Mysteriological piety

Danielou summarizes the liturgical allegory of Theodore of Mopsuestia: “the offertory procession is a figure of Christ led to His Passion, the offerings placed on the altar are figures of Christ place in His tomb . . . , the altar-clothes are the burial-cloths, the deacons who surround the altar are figures of the angels who guarded the tomb.” In sum, “instead of relating wholes to one another, [Theodore] forces himself to try to establish relationships between the details of the rites and those of the Gospel narratives.” This is what Louis Bouyer called “mysteriological piety,” and, fascinatingly, it’s coming from Antioch not Alexandria.

Danielou sees a further departure from early Old-New typology in the symbolic universe of Pseudo-Dionysus, who teaches “a mystical symbolism in which sensible realities are images of intelligible. The waiting for the end of time characteristic of the first centuries has given way to the contemplation of the heavenly world.”