The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist by Thomas Arentzen (review)

In this outstanding study Thomas Arentzen masterfully transports the reader to sixth-century Constantinople, a time and place marked by dramatic liturgical development and immense growth in Marian piety. With a well-written text that has poetical qualities, the author draws the reader in the sixth-century Constantinopolitan context and mindset; he enables the reader to engage with Romanos the Melodist’s famous kontakia through the lenses and the psyche of a sixth-century Constantinopolitan worshiper. Arentzen argues that “in the realm of Marian representation, Romanos deviates both from ascetic strands and from the Christological strand of earlier Marian texts” (p. 39). Rather, Romanos gives the Virgin Mary a voice in her own right.

The structure of the book is clear and straightforward. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction, while chapters 2–4 “pose a Virgin Mary at odds with what Romanos’ contemporaries would expect from a virgin” (p. 44), each chapter addressing the person of the Virgin Mary in the annunciation, the nativity, and the crucifixion respectively through the lenses of Romanos’ kontakia. The conclusion is followed by appendix 1 that includes the author’s translation of Romanos’ Kontakion On the Annunciation; appendix 2 that provides a catalogue of all hymns referred to in his study, the notes to the chapters, an extensive and complete bibliography, and a very helpful index. In chapter 1 Arentzen sets the background for his study; he introduces Romanos the Melodist and his work in the context of the liturgical life and Marian devotion of sixth-century Constantinople and engages in a vivid description of the likely audience of the kontakia of Romanos. Chapter 2 is the most challenging and thought-provoking chapter of the book. Arentzen’s hermeneutic principle of the kontakion On the Annunciation is that “desire is fundamental to the way he [Romanos] imagines Christian faith” (p. 49) and presents Mary not as “resisting the world through ascetic virginity” but as embracing “the world through erotic virginity” (p. 51). “Mary does not appear as an ascetic virgin who shuns human sexual relations, but as a maiden whose sexuality is translated into imagery” (p. 65). Arentzen’s close reading of the text highlights the language of erotic tension implicit in this work of Romanos which presents her not just as a vessel for the Incarnation, not just as an ascetic model for ascetics and virgins but as a rational, attractive and fascinating woman in her own right, “in a liminal position where she is yet neither entirely virginal not entirely married” (p. 86). Chapter 3 employs the kontakia On the Nativity I and On the Nativity of the Virgin to present the Virgin Mary through the paradox of her being both a virgin and a nursing mother. He argues that Romanos’ intention in these kontakia is not christological; Romanos places emphasis not on the kenosis of the Word but on Mary herself, exulting Mary in her own right and presenting her as one who nourishes all Christians; she is the “maternal provider” (p. 119). Chapter 4 engages with the kontakia On the Nativity II and On Mary at the Cross where Romanos presents the Virgin Mary as an intercessor and intermediary. “Mary constitutes a dialogue between the divine and human” (p. 159). In both kontakia it is the Virgin Mary who brings the divine and the human in dialogue; she brings the news of the nativity to Adam and Even in Hades in the first kontakion, she takes on the role of intermediary and intercessor in the second one. Mary speaks with authority when addressing the humans; she speaks with humility when addressing Christ.

Arentzen succeeds in bringing to the fore the theological value of the poetry of Romanos the Melodist, challenging and in the same time enriching the accepted scholarly view. This study is a necessary read not only for those who are interested in the work...