The Great Entrance

A Paradigm of Liturgical History Fifty Years Later

Abstract

This article reflects on Robert F. Taft’s The Great Entrance (1975) on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. It examines the intellectual context of the work, its methodological foundations, and its enduring impact on the study of Eastern liturgies. Particular attention is given to the influence of Juan Mateos, whose approach combined historical analysis with a vision of liturgical reform, and to the ways in which Taft inherited and transformed this legacy. The article revisits the main theses of The Great Entrance concerning the Great Entrance itself, the Cheroubikon, and the pre-anaphoral rites, while also considering the 2014 revised edition and subsequent developments in manuscript and textual studies. Through the analysis of the Proskomide prayer and the Cheroubikon, it argues for the need to complement structural approaches with deeper attention to euchological language, biblical reception, and theological interpretation. The article concludes by suggesting that future research on Byzantine liturgy should integrate the structural insights of the “first Mateos” with the exegetical and critical perspective of the later Mateos.