Sacramental Traditions Academic Saturday: Leaving Cert - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Sacramental Traditions

Academic Saturday: Leaving CertSlide2

Introduction Leaving Cert!

One of your questions:

Sacraments are central to worship in some Christian traditions.

Conduct an evaluation of the evidence for this statement making reference to the role sacraments play in worship for he members of two Christian traditions.Slide3

Worship, Liturgy, Sacraments

Many Christian tradition combine all three into a “service” or a “Mass.”

Worship is the formal service usually celebrated on Sundays.

The Liturgy tends to be the actual ritual context in which worship happens. Some liturgies follow the seasonal calendars, such as Advent, Lent, Easter, etc. There are “high” and “low” liturgies.

Sacraments are specific rituals that draw the members closer to their God. Some are “one off” and others are repeated. We’ll highlight Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Eastern OrthodoxSlide4

Sacrament is a “Mystery”

The word sacrament comes from the Latin

sacramentum

The Latin is a translation of the Greek

musterion

Only one

one

occasion in the New Testament is the word

musterion

used, and it refers to the mystery of Christ’s redemption.

The New Testament does not have a developed sacramental theology, for that comes later.Slide5

Sacrament is a Speech-Act Ritual

A sacrament is a

performative

utterance. This means they have a utility of "action" (like I do at a wedding. Or when I repeat after a lawyer and witness for my will. Or in a court room… raising your hand to tell the whole truth).

sacramental language: baptism, confession,

eucharist

, last rites, marriage.

Each sacrament requires particular ritual language and material element

.Slide6

Sacramentality

? Hermeneutic of

Expereince

Sacramentality

is a way of interpreting and understanding humanity, not a set of belief or propositions

Ritual, celebration and the fullness of sign and language: calendars, weddings, baptism,

eucharist

, etc.

Sacraments give an individual a kind of narrative unity or coherence in which to plot one’s lifeSlide7

7 Sacraments of Roman Catholic Church

Baptism

Confirmation

Eucharist (bread and wine)

Confession and Reconciliation

Holy Orders or

Preisthood

Marriage

Extreme Unction or Last RitesSlide8

Why 7 Sacraments? Why not 9 or 33? Karl

Rahner

: “What is a Sacrament?”

See his brief essay, “What is a Sacrament,” in vol. of

Theological Investigations

A central point is that the church herself makes judgments that are legitimate precisely because she is the body of Christ.

If there is no explicit reference to marriage or priesthood being a sacrament, then that does not prevent the church from declaring that so at a later date: the church tries to make explicit what is implicit in the scriptures (

Eph

5 for example), but it also simply creates a framework for interpreting

sacramentality

.Slide9

2 Main Sacraments

Every Tradition affirms:

1. Baptism: initiation, entryway into the covenant

2. Eucharist: principal means of regular communion with Christ (Aquinas says it is first among equals)Slide10

Pluralisation of the Theology: The Reformation

Reformation: 1517 Martin Luther

John Calvin in the 1530s

Church of England, King Henry VIII

Radical Reformation: Anabaptists,

Menonites

, Amish, Quakers, etc.Slide11

Reformation: Faith over Sacramentality

Sacraments, for Protestants, become more vehicles of sanctifying grace rather than reconciling grace

The three “

solas

” of

Reformational

Theology:

Sola gratia

Sola scriptura

Sola

fidei

Sidebar: no mention of Sacraments or Church in the

solas

!Slide12

Sacraments: Also a Locus of Intense Debate

The role of the Bible and the nature of faith were the triggers to the Reformation.

But the Sacraments quickly objects of fascination for theologians.

Violence broke out often due to disagreements over doctrineSlide13

The EUCHARIST

Given that each sacrament has its own particular ritual context and history (in the history of intellectual theological debate), I’ll focus on the Eucharist

The Eucharist is generally considered the first among equals in sacramental theology.

First, what does Roman Catholicism hold to? All the Protest reactions consist of a refusal of this doctrine.Slide14

Transubstantiation: Thomas Aquinas (d.1274)Slide15

Aquinas 1: Real Presence vs. Locality of Christ

He writes, “The body of Christ is not under the dimension of the bread locally…. Hence, Christ’s body in this is no way localized.”

Christ’s body was, so to speak, in but not of the sacrament. Properly speaking, the body of Christ is in heaven and yet also sacramentally present at the same time.Slide16

Aquinas 2:Real presence and Spiritual Presence

Real or “spiritual” presence, Aquinas continued, had to be kept distinct from local presence.

“The body of Christ is not in this sacrament in the way a body is located in a place. The dimensions of a body in a place correspond with the dimensions of the place that contains it. Christ’s body is here in a special way that is proper to this sacrament” (ST 3.75.1)

Or again, Christ’s body was in the sacrament “[not] as if it were present in the way that is natural for a body to be present, that is, visibly in its normal appearance . . . [but] a spiritual, non-visible presence, in the way of a spirit and by the power of the Spirit” (ST 3.75.1).Slide17

Aquinas 3: Transubstantiation

Transubstantiation of substance not space

But the whole presence of Christ is enclosed there nevertheless:

“The body of Christ is here as if it were just substance, that is, in the way that substance is under its dimensions, and not in any

dimensive

way . . . The manner of presence is controlled by considerations of what it means to be there just as substance” (ST 3.76.3). Aquinas’ point was that substantial presence did not require local presence, but occurred precisely without it.Slide18

Luther’s View

He held to three sacraments: Baptism, Eucharist and Confession (See his

Babylonian Captivity of the Church,

1520)

His view of the Eucharist is called traditionally “consubstantiation”

This means real presence is affirmed but that it is not enclosed within the elementsSlide19

John Calvin’s View

Calvin wrote in the 1540s to the 60s. He was a famous pastor and theologian during the Reformation and is perhaps more intellectually formative than Luther is of the Protestant tradition.

He held to real presence, but he reversed the direction of grace.

In the Eucharist, we are spiritually raised upward, into heaven, into the presence of God (God does not descend).Slide20

Ulrich Zwingli’s View

A most radical departure in the history of doctrine.

For the first time in the intellectual tradition of Christianity, real presence is rejected.

His view is that the Eucharist, and all sacraments, are purely and simply symbolic. Nothing happens in the ritual. It is called the “memorial view.”Slide21

George

Hunsinger’s

book,

Eucharist and Ecumenism

ascribes to the Eastern Orthodox tradition the

transelementation

Bread itself was transformed by virtue of its sacramental union with, and participation in, Christ’s flesh. The image which illustrated

transelementation

was that of an iron rod thrust into the fire. Just as the iron was transformed by its participation in the fire, so was the consecrated element transformed by its sacramental union with Christ’s flesh. In and with this transforming union, the distinction between the two was maintained. Just as the iron did not cease to be iron, or the fire

fire

, so did the bread not cease to be bread, or Christ’s flesh his flesh. In the mystery of their sacramental union they formed a unique distinction-in-unity and unity-in-distinction.

Eastern Orthodoxy:

Transelementation

?Slide22

Karl Barth: 20

th

-Century Theologian

Barth

admits his “non-sacramental” view contravenes the whole 2000 year old tradition on baptism.

He writes, “Baptism and the Lord’s supper are not events, institutions, mediations or revelations of salvation. nor are they instruments, vehicles, channels or means of God’s reconciling grace. They are not what they have been called since the second century, namely mysteries or sacraments.”Slide23

Trent: Counter-Reformation 1540-60 roughly

The Counter Reformation was the response of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation.

It ran for over 20 years and included an official statement on justification by faith alone

It also reaffirmed TransubstantiationSlide24

Sources

Sacrosanctum

Concilium

,

Vatican II document (easy to find on Vatican website).

Mediator Dei

and

Corporis

Christi

Mystici

James KA Smith,

Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works

James F. White,

Sacraments as God’s Self-Giving

,

Kevin Irwin

, Models of the Eucharist

George

Hunsinger

,

Eucharist and EcumenismSlide25

How to find: Vatican Document and Summa by Aquinas

Simply search the title in Google.

If it has .

va

at the end, then it is a reliable source.

The

Summa

can be found entirely online. I usually go to:

Newadvent.org (go to top right and click on summa).

For the sacraments, then go to “

Tertia

pars” questions 60-65.