Coming Near to the Ethiopian Church

As a recent convert to Eastern Orthodoxy (Orthodox Church in America), I find the similarities between the Byzantine aesthetic and the Coptic/Ethiopian aesthetic striking. The differences really amount to variations in the folk sensibilities of the respective traditions. The iconongraphy of the Ethiopian church has fewer formal limitations than the Russian Byzantine 

forms that I venerate in my own parish. The Oriental Churches (Armenian, Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopian, and Indian), are less influenced by Greek Classicism than the Byzantine Eastern Churches. I appreciate the loyalty to form found in the Eastern Churches but I greatly admire the leeway available to the Oriental Churches and what it adds to the aesthetic of their traditions. 

Holy Tradition elevates martyrs to a high degree of adoration. The difference between the manner in which Eastern and Oriental churches choose to remember their martyrs exemplifies these aesthetic variations. Speaking for the traditions with which I am most familiar, the Russian religious aesthetic reflects a higher degree of piety than that of the Ethiopians. As brutal as Russian history is, the Russian Church reflects a more refined, European sensibility when it comes to visual depictions of Christian martyrs. Likewise, Ethiopian history is a story of horrible brutality and suffering. Ethiopians, however, identify closely with the suffering of martyrs and, whether consciously or unconsciously, value suffering enough to canonize the sickeningly real images of suffering. Take the following examples from canonical materials of the Ethiopian Church:

The Slaughter of the Innocents 

The beheading of a martyr. 

One would be hard-pressed to find any Church-sanctioned art this visceral in any Eastern Orthodox tradition. I am told that these types of depictions exist in the Coptic and Armenian traditions but I have not searched them out for myself. Despite the differences in their aesthetic sensibilities, all of the points of convergence between the Russian and Ethiopian liturgies and feasts compel me to see them as one and the same Church. It is difficult for me to view the above images and not feel disgusted by their all-too-real depictions. When I hear the stories of saints who have been martyred my imagination is rapt by the abject reality of what it means to die for ones faith. And the Ethiopian Church has moored my imagination to reality. As I cling more tightly to Russian Orthodoxy I am coming near to the Ethiopian Church and I love it all the more.

Something About Mariyam...

As one flips through the folios of an Ethiopian manuscript one will note the degree of veneration the Ethiopian Church reserves for Mary, the Mother of Christ. And one need not be an Ethiopian scholar to note the revered status of Mary. Ethiopian manuscripts are replete with hand drawn and painted icons (or more precisely, miniatures) depicting various Saints. Far and away the most common subject of these miniatures is Mary. Just as in the other Orthodox traditions, the Ethiopian Church embraces certain motifs or forms for depicting Mary. The most common form is Mary and the Child Jesus. This is what the Byzantines would call the Icon of the Theotokos. It depicts Mary sitting with Jesus as a child sitting on her lap. The variations that exist in this general form are particularly interesting. One finds Mary depicted in everything from ornate and colorful paintings to crude ink sketches included in the manuscripts.  

Curiously, the Ethiopians hold Mary in tension between divine and human. Traditionally, Mary may be seen Crowned in Heaven and breast-feeding Jesus the Child. In one sense she transcends her humanity to inhabit heaven as royalty. 

And in another sense she is confined to a visceral existence that feeds the Son of God. 

In this tension one finds Christ, the Son of God, helpless, being fed at the breast of a woman. Nowhere in Christian history is the mystery of the the nature of Christ depicted so pointedly. God becomes human and humanity is glorified. 

I'm Simply a THRILL at Cocktail Parties...

Jeremy and I are easily amused. When one spends time pouring over centuries-old Ethiopian books of uncertain provenance one comes to realize that we're never going to be as cool as those Dead Sea Scrolls guys. There is an ever-so-small (but slowly growing) segment of academia that cares about the work we are doing. It's easy to become disenchanted with the monotony of the work so Jeremy and I have learned to laugh a lot. Although we do discover some items of interest such as a new rubricated word or a nuanced piece of artwork. 

When people ask what kind of work we are doing, we have both decided that offering the curious person a chance to have the question stricken from the record. I usually respond with, "Are you sure you want to know?" If they persist I try to give a quick synopsis of the work without too many details. The occasional person truly seems interested and asks a lot of follow-up questions. Strangely, the subject of famine or Rastafarianism pops up. To be honest, when I began working on this project, I knew virtually nothing of Ethiopia except for its famines and its claims of possessing the Ark of the Covenant. 

Ethiopian history, as I have come to learn, is terribly complex and marked by war upon war. And to depict a single Ethiopia is as difficult as depicting a single America. We are exploring Ethiopian history through the lens of a Christian scribal tradition. Manuscripts are merely the jumping-off point into a broader historical criticism. You have to enter history someplace and, anthropologically speaking, the study of religion necessarily becomes a study of a culture's linguistic, economic, and social structures. We (Steve, Jeremy, and I) are not on the brink of blowing the top off of a cultural phenomenon (read: Dead Sea Scrolls) but the work is incredibly important and sets up many a budding biblical studies graduate student for some valuable research opportunities. We shall sally forth.

Beginnings

My involvement with the Ethiopian Manuscript Imaging Project began in January 2006. It was then that I responded to an open invitation by Dr. Steven Delamarter looking for students interested in traveling to Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. to digitize and catalogue a small collection of Ethiopian Manuscripts that had been deposited at the TWU library. I knew virtually nothing about the manuscripts nor was I more than vaguely familiar with Steve's budding project. I jumped at the chance to do some academic research and wasn't all that concerned about the subject matter. I was virtually useless in our work at TWU but while watching helplessly as my other three classmates worked like a well-oiled machine, I became excited about what they were doing and wanted to become more deeply immersed in this project. I was blessed to have met and interacted with Dr. Martin Abegg and Dr. Kent Clark over the course of that visit to TWU. I still gush over how kind and engaging these two scholars are.

l to r: Dr. Abegg, Dylan, Roger, me, and Jennifer

Over two years have elapsed and my involvement has grown from spectator to utter immersion. I am learning more about the complicated history of Ethiopia and am even learning to read Ge'ez. I must say that Ethiopian Manuscripts have become an energizing element in my academic and personal life. My partner in crime (read: fellow research assistant) Jeremy Brown is a brilliant guy and will be attending TWU in the fall to complete a Master of Biblical Studies. I'm not exactly certain what my involvement will look like over the next year but I am, nonetheless, looking forward to it.

My hope is that this blog will provide not only an account of the work that we do as a part of the Ethiopian Manuscript Imaging Project but as a peek behind the curtain at what kinds of issues we wrestle with and the small victories we relish.