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WOS module test > Definitions > Flashcards

Definitions Flashcards

1
Q

Polytheism

A

the worship of multiple gods, as practised by most cultures in the ancient world

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2
Q

Old Testament (4)

A
  • (Tanakh - hebrew)
  • Hebrew scriptures sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
  • collection of writings by different authors in different centuries, including the Creation story, sayings of the prophets, Psalms of David, histories of the Israelites
  • The oldest fragments of these texts date from the 2nd century BC
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3
Q

New Testament (3)

A
  • 27 books written in Greek by early Christians, including the Gospel, Epistles and Revelation.
  • All of these texts were written no later than the mid-2nd century AD.
  • ALL later saints are modelled in some way on figures from the New (or sometimes Old) Testament.
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4
Q

Gospel (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • From Greek: ‘good news’

- Four texts written about the life of Christ written by Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.

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5
Q

Synoptic (greek meaning)

A
  • From Greek: ‘see together’.
  • The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as synoptic - because theyre similar in content and structure.
  • John’s Gospel is very differe
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6
Q

Canonical (3)

A
  • A book of the Bible that has received the official approval of the Church.
  • Books that have not received such approval are known as non-canonical or apocryphal.
  • (Some books can be canonical in some churches but non-canonical in others.)
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7
Q

Evangelist (2)

A
  • One of the four writers of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
  • They provide models for scholarly saints, especially theologians, bishops and monks.
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8
Q

Theotokos (3) (greek meaning)

A
  • Greek: ‘God-bearer’
  • an epithet for Mary, the mother of Jesus.
  • In Orthodox churches she is usually referred to as the Mother of God, rather than the Virgin Mary.
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9
Q

Apostle (4) (greek meaning)

A
  • From Greek: ‘send out’.
  • One of the twelve disciples of Jesus who went out to spread the teachings of Jesus.
  • More generally, anyone who is particularly successful at spreading the Christian faith, including missionaries such as Paul or rulers who converted their nations.
  • They provide models for missionaries, teachers and other saints
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10
Q

John the Baptist (4)

A
  • Born slightly earlier than Jesus and baptised him.
  • Lived in the wilderness and urged people to be baptised
  • A model for monks and hermits.
  • In Orthodox churches, he is usually referred to as John the Forerunner.
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11
Q

Mary Magdalene (2)

A
  • described in the Gospels as one of the women who ministered to Jesus, first witness of the Resurrection.
  • A model for female saints and repentant sinners.
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12
Q

martyr (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • a person who is killed for his or her Christian faith.

- From Greek, ‘witness’

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13
Q

hagiography (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • any literature about saints.

- From Greek, ‘writing about the sacred/saints’

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14
Q

vita (2) (latin meaning)

A
  • (plural vitae): an account of the life of a saint.

- Latin, ‘life’ (Slavonic, zhitiia)

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15
Q

acta (2) (latin meaning)

A
  • the official records of the trials of martyrs, also used to describe all narratives of martyrs’ trials and deaths.
  • Latin, ‘deeds’
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16
Q

passio (2) (latin meaning)

A
  • an account of the death of a martyr.

- Latin, ‘suffering’

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17
Q

confessor

A

someone who declares his/her Christian faith and refuses to renounce it under interrogation and/or torture, but is not actually killed

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18
Q

Montanists (3)

A
  • Christian sect founded c. 170 in Asia Minor
  • emphasised martyrdom, prophecy and rigor and rejected more ‘mainstream’ forms of Christianity.
  • It had a number of women leaders.
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19
Q

Solar monotheism

A

worship of the sun or Apollo as a single god; a popular practice in late antiquity.

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20
Q

Chi-rho monogram

A

an early Christian symbol, consisting of the first two letters of the word ‘Christ’ in Greek (Christos).

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21
Q

Donatists

A
  • A Christian group that argued the sacraments (baptism & holy communion) performed by clergy who compromised themselves during the persecutions were not valid
  • Defeated at Constantine’s first church council in 314
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22
Q

Trinity

A

basic Christian belief that God exists in three persons (hypostases): Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The precise relationship among these persons was a matter of intense debate in the early Church.

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23
Q

Arius (3)

A
  • a priest from Alexandria
  • argued that the Father had created the Son out of nothing before the beginning of time.
  • He was defeated at the first ecumenical council in Nicaea in 325, presided over by Constantine, which stated that the Father and the Son were co-eternal.
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24
Q

Eusebius (2)

A
  • biographer of Constantine

- author of an early history of the church, on which many later histories are based.

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25
Q

Homily

A

a religious discourse intended primarily for spiritual edification, sometimes about a certain saint and read out on his/her feast day.

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26
Q

Primary relics

A

body parts of a saint or holy person

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27
Q

secondary relics

A

things with which the holy person has come into contact (e.g. the True Cross).

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28
Q

reliquaries

A

special container where relics are kept, usually out the eye of the public

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29
Q

incorrupt body

A

bodies of saints that did not decay, proving their saintliness - particularly in east slavic orthodoxy

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30
Q

antimension

A

altar cloth on which the Eucharist (bread and wine symbolising the body and blood of Christ) is prepared. In the Orthodox Church, this must contain relics in a special pouch.

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31
Q

synaxarion (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • a collection of brief saints’ lives arranged by feast day in calendar order (September-August) to be read out during church services
  • from the greek ‘gathering, assembly’
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32
Q

Synaxarion of Constantinople (4)

A
  • compiled in the 10th century, became standard throughout the Byzantine Empire
  • has a saint for every day of the year
  • was translated into Slavonic (the Slavonic version is called the prolog)
  • but regional variations in the text soon appeared.
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33
Q

menologion (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • a collection of full versions of fewer saints’ lives, also arranged by feast day in calendar order.
  • from the greek for month
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34
Q

Symeon Metaphrastes (5)

A
  • (‘the paraphraser’),
  • 10th century
  • his work involved standardising the language and style of older texts into high literary Greek.
  • He is best known for his 10-volume Greek menologion
  • also known as the Logothete
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35
Q

Bollandists

A

a division of Jesuits who continue to publish materials related to hagiography

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36
Q

Acta Sanctorum

A
  • an encyclopaedic text examining the lives of Christian saints
  • Planned by Heribert Rosweyde
  • Continued by John Bollandus
  • Between 1643 and 1940, 67 volumes of Greek and Latin hagiography were published, arranged by feast day in calendar order
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37
Q

Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca (BHG) (3)

A
  • an index of all known published and unpublished Greek hagiographic sources
  • arranged alphabetically by saint’s name,
  • assigns a unique number to each source
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38
Q

Monk (3) (greek meaning)

A
  • a person of either sex
  • live a life of celibacy and poverty devoted to God.
  • From Greek, ‘solitary’.
39
Q

Athanasius

A
  • Bishop of Alexandria in the fourth century
  • an opponent of the Arian heresy.
  • wrote the Life of Anthony, which was partly a vehicle for anti-Arian propaganda.
40
Q

Arian heresy (Arianism) (3)

A
  • the Son was not fully divine and had been created by the Father before the beginning of time.
  • His opponents argued that the Son was both fully divine and fully human.
  • The Arians were defeated at the Council of Nicaea in 325
41
Q

white martyrdom

A

Monasticism, in contrast to the red martyrdom of blood suffered by the early martyrs during the persecutions.

42
Q

Hermit (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • a reclusive monk who has little contact with other monks or laypeople.
  • From Greek, ‘desolate’.
43
Q

Coenobitic monastery (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • a monastery where monks live as part of a community and share meals, work and prayer. - - From Greek, ‘common life’
44
Q

coenobiarch

A

head of a coenobitic monastery

45
Q

St Pachomios (3) (dates)

A
  • (c. 292-346) a younger contemporary of Anthony,
  • a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity
  • founded the earliest coenobitic communities in Egypt
46
Q

Rule (4) (+ example)

A
  • a set of instructions for how life is to be lived in a certain monastery,
  • governing everything from prayer to cooking to election of the superior.
  • New monasteries might adopt their own rules, or choose a modified form of an existing one, e.g. the Studite Rule
  • also known as a typikon
47
Q

Hegumen (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • the head of a monastery, equivalent to an abbot/abbess. (Slavonic igumen)
  • From Greek, ‘leader’.
48
Q

Archimandrite (3) (greek meaning)

A
  • originally equivalent to hegumen
  • came to refer to the head of a particularly important monastery or several monasteries.
  • From Greek, ‘leader of a flock’.
49
Q

St Theodore of Studios (2)

A
  • head of the Studite Monastery in Constantinople,
  • developed a very detailed set of instructions for monastic life known as the Studite Rule, which was used or adapted by many subsequent monasteries, including in the Orthodox Slavonic world.
50
Q

Laura / idiorhythmic monastery (4) (2 greek meanings - one for each)

A
  • Lavra - From Greek, ‘alley’.
  • idiorrhythmic -From Greek, ‘personal arrangement’.
  • a collection of hermits who lived independently for most of the week but met on Saturdays and Sundays for common meals and worship.
  • Later, the term lavra also came to refer to any particularly large or important monastery
51
Q

Asceticism (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • the practice of self-denial by various means in pursuit of spiritual perfection.
  • From Greek, ‘to train, practice’ (usually with reference to athletes in Classical Greek).
52
Q

Anchorite/anchoress (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • a type of hermit who lived in a small enclosed space and only communicated with the outside world through an opening hermit.
  • From Greek, ‘to withdraw’.
53
Q

Holy Fool (3) (greek and russian translation)

A
  • the Greek term is salos, modern Russian iurodivyi
  • an unflattering term for a person with a physical disfigurement.
  • a person who voluntarily take up the guise of insanity in order to conceal their perfection and make other christain’s consider their faith
54
Q

Stylite (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • ascetic who lives on top of a pillar.

- From Greek, ‘pillar’

55
Q

Grazers or Boskoi (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • hermits who lived in the desert and ate only what they could find growing.
  • From Greek, ‘to nourish, graze’.
56
Q

Mt Athos (3)

A
  • peninsula in northern Greece with a large number of monasteries, the earliest of which was founded in 963.
  • It has representative monasteries from every Orthodox nation
  • is semi-independent and self-governing.
57
Q

Bishop (5) (greek meaning)

A
  • From Greek, ‘overseer’ (episkopos).
  • a leadership role in the earliest Christian communities
  • by the 2nd century was recognised as the sole leader in each city or area.
  • A bishop’s territory is a diocese.
  • Increasingly from the mid-5th century, they were not allowed to marry and were mainly chosen from monks
58
Q

elders’ (‘presbyters’) (4)

A
  • early church leaders whose role probably overlapped with that of the overseers at first
  • eventually developed into that of priest
  • someone leads services for a single parish.
  • Presbyters are subject to their local bishops.
59
Q

Deacon (also deaconess) (3) (original meaning)

A
  • originally meant ‘minister’ or ‘servant’
  • referred to someone who assisted the overseer with day-to-day tasks.
  • Later they became primarily the assistants of priests
60
Q

Ordination (2)

A
  • ceremony in which a person is made a deacon, priest or bishop.
  • Ordained leaders are distinguished from the laity, who are not ordained
61
Q

Church Fathers (3) (+6 examples)

A
  • a group of particularly influential bishops who are known for their theological writings.
  • Mainly lived in the 4th century
  • includes the Cappadocian Fathers (first 3)
  • Basil the Great (330-79),
  • Gregory of Nyssa (335-94),
  • Gregory of Nazianzus (330-90))
  • John Chrysostom (347-407),
  • Cyril of Alexandria (378-444)
  • Athanasios of Alexandria (296-373).
62
Q

patristics

A

a discipline that is devoted to studying the Church Fathers.

63
Q

Ecumenical Council (2)

A
  • a gathering of bishops (in theory, all bishops in the Christian world) to decide matters of doctrine, resolve disputes, etc.
  • The Orthodox Church recognizes 7 such councils which took place between 325 and 787.
64
Q

Five Ancient Patriarchates

A
  • largest territories within the church
  • Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople and Rome.
  • The first three of these were captured by Arabs in the seventh century, leaving only Constantinople and Rome under Christian governments.
65
Q

in communion

A

Churches which are in communion with each other recognise each other as fully legitimate.

66
Q

in schism

A

Churches which have irreconcilable differences are in schism. Schisms can be healed, however.

67
Q

Moravia

A
  • Slavonic kingdom in central Europe, originally converted to Christianity by German missionaries.
  • In 862, the ruler Rastislav appealed to the Byzantine emperor Michael III for new missionaries who could propagate the religion in the local language (cryil and methodius)
68
Q

Constantine-Cyril and Methodius (4) (dates)

A
  • Constantine-Cyril (826-869) and Methodius (818-885) - 9th century
  • brothers from the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki
  • given the task of inventing a new Slavonic alphabet (Glagolitic) and translating the Scriptures into Slavonic.
  • (Cyril was a monastic name which Constantine took on his deathbed, but he is often referred to using only that name.)
69
Q

Old Church Slavonic (3)

A
  • language devised by Constantine-Cyril and Methodius for translation of the Gospels and other church books.
  • It was similar to the south Slavonic dialect spoken where the brothers grew up in northern Greece but had a more complex vocabulary and grammar
  • (the language used for the earliest translations of Christian scripture into Slavonic)
70
Q

Glagolitic (2)

A
  • an alphabet invented for Slavonic by Constantine-Cyril.

- Most of its letters seem to be unrelated to those of any other alphabet.

71
Q

Cyrillic (2)

A
  • alphabet based on Greek which eventually replaced Glagolitic in most Orthodox Slavonic regions.
  • It was probably devised by Methodius’ followers in the late 9th century and named after Cyril.
72
Q

Khazars (2)

A
  • a Turkic tribe which ruled an empire in the Caucasus/Black Sea steppe in the early medieval period.
  • Despite having a longstanding alliance with Byzantium, the ruling elite converted to Judaism between the mid-8th and early 9th centuries.
73
Q

The Macedonian Dynasty (2) (+4 examples)

A
  • ruled the middle Byzantine Empire from 867-1056
  • they oversaw significant victories against the Arabs, a revival of learning and the rise of encyclopaedism, as well as missionary work among the Slavs.
  • Basil I ‘The Macedonian’
  • Leo VI ‘The Wise’
  • Constantine VII Porphyrogennitos
  • Basil II ‘The Bulgar-Slayer’
74
Q

Encyclopaedism (3)

A
  • Intellectual movement of the 9th and 10th centuries
  • focused on the organization and classification of knowledge in standard formats.
  • In the realm of hagiography, this resulted in the production of new synaxaria and menologia which contained edited versions of older vitae rewritten in literary Greek
75
Q

Bulgars (4)

A
  • Turkic tribe from the Volga region, part of which migrated to the eastern Balkans in the 7th century
  • ruled over Slavs of this region
  • They eventually became slavicised but gave their name to the Slavs of the region (Bulgarians).
  • The leader Khan Boris I (r. 852-889) oversaw the conversion to Christianity in 865.
76
Q

Duklja/Dioclea (3)

A
  • Slavonic state that was the major power in the early middle ages
  • became known as Zeta from the late 11th c. and Montenegro from the 15th.
  • From the late 11th c Raška became the most powerful region. This name is often used interchangeably with Serbia.
77
Q

Stefan Nemanja (3) (dates)

A
  • (monastic name Simeon) was ruler of Raška, 1167-96.
  • He founded the dynasty which ruled until 1371
  • took over most other Serbian lands.
78
Q

Rastko (4)

A
  • (monastic name Sava)
  • Nemanja’s youngest son who became a monk on Mt Athos
  • the first Archbishop of Serbia.
  • Founder, along with his father, of Hilandar Monastery and other coenobitic monasteries
79
Q

Rus (3)

A
  • the proper name for the first East Slavonic state, the predecessor of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
  • (‘Rus’ was originally the name of a group of Vikings who were active in the east.)
  • Kiev was the most important city in Rus from the 10th-13th centuries.
80
Q

St Olga (3)

A
  • regent of Rus from 945-c. 963
  • she was baptised in Constantinople with the emperor Constantine VII as godfather.
  • Her son Sviatoslav (died 972) refused to accept Christianity.
81
Q

St Vladimir (4)

A
  • son of Sviatoslav, grandson of Olga
  • In the early 980s he led a pagan reaction against encroaching Christianity
  • in about 988 he was baptised and decreed Christianity the new official religion.
  • His younger sons Boris and Gleb, who died in a succession struggle following his death, were the first of many saints of the ‘martyred prince’ type from Rus.
82
Q

St Xenia of St Petersburg

A

a holy fool who lived on the streets of the capital in the 18th century and had a huge popular following.

83
Q

St Sergei of Radonezh (3)

A
  • hermit who lived in forests outside Moscow in the 14th century.
  • Eventually a monastery grew up around him, which today is one of the major centres of Russian Orthodoxy.
  • Monks from this monastery followed in Sergei’s footsteps by founding new monasteries in wild and inhospitable places, especially the far north.
84
Q

St Stephen of Perm (2)

A
  • missionary who devised new alphabet for the Finno-Ugric Komi people of Siberia in the 14th century
  • became the first bishop of the area.
85
Q

St Innocent of Alaska (2)

A
  • priest who worked as a missionary in Alaska from the 1820s-40s
  • he learned local languages, devised alphabets for them, and translated Scripture.
86
Q

Equal to the Apostles (3)

A
  • title bestowed on people who made great strides in spreading Christianity in new areas, e.g. Constantine the Great, Boris of Bulgaria, and Olga and Vladimir of Rus.
  • This title usually applies to the ruler
  • saintly missionaries are often known as ‘Apostles to the [name of the nation]’
87
Q

Martyred Prince (3)

A
  • this phenomenon was unknown in Byzantium but was widespread in the Viking world, including Rus, and also occurred in central Europe.
  • Most of these rulers were not killed for their faith, but were victims of some sort of power struggle.
  • Despite claims that this represented an entirely new type of sainthood, many aspects of their cults are rooted in the cults of martyrs.
88
Q

Builder/Defender of the Realm (3)

A
  • these rulers often built churches or monasteries
  • fought off invaders
  • sometimes took monastic vows late in life.
89
Q

Icon

A
  • a religious work of art, most commonly painted on wood panels
  • it is supposed to represent the saint as they would exist in heaven, so without the ailments of their previous life
  • it is a gateway to heaven in a way
90
Q

Typikon (2) (greek meaning)

A
  • From Greek “that of the prescribed form”
  • a set of regulations prescribing the administrative organization and rules of behavior of a cenobitic monastery as well as its liturgical observances (Rule or monastic rule)
91
Q

what is the life cycle of relics? (4)

A
  • invention (discovery),
  • translation (move to a new location)
  • adventus (formal greeting upon arrival with a church ceremony)
  • deposition in its new resting place
92
Q

What is black clergy and what is the order? (7)

A

(monastic)

  • archimandrite (oversees many monasteries)
  • hegumen (oversees a single monastery)
  • skhima (Monks whose abbots feel they have reached a high level of spiritual excellence reach - they take the strictest monastic vows)
  • stavrophore
  • rassaphore
  • novice
93
Q

what is white clergy and what is the order?

A

(non-monastic)

  • Patriarch (largest territories)
  • Metropolitan (large provinces)
  • Archbishop (large cities)
  • bishop (cities) (top 4 are all types of bishop with different territory sizes)
  • priest (oversees parish)
  • deacon (assist the priest) (last two may marry but cant become bishops)

WOS module test (2 decks)

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