George Demacopoulos: Romanos and Violence

This paper seeks to explore the contentious question of violence and early Christianity from an under-utilized reservoir of sources, hymnography. Specifically, it examines the multi-faceted way in which the sixth-century Greek poet/hymnographer, Romanos the Melodist, invoked violence to communicate subtle theological ideas about Christ's humanity, the brokenness of the world, and the liberate effects of the mystery of salvation. In contrast in the Greek hymns of a later period that would sacralize violence enacted by Christians, for Romanos, violence was primarily something that was suffered by Christ or the saints on behalf of others.