Date of Award
Summer 2006
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Hills, Julian V.
Second Advisor
Golitzin, Alexander G.
Third Advisor
Johnson, Mark F.
Abstract
The Biblical Odes constitutes a subject that is simultaneously intriguing, perplexing, and ephemeral. Perhaps partly for this reason it is poorly understood even by many scholars. The Biblical Odes lie at the nexus of Bible and liturgy, and they form both a discrete work as well as a collection of texts that blend readily into the background of the larger biblical works that form their ultimate context. These are some of the characteristics that attracted me as a student seeking a topic for full-length treatment as the culminating achievement of my formal theological education. My introduction to the Biblical Odes actually predates by a significant interval any scholarly interest I took in them. I first encountered the compendium as an aspect of Eastern Orthodox worship, as a component part of the - especially lenten - daily cycle of monastic prayer. Had I not encountered them in that setting, where assimilating them formed a part of the discipline under which we lived, I would likely not now be writing this study.