Remembering the damned : Byzantine liturgical hymns as instruments of religious polemics

Simic provides a brief overview of the use of liturgical hymns in the Byzantine liturgical tradition as powerful agents in both intra-Christian and inter-religious polemics, which were usually motivated by utopian ideals of a certain religious group or a faction within it. In the first part, the focal point is liturgical hymns in the context of the intra-Christian doctrinal conflicts with a particular emphasis on the preservation of memory of several of the most prominent ‘heresiarchs’ condemned by ecumenical councils. The second part of the chapter deals with the Byzantine anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hymns situated in the context of Christian and Islamic replacement theologies, respectively.