4 ms·

> the popes started insisting that the priests … turn their back on the audience. I don't think that's true: priests' backs aren't turned towards the congregat

• gumby 9y ago
  Indeed that is how it is framed. But IIRC (it's been years since I learned these things) the real "problem" addressed was that, particularly in the christianization of the scandinavians and goths, if you defeated them in battle they were happy to add Jesus to their stable of gods to call upon, as that one had been handy for the other side. In addition, as I mentioned, local priests were relying on faulty memory and taking local custom into account when discussing matters ecclesiastical. i'd think that wouldn't be at all bad in a religion, but I can see how it is destructive to corporate structure. It appears that the point was to infuse additional magic into the ritual and remove a large chunk of autonomy from the local providers.
  • zeveb 9y ago
    That still wouldn't make sense, since the exact same set-up was common in the Eastern Roman Empire, which had been thoroughly Christian for almost half a millennium by that point in time. Honestly, it sounds a bit like a just-so story. Wikipedia indicates at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_orientem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_orientem indicates that pre-Christian sects like the Essenes practised it, and that Origen (second & third centuries) & Clement of Alexandria (second century) both mention it.