ND: I
am a first-generation American, the son of post-World War II immigrants
from Ukraine and grandson of an Orthodox priest. While not a
stereotypical "PK," I essentially grew up in and around a rectory and
took great pleasure in singing with the church choir. After graduating
from the University of Minnesota with a BS in Business in 1994, I took
my first job with St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral in Minneapolis as their
music director. I received my M.Div. from St. Vladimir's Seminary in
2000, worked as a product manager at Augsburg Fortress Publishers until
2003, graduated from The Catholic University of America with a Ph.D. in
liturgical studies and sacramental theology in 2008 (with a short stint
as marketing manager at the USCCB from 2007-9), and accepted an
appointment as assistant professor of theological studies at Loyola
Marymount University in Los Angeles, where I also direct the Huffington
Ecumenical Institute.
AD: What led you to work in the areas of liturgical theology, and in particular on the question of Theophany and water blessing?
Well,
when I turned 18, after a lifetime of praying in my non-native language
(Ukrainian), I honestly began the process of "faith seeking
understanding." A friend gave me a copy of Alexander Schmemann's book Liturgy and Life
which I eagerly read. I continued to read Schmemann
in my quest to understand liturgy, which I had actively engaged as a
choir director. One motivation was my own need to teach liturgical music
and to demonstrate to singer how music is a servant of the liturgy; the
only way to accomplish this was to learn liturgical structures, history,
and theology. My interest in the Theophany water blessing began in a
seminar on the Holy Spirit I took with my Doktorvater
, Dominic Serra, in
2004. My desire was to unpack the mystery of the so-called "double
epiclesis" of the "Great are You" prayer, and my entrance into the
project became something much more significant and definitive.
AD: Among several outstanding things about your study I found two
especially commendable. First is your ecumenical focus in which you
don't just confine yourself to the Byzantine tradition but also examine
other Eastern traditions as well as Roman Catholic and Anglican
liturgical treatments of Epiphany and blessings. Is there evidence of
Eastern traditions influencing the Western, or vice versa?
ND:
There is no doubt that the Anglican water blessing draws
upon elements of the Byzantine and perhaps Armenian traditions, which
are then synthesized in a beautiful blend of Theophany and Western
Epiphany themes of "greeting," an anticipation (as it were) of the
second coming. In other words, it's as if the Baptism of Jesus at the
Jordan has a powerful eschatological flavor in anticipating his
revelation as Lord and God at the end of days. More work needs to be
done in this area. A Hungarian scholar is about to publish a critical
edition of the blessing of waters in Latin which appears to draw heavily
upon Greek euchological sources, so there is some evidence of East
influencing West, in both medieval and contemporary sources.
AD: You draw on a wonderful array of people in your
work, including some very prominent names in Roman Catholic, Byzantine
Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox circles, inter alia. Is it possible
today (in the shadow of
Baumstark as it were) to do liturgical theology
using anything other than such a comparative method?
ND: Employing the comparative method is essential for writing
liturgical history, and I humbly consider myself to be an adherent of
the Baumstark-Mateos-Taft school of comparative liturgy, with special
thanks to Mark Morozowich (Dean of the School of Theology and Religious
Studies at The Catholic University of America), who carefully taught me
the method. My work is also one of sacramental theology, and here, I
employed Monsignor Kevin Irwin's method of Context and Text, an
enormously valuable method for gleaning liturgical theology. Liturgical
Studies is gradually becoming interdisciplinary, and I think we will see
these methods evolve, develop, and grow, especially now, since the
liturgical movement and its fruits are increasingly scrutinized and
criticized in Catholic and Orthodox circles.
AD: The second thing I greatly cheered was your
chapter "Pastoral Considerations." Some liturgical scholars see their
task as largely confined to narrating history, which is said to be
"instructive but not normative." But you don't confine yourself only to
history: you put forward some very interesting practical-pastoral
proposals. Tell us what led you to do that.
ND:
The task of liturgical history is to inform, and not
reform. Two of the best liturgical historians of our time, Taft and
Maxwell Johnson, have been quoted accordingly. In the case of the
blessing of waters, we are speaking of a living tradition, a real
practice in which people participate. In the case of the blessing of
waters, history can inform contemporary practice, especially since the
Theophany feast occurs right after the New Year, when most people have
returned to work (even academics!). This feast is beloved to Eastern
Christians: why not maximize and optimize participation? The models I
propose are really not attempts to reform, but instead a fine-tuning--pastoral adjustments that are designed to provide people with greater
access to the blessings of the feast. My proposals concerning Catholic
and Reformed churches draw upon the Roman tradition of adaptation and
are offered in the spirit of ecumenical gift-exchange.
AD: The current Ecumenical Patriarch, as I'm sure
you're aware, is often called the
"green patriarch" for his concern
about ecological issues. Do you see the theology of water blessing as
connected to current concerns for the environment?
ND:
Yes, absolutely. The blessing of waters reveals all of
creation as holy, and water, symbolized by the Jordan, is the locus for
salvation. All of creation participates in the praise of God as holy, of
Christ as Lord, in this feast. Water is God's preferred instrument of
salvation, a gift to humanity of restoration to the community of the
Trinity. The ecumenical patriarch often referred to the blessing of
waters in his many speeches and homilies as a demonstration of
Orthodoxy's prioritization of ecological stewardship. I contend in this
study that the blessing of waters essentially demands that the Church
contribute to the global task of developing a new ethos of water; we
have much to contribute from our lived tradition.
AD: Your introduction notes that there is a question,
in the Theophany prayers, as to the identity of the one to whom the
prayers are addressed. You then note the possibility that perhaps not
all prayers are addressed to the Father through Christ, but to Christ
directly, and this may pose a challenge to traditional Trinitarian
theology from John of Damascus onward and its resolute insistence on
"protecting" the "monarchia" of the Father. Say a bit more about this if
you would, including some of the ecumenical implications.
ND:
The euchology and hymnography of the blessing of waters
is distinctly Christological. The texts, together with the ritual action
of submerging the cross into the waters, tell the story. The Church
invokes her head, Christ, to sanctify the waters by entering them; the
Spirit bears witness to this entrance. Comparative liturgy not only
confirms, but strengthens this thesis, as the Christological trajectory
of the rite is even more prevalent in the Oriental tradition. I contend
that the blessing of waters should be consulted as a source
in Trinitarian theology, because the rite clearly contradicts the
longstanding and fatuous claim that all prayer must be addressed to the
Father. My invitation to theologians is to consider the ecclesiological
framework of prayer when the Church as the body calls upon the head,
Christ, to act. Some might say that this framework only concerns the
economy of the Trinity, and that the monarchy of the Father as the
source of divinity for the three persons of the Trinity is not
threatened by the framework. My hope is that this framework might be
useful in an ecumenical context to advance the notion that the filioque clause can no longer be cited as a Church-dividing issue, and that
theologians might recognize the dynamics of Trinitarian prayer and
activity in the Theophany blessing of waters as a demonstration of
fluidity in the divine economy.
AD: Why is it that Theophany ("Jordan") in the East
retains, it seems to me (at least among the East-Slavs, with whom I am
most familiar), such a place of popularity in the yearly liturgical
cycle? Is there something unique about this blessing that people, even
without perhaps articulating the whole theology of the feast, grasp in
their piety?
ND:
Among many people of the Byzantine tradition,
the Theophany feast carries a strong popular parallel to Christmas, with
carols, and traditional foods, not to mention a similar liturgical
structure. There are many potential reasons for the popularity of the
Theophany feast, but if I were asked to focus on one, it's the simple
human need for water. Somtimes, in a hyperacademic drive to unveil an
original theological idea, we overanalyze texts and contexts and
overlook the obvious. On Theophany, the people take the blessed water
home and use it throughout the year. The churches are packed on similar
occasions when food and drink are blessed: on Transfiguration, we bless
fruits, and take them home, and of course on Pascha, pastors have to
schedule multiple basket blessings. In the moment, we tend to complain
about the apparently trite attitude of the people, who don't recognize
receiving the Eucharist as the authentic meaning of feast. But it's
erroneous to dismiss the people's recognition that the sacred is welcome
in their domiciles. Whatever we bring to Church, whether it's water for
the Theophany feast, bread and wine for communion, eggs and other
savory foods for Pascha baskets, fruit for Transfiguration, or flowers
for Dormition, the act of bringing such items to Church is authentic
offering and thanksgiving, a recognition that these domestic foods and
elements are holy gifts from God freely given to us for our
enjoyment. These traditions so dear to the people also serve as stark
reminders that the domestic setting, the family (small or extended), is
sacred, and that there is no real separation between the holy space of
the Church and that of the home. The time has arrived for pastors to
recognize these instances as opportunities to build upon what people
themselves already recognize, that God is always with us, everywhere we
go, and especially in the gifts of creation He has entrusted to our
stewardship. These examples represent strong liturgical episodes (to
paraphrase Monsignor Kevin Irwin), and not only should we be thankful
for them, but we should also recognize the divine philanthropy
they convey to us.
AD: Sum up for us what you hope the
The Blessing of Waters and Epiphany: The Eastern Liturgical Tradition accomplishes.
ND: I hope the book will be informative for broad audiences.
There used to be a saying about Eastern Christianity in North America that it's a well-kept secret. Scholarship on the Eastern Church and her
traditions has begun the process of demythologizing Eastern
Christianity. Today, almost everyone knows about icons, and among
theologians, terms such as hesychasm and theosis are well-known. That
said, there are many other Eastern secrets that could be unveiled and
have the capacity to tell a more comprehensive narrative story that
complements what most people already know about Eastern Christianity. My
hope is that this book will provide insights into Eastern Christian
liturgical theology that demonstrate its diversity within the tradition,
its theological fluidity, and its incredibly beautiful Christology,
still experienced in a lived tradition.
AD: Finally, tell us what projects you are working on now.
ND: I'm
writing a book on Chrismation for Western Christians. The premise of my
book is that within the Byzantine tradition, Chrismation, like its
Western sibling (Confirmation), is also a mystery in search of a
theology. My book (under contract with Liturgical Press) endeavors to
unpack the liturgical theology of Chrismation in dialogue with the
Catholic and Reformed traditions, to take a step towards retrieving the
theology of Chrismation. I'm also steadily working on an architecture
project profiling select Orthodox parishes in America. My project
endeavors to recast the theology of architecture as multifaceted, and no
longer an instance of form following function. My thesis contends that
contemporary architecture conveys the narrative story of ecclesial
communities with the local Church's mission now the primary shaper of
architectural form.
(Continuum, 2011), 272pp. 
