox mission church in Prescott. Fr. John is a genuinely good person, and his ‘challenge’ to blog daily for a period of 30 to 40 days during the time of the Nativity Fast is one that I know will be good for me, so I will do my best to take part and to keep up! Now, those of us on the old calendar haven’t entered the Nativity Fast just yet, and won’t do so until November 28th — but for those on the new calendar, the Fast begins today, and thus, so does the blogging challenge.

Well, it’s an interesting Idea, but I’m opting out before starting. I simply won’t be on line every day until the Nativity.

This month Telkom upped our bandwidth allowance to from 3 Gigs to 5 Gigs. By using NoScript (which blocks bandwidth-hogging things like videos and podcasts) I’d managed to extend the cut-off point to the 20th of the month before we had to pay more.

But what happens this month? We have 2 extra Gigs, but we reach the cap on the 12th of the month. I’ve just paid R65.00 for an extra Gig so I can blog this, but I’m not willing to go on paying more and more every month. So next time the bandwidth runs out, I’m not paying. I’ll be content to be e-mail only until some other member of the family feels the need to cough up the extra cash.

But those who are lucky enough to have an ISP that offers unlimited bandwidth might like to go for the blog every day challenge. You can read more about it at Behold, NOW Is The Blogging Time | Preachers Institute