J. Warren Smith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195369939
- eISBN:
- 9780199893362
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369939.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Though understandably overshadowed by Augustine’s preeminence in the West, Ambrose is a doctor of the Catholic Church and an important patristic authority for the Middle Ages and Reformation, ...
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Though understandably overshadowed by Augustine’s preeminence in the West, Ambrose is a doctor of the Catholic Church and an important patristic authority for the Middle Ages and Reformation, especially in moral theology. Christian Grace and Pagan Virtue argues that Ambrose of Milan’s theological commitments, particularly his understanding of the Christian’s participation in God’s saving economy through baptism, are foundational for his virtue theory laid out in his catechetical and other pastoral writings. While he holds a high regard for classical and Hellenistic views of virtue, Ambrose insists that the Christian is able to attain the highest ideal of virtue taught by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. This is possible because the Christian has received the transformative grace of baptism that allows the Christian to participate in the new creation inaugurated by Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. This book explores Ambrose’s understanding of this grace and how it frees the Christian to live the virtuous life. The argument is laid out in two parts. In Part I, the book examines Ambrose’s understanding of human nature and the effects of sin upon that nature. Central to this Part is the question of Ambrose’s understanding of the right relationship of soul and body as presented in Ambrose’s repeated appeal to Paul’s words, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Part II lays out Ambrose’s account of baptism as the sacrament of justification and regeneration (sacramental and proleptic participation in the renewal of human nature in the resurrection). Ultimately, Ambrose’s account of the efficacy of baptism rests upon his Christology and pneumatology. The final chapters explain how Ambrose’s accounts of Christ and the Holy Spirit are foundational to his view of the grace that liberates the soul from the corruption of concupiscence.Less
Though understandably overshadowed by Augustine’s preeminence in the West, Ambrose is a doctor of the Catholic Church and an important patristic authority for the Middle Ages and Reformation, especially in moral theology. Christian Grace and Pagan Virtue argues that Ambrose of Milan’s theological commitments, particularly his understanding of the Christian’s participation in God’s saving economy through baptism, are foundational for his virtue theory laid out in his catechetical and other pastoral writings. While he holds a high regard for classical and Hellenistic views of virtue, Ambrose insists that the Christian is able to attain the highest ideal of virtue taught by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. This is possible because the Christian has received the transformative grace of baptism that allows the Christian to participate in the new creation inaugurated by Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection. This book explores Ambrose’s understanding of this grace and how it frees the Christian to live the virtuous life. The argument is laid out in two parts. In Part I, the book examines Ambrose’s understanding of human nature and the effects of sin upon that nature. Central to this Part is the question of Ambrose’s understanding of the right relationship of soul and body as presented in Ambrose’s repeated appeal to Paul’s words, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Part II lays out Ambrose’s account of baptism as the sacrament of justification and regeneration (sacramental and proleptic participation in the renewal of human nature in the resurrection). Ultimately, Ambrose’s account of the efficacy of baptism rests upon his Christology and pneumatology. The final chapters explain how Ambrose’s accounts of Christ and the Holy Spirit are foundational to his view of the grace that liberates the soul from the corruption of concupiscence.
Nicholas J. Healy
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199278367
- eISBN:
- 9780191603419
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199278369.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This book represents a study of the meaning of "the end" in the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, that highlights both the originality and the fruitfulness of his vision of a reciprocal drama ...
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This book represents a study of the meaning of "the end" in the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, that highlights both the originality and the fruitfulness of his vision of a reciprocal drama between God and the world. The argument of the book can be summed up simply: being -creaturely being and trinitarian being -unveils its final countenance as love in the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. After setting forth three basic problems inherent in Christian eschatology, Healy introduces Balthasar's trinitarian perspective: eschatology is concerned with the life of the Trinity, as revealed by Jesus Christ, and as the origin and final destiny of the whole created cosmos. The book presupposes that a critical engagement with Balthasar's thought requires attending to the original way he uses philosophy within theology. Thomas Aquinas' analogy of being, fulfilled in the person of Christ, is both the abiding precondition of, and is ultimately disclosed in, the drama between God and the world whose form takes shape within Christ's return to the Father. The ultimate form of the end, and thus the measure of all that is meant by eschatology, is given in Christ's eucharistic and pneumatic gift of himself - gift that simultaneously lays bare the mystery of the Trinity and enables Christ to "return" to the Father in communion with the whole of creation. Insofar as Christ reveals the trinitarian life and the mystery of creation in their dramatic interplay, he establishes the form of eschatology as a participation in God's engagement with the world. Under the sign of the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist, Christian eschatology involves a sharing in Christ's double movement into the world and, together with the world, into God. By developing the metaphysical dimensions of Balthasar's doctrine of the last things, Healy shows that his writings on the eschaton contain unexpected resources for the ecclesial renewal envisaged by the Second Vatican Council and its missionary opening to the world.Less
This book represents a study of the meaning of "the end" in the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, that highlights both the originality and the fruitfulness of his vision of a reciprocal drama between God and the world. The argument of the book can be summed up simply: being -creaturely being and trinitarian being -unveils its final countenance as love in the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. After setting forth three basic problems inherent in Christian eschatology, Healy introduces Balthasar's trinitarian perspective: eschatology is concerned with the life of the Trinity, as revealed by Jesus Christ, and as the origin and final destiny of the whole created cosmos. The book presupposes that a critical engagement with Balthasar's thought requires attending to the original way he uses philosophy within theology. Thomas Aquinas' analogy of being, fulfilled in the person of Christ, is both the abiding precondition of, and is ultimately disclosed in, the drama between God and the world whose form takes shape within Christ's return to the Father. The ultimate form of the end, and thus the measure of all that is meant by eschatology, is given in Christ's eucharistic and pneumatic gift of himself - gift that simultaneously lays bare the mystery of the Trinity and enables Christ to "return" to the Father in communion with the whole of creation. Insofar as Christ reveals the trinitarian life and the mystery of creation in their dramatic interplay, he establishes the form of eschatology as a participation in God's engagement with the world. Under the sign of the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist, Christian eschatology involves a sharing in Christ's double movement into the world and, together with the world, into God. By developing the metaphysical dimensions of Balthasar's doctrine of the last things, Healy shows that his writings on the eschaton contain unexpected resources for the ecclesial renewal envisaged by the Second Vatican Council and its missionary opening to the world.
Daniel A. Keating
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199267132
- eISBN:
- 9780191602092
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199267138.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Presents a comprehensive account of sanctification and divinization in Cyril as set forth in his New Testament biblical commentaries. By establishing the importance of pneumatology in Cyril’s ...
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Presents a comprehensive account of sanctification and divinization in Cyril as set forth in his New Testament biblical commentaries. By establishing the importance of pneumatology in Cyril’s narrative of divine life and by showing the requirement for an ethical aspect of divinization grounded in the example of Christ himself, this study brings a corrective to certain readings of Cyril that tend to exaggerate the ‘somatic’ or ‘physicalistic’ character of his understanding of divinization, by arguing that Cyril correlates the somatic and pneumatic means of our union with Christ, and impressively integrates the ontological and ethical aspects of our sanctification and divinization. The final chapter offers brief sketches of Cyril in comparison with Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine, and Leo the Great, with the aim of gaining further clarity to the Christological debates of the fifth century, and a better grasp of the theological similarities and differences between the East and West.Less
Presents a comprehensive account of sanctification and divinization in Cyril as set forth in his New Testament biblical commentaries. By establishing the importance of pneumatology in Cyril’s narrative of divine life and by showing the requirement for an ethical aspect of divinization grounded in the example of Christ himself, this study brings a corrective to certain readings of Cyril that tend to exaggerate the ‘somatic’ or ‘physicalistic’ character of his understanding of divinization, by arguing that Cyril correlates the somatic and pneumatic means of our union with Christ, and impressively integrates the ontological and ethical aspects of our sanctification and divinization. The final chapter offers brief sketches of Cyril in comparison with Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine, and Leo the Great, with the aim of gaining further clarity to the Christological debates of the fifth century, and a better grasp of the theological similarities and differences between the East and West.
Michael Ostling
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199587902
- eISBN:
- 9780191731228
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587902.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Social History
Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story ...
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Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story of the imagined Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant women got caught in webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture to the most heinous crimes. Through a close reading of accusations and confessions, the book also shows how witches imagined themselves and their own religious lives. Paradoxically, the tales they tell of infanticide and host desecration reveal to us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of diabolical sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Caught between the devil and the host, the self‐imagined Polish witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through the dark glass of witchcraft the book attempts to explore the religious lives of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.Less
Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story of the imagined Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant women got caught in webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture to the most heinous crimes. Through a close reading of accusations and confessions, the book also shows how witches imagined themselves and their own religious lives. Paradoxically, the tales they tell of infanticide and host desecration reveal to us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of diabolical sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Caught between the devil and the host, the self‐imagined Polish witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through the dark glass of witchcraft the book attempts to explore the religious lives of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.
Carol Lansing
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195149807
- eISBN:
- 9780199849079
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149807.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Catharism was a popular medieval heresy based on the belief that the creation of humankind was a disaster in which angelic spirits were trapped in matter by the devil. Their only goal was to escape ...
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Catharism was a popular medieval heresy based on the belief that the creation of humankind was a disaster in which angelic spirits were trapped in matter by the devil. Their only goal was to escape the body through purification. Cathars denied any value to material life, including the human body, baptism, and the Eucharist, even marriage and childbirth. What could explain the long popularity of such a bleak faith in the towns of southern France and Italy? This book explores the place of Cathar heresy in the life of the medieval Italian town of Orvieto. Based on extensive archival research, it details the social makeup of the Cathar community and argues that the heresy was central to the social and political changes of the 13th century. The late 13th-century repression of Catharism by a local inquisition was part of a larger redefinition of civic and ecclesiastical authority. The book shows that the faith attracted not an alienated older nobility but artisans, merchants, popular political leaders, and indeed circles of women in Orvieto, as well as in Florence and Bologna. Cathar beliefs were not so much a pessimistic anomaly as a part of a larger climate of religious doubt. The teachings on the body and the practice of Cathar holy persons addressed questions of sexual difference and the structure of authority that were key elements of medieval Italian life. The pure lives of the Cathar holy people, both male and female, demonstrated a human capacity for self-restraint.Less
Catharism was a popular medieval heresy based on the belief that the creation of humankind was a disaster in which angelic spirits were trapped in matter by the devil. Their only goal was to escape the body through purification. Cathars denied any value to material life, including the human body, baptism, and the Eucharist, even marriage and childbirth. What could explain the long popularity of such a bleak faith in the towns of southern France and Italy? This book explores the place of Cathar heresy in the life of the medieval Italian town of Orvieto. Based on extensive archival research, it details the social makeup of the Cathar community and argues that the heresy was central to the social and political changes of the 13th century. The late 13th-century repression of Catharism by a local inquisition was part of a larger redefinition of civic and ecclesiastical authority. The book shows that the faith attracted not an alienated older nobility but artisans, merchants, popular political leaders, and indeed circles of women in Orvieto, as well as in Florence and Bologna. Cathar beliefs were not so much a pessimistic anomaly as a part of a larger climate of religious doubt. The teachings on the body and the practice of Cathar holy persons addressed questions of sexual difference and the structure of authority that were key elements of medieval Italian life. The pure lives of the Cathar holy people, both male and female, demonstrated a human capacity for self-restraint.
Volker L. Menze
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199534876
- eISBN:
- 9780191716041
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199534876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This study historicizes the formation of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the first half of the 6th century. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 divided eastern Christianity, with those who were later ...
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This study historicizes the formation of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the first half of the 6th century. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 divided eastern Christianity, with those who were later called Syrian Orthodox among the Christians in the near eastern provinces who refused to accept the decisions of the council. These non-Chalcedonians (still better known under the misleading term monophysites) separated from the church of the empire after Justin I attempted to enforce Chalcedon in the East in 518. The book covers the period from the accession of Justin to the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. It focuses in the first two chapters on imperial and papal policy from a non-Chalcedonian, eastern perspective. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss monks, monasteries, and the complex issues of sacraments and non-Chalcedonian church life. Chapter 5 and the general conclusion complete the book with a study of the working of ‘collective memory’ among the non-Chalcedonians and the construction of a Syrian Orthodox identity. The study is a histoire évènementielle of actual religious practice, especially concerning the Eucharist and the diptychs, and of ecclesiastical and imperial policy which modifies the traditional view of how emperors (and in the case of Theodora: empresses) ruled the late Roman/early Byzantine empire. By combining this detailed analysis of secular and ecclesiastical politics with a study of long-term strategies of memorialization, the book also focuses on deep structures of collective memory on which the tradition of the present Syrian Orthodox Church is founded.Less
This study historicizes the formation of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the first half of the 6th century. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 divided eastern Christianity, with those who were later called Syrian Orthodox among the Christians in the near eastern provinces who refused to accept the decisions of the council. These non-Chalcedonians (still better known under the misleading term monophysites) separated from the church of the empire after Justin I attempted to enforce Chalcedon in the East in 518. The book covers the period from the accession of Justin to the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. It focuses in the first two chapters on imperial and papal policy from a non-Chalcedonian, eastern perspective. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss monks, monasteries, and the complex issues of sacraments and non-Chalcedonian church life. Chapter 5 and the general conclusion complete the book with a study of the working of ‘collective memory’ among the non-Chalcedonians and the construction of a Syrian Orthodox identity. The study is a histoire évènementielle of actual religious practice, especially concerning the Eucharist and the diptychs, and of ecclesiastical and imperial policy which modifies the traditional view of how emperors (and in the case of Theodora: empresses) ruled the late Roman/early Byzantine empire. By combining this detailed analysis of secular and ecclesiastical politics with a study of long-term strategies of memorialization, the book also focuses on deep structures of collective memory on which the tradition of the present Syrian Orthodox Church is founded.
Christopher M. Cullen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195149258
- eISBN:
- 9780199785131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149258.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Bonaventure uses “sacrament” to refer to all signs of faith in the Redeemer, even those that are not explicitly focused on Jesus of Nazareth. He refers to this as the “diversity” of the sacraments. ...
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Bonaventure uses “sacrament” to refer to all signs of faith in the Redeemer, even those that are not explicitly focused on Jesus of Nazareth. He refers to this as the “diversity” of the sacraments. “Sacraments” in this sense were instituted from the very beginning, but they have enjoyed diversity through three different ages and their concomitant laws: the law of nature, the law of scripture, and the law of grace.Less
Bonaventure uses “sacrament” to refer to all signs of faith in the Redeemer, even those that are not explicitly focused on Jesus of Nazareth. He refers to this as the “diversity” of the sacraments. “Sacraments” in this sense were instituted from the very beginning, but they have enjoyed diversity through three different ages and their concomitant laws: the law of nature, the law of scripture, and the law of grace.
Gerald SJ O'Collins
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199203130
- eISBN:
- 9780191707742
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203130.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter considers the present mediation of salvation to the Church through the Holy Spirit, the living bridge between the past events of salvation and the present experience of salvation. The ...
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This chapter considers the present mediation of salvation to the Church through the Holy Spirit, the living bridge between the past events of salvation and the present experience of salvation. The Spirit creates fellowship, beauty, and life. The role of the Holy Spirit and that of the risen Christ, while distinct and different, are profoundly connected.Less
This chapter considers the present mediation of salvation to the Church through the Holy Spirit, the living bridge between the past events of salvation and the present experience of salvation. The Spirit creates fellowship, beauty, and life. The role of the Holy Spirit and that of the risen Christ, while distinct and different, are profoundly connected.
Francesca Aran Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199219285
- eISBN:
- 9780191711664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199219285.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter first reiterates the argument of Chapter III under the form that proving God's existence via the distinction of essence and existence is ultimately experiential, coming down to a ...
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This chapter first reiterates the argument of Chapter III under the form that proving God's existence via the distinction of essence and existence is ultimately experiential, coming down to a psychological conviction that death, as endangering my existence, is poetically unjust. A better argument for God's existence would begin below the level of conceptual language, starting from animality and movement. It then describes Etienne Gilson's re-statement of Thomas' Five Ways (moves, causes, necessity/contingency, perfections, design), in order to give a satisfactory argument for God's existence, that is, Hans Urs von Balthasar's ‘four distinctions’. Based on the ‘Five Ways’ and building on their empirical character, the ‘four distinctions’ give an argument to God which is primarily objective and realistic, but which takes the subject and his experience into account, by beginning from the dialogue between mother and child which first ‘moves’ the child into reality.Less
This chapter first reiterates the argument of Chapter III under the form that proving God's existence via the distinction of essence and existence is ultimately experiential, coming down to a psychological conviction that death, as endangering my existence, is poetically unjust. A better argument for God's existence would begin below the level of conceptual language, starting from animality and movement. It then describes Etienne Gilson's re-statement of Thomas' Five Ways (moves, causes, necessity/contingency, perfections, design), in order to give a satisfactory argument for God's existence, that is, Hans Urs von Balthasar's ‘four distinctions’. Based on the ‘Five Ways’ and building on their empirical character, the ‘four distinctions’ give an argument to God which is primarily objective and realistic, but which takes the subject and his experience into account, by beginning from the dialogue between mother and child which first ‘moves’ the child into reality.
Robert J. Daly
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178067
- eISBN:
- 9780199784905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178068.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter explores the discrepancy between sound eucharistic theology and the eucharistic theology of several official documents of the Roman Catholic magisterium. Historical research suggests ...
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This chapter explores the discrepancy between sound eucharistic theology and the eucharistic theology of several official documents of the Roman Catholic magisterium. Historical research suggests that Robert Bellarmine is one of the “messengers”, if indeed not one of the “villains”, of this story. It is argued that the embarrassing dichotomy between the teaching of the contemporary official Roman magisterium and that of most contemporary liturgical theologians is due to the magisterium's continued acceptance of some of the shortcomings of post-Tridentine Catholic eucharistic theology. If there is to be progress towards a more broadly shared Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, the Roman magisterium must become less attached to explanations of the Mystery of Faith that are less than satisfactory.Less
This chapter explores the discrepancy between sound eucharistic theology and the eucharistic theology of several official documents of the Roman Catholic magisterium. Historical research suggests that Robert Bellarmine is one of the “messengers”, if indeed not one of the “villains”, of this story. It is argued that the embarrassing dichotomy between the teaching of the contemporary official Roman magisterium and that of most contemporary liturgical theologians is due to the magisterium's continued acceptance of some of the shortcomings of post-Tridentine Catholic eucharistic theology. If there is to be progress towards a more broadly shared Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, the Roman magisterium must become less attached to explanations of the Mystery of Faith that are less than satisfactory.
Aviad Kleinberg
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231174701
- eISBN:
- 9780231540247
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174701.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Where God's invitation to eat his flesh raises unexpected problems. What do we do with spiders and mice and where in the digestive system does the Eucharist turn back into flour and wine before ...
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Where God's invitation to eat his flesh raises unexpected problems. What do we do with spiders and mice and where in the digestive system does the Eucharist turn back into flour and wine before things get really nasty.Less
Where God's invitation to eat his flesh raises unexpected problems. What do we do with spiders and mice and where in the digestive system does the Eucharist turn back into flour and wine before things get really nasty.
Gary Macy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189704
- eISBN:
- 9780199868575
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189704.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
For the first twelve hundred years of Christianity, women were ordained into various roles in the church. References to the ordination of women exist in papal, episcopal, and theological documents of ...
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For the first twelve hundred years of Christianity, women were ordained into various roles in the church. References to the ordination of women exist in papal, episcopal, and theological documents of the time, and the rites for these ordinations have survived. Yet, many scholars hold that women, particularly in the Western church, were never ordained. A survey of the literature discussing the ordination of women in Western Christianity reveals that most of these scholars use a definition of ordination to determine whether earlier references to the ordination of women were “real” ordinations that would have been unknown in the early Middle Ages. In the early centuries of Christianity, ordination was the process and the ceremony by which one moved to any new ministry (ordo) in the community. By this definition, women were ordained into several ministries. Four central ministries of episcopa (women bishop), presbytera (women priest), deaconess and abbess are discussed in detail in order to demonstrate particularly the liturgical roles women performed in the early Middle Ages. A radical change in the definition of ordination during the 11th and 12th centuries not only removed women from the ordained ministry, but also attempted to eradicate any memory of women's ordination in the past. The debate that accompanied this change has left its mark in the literature of the time. However, the triumph of a new definition of ordination as the bestowal of power, particularly the power to confect the Eucharist, so thoroughly dominated western thought and practice by the thirteenth century that the early definition of ordination was almost completely erased.Less
For the first twelve hundred years of Christianity, women were ordained into various roles in the church. References to the ordination of women exist in papal, episcopal, and theological documents of the time, and the rites for these ordinations have survived. Yet, many scholars hold that women, particularly in the Western church, were never ordained. A survey of the literature discussing the ordination of women in Western Christianity reveals that most of these scholars use a definition of ordination to determine whether earlier references to the ordination of women were “real” ordinations that would have been unknown in the early Middle Ages. In the early centuries of Christianity, ordination was the process and the ceremony by which one moved to any new ministry (ordo) in the community. By this definition, women were ordained into several ministries. Four central ministries of episcopa (women bishop), presbytera (women priest), deaconess and abbess are discussed in detail in order to demonstrate particularly the liturgical roles women performed in the early Middle Ages. A radical change in the definition of ordination during the 11th and 12th centuries not only removed women from the ordained ministry, but also attempted to eradicate any memory of women's ordination in the past. The debate that accompanied this change has left its mark in the literature of the time. However, the triumph of a new definition of ordination as the bestowal of power, particularly the power to confect the Eucharist, so thoroughly dominated western thought and practice by the thirteenth century that the early definition of ordination was almost completely erased.
Gerald O'Collins and Michael Keenan Jones
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199576456
- eISBN:
- 9780191723032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576456.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter draws four conclusions from an attentive reading of the Letter to the Hebrews. First, even if many people are unable to reach explicit faith in Christ, all are offered salvation through ...
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This chapter draws four conclusions from an attentive reading of the Letter to the Hebrews. First, even if many people are unable to reach explicit faith in Christ, all are offered salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. Second, while Hebrews understands Christ's death and exaltation to be the defining moment of his priesthood, the priestly language that this text uses in describing Christian existence also applies to his public ministry. From the beginning to the end, Christ led a priestly existence. Third, Hebrews understands Jesus to accept freely his role as priest and victim. But that does not mean that his death was an act of suicide; it was directly intended and perpetrated by others. Fourth, Hebrews speaks equivalently of the common priesthood of all the baptized; it also seems to allude to their celebration of the Eucharist. The chapter ends by summarizing under fourteen headings the New Testament witness to the priesthood of Christ.Less
This chapter draws four conclusions from an attentive reading of the Letter to the Hebrews. First, even if many people are unable to reach explicit faith in Christ, all are offered salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. Second, while Hebrews understands Christ's death and exaltation to be the defining moment of his priesthood, the priestly language that this text uses in describing Christian existence also applies to his public ministry. From the beginning to the end, Christ led a priestly existence. Third, Hebrews understands Jesus to accept freely his role as priest and victim. But that does not mean that his death was an act of suicide; it was directly intended and perpetrated by others. Fourth, Hebrews speaks equivalently of the common priesthood of all the baptized; it also seems to allude to their celebration of the Eucharist. The chapter ends by summarizing under fourteen headings the New Testament witness to the priesthood of Christ.
Gerald O'Collins and Michael Keenan Jones
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199576456
- eISBN:
- 9780191723032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576456.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter examines the scattered references to Christ's priesthood made by the fathers of the Church from Clement of Rome down to Gregory the Great, with particular attention paid to major ...
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This chapter examines the scattered references to Christ's priesthood made by the fathers of the Church from Clement of Rome down to Gregory the Great, with particular attention paid to major contributions coming from Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine of Hippo. Both then and later, reflection on Christ's priesthood was prompted both by issues concerning the exercise of the ordained ministry in the Church and by serious attention to Hebrews. Clement of Alexandria applied the story of Melchizedek further by understanding the offering of bread and wine to prefigure the Eucharist. Augustine developed the narrative of Christ's priesthood in the light of his being the head of the body that is the Church. At the Eucharist Christ is truly, if invisibly, present and makes the offering ‘on our behalf’. Augustine also reflected significantly on the nature of ‘true sacrifices’ as ‘works of mercy done to ourselves or our neighbour and directed to God’.Less
This chapter examines the scattered references to Christ's priesthood made by the fathers of the Church from Clement of Rome down to Gregory the Great, with particular attention paid to major contributions coming from Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine of Hippo. Both then and later, reflection on Christ's priesthood was prompted both by issues concerning the exercise of the ordained ministry in the Church and by serious attention to Hebrews. Clement of Alexandria applied the story of Melchizedek further by understanding the offering of bread and wine to prefigure the Eucharist. Augustine developed the narrative of Christ's priesthood in the light of his being the head of the body that is the Church. At the Eucharist Christ is truly, if invisibly, present and makes the offering ‘on our behalf’. Augustine also reflected significantly on the nature of ‘true sacrifices’ as ‘works of mercy done to ourselves or our neighbour and directed to God’.
Gerald O'Collins and Michael Keenan Jones
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199576456
- eISBN:
- 9780191723032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576456.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
In his version of Christ's redeeming priesthood, Aquinas adopted and modified Anselm's theory of redemption as ‘satisfaction’. Unlike Anselm, Aquinas saw Christ's function as mediator between God and ...
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In his version of Christ's redeeming priesthood, Aquinas adopted and modified Anselm's theory of redemption as ‘satisfaction’. Unlike Anselm, Aquinas saw Christ's function as mediator between God and human beings being exercised as priest, prophet, and king. The meritorious sacrifice of Christ was accepted by God as being inspired by love. Like Origen, Chrysostom, Luther, and Calvin, Aquinas wrote a work on the Letter to the Hebrews; in that commentary he remarked: ‘only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers’ (8. 4). In his Summa Theologiae Aquinas dedicates one ‘question’ of six ‘articles’ to ‘the principal act of priestly office’, the sacrifice in which Christ was both priest and victim and efficaciously expiated human sin. Aquinas's account of Christ's priesthood is filled out by what he wrote about Christ as mediator (one question of two articles), about the sacraments, and about the ascension, as well as in the liturgical texts that he composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi (instituted in 1264). For Aquinas the sacramental life of believers derives from Christ's priesthood and passion. In the celebration of the Eucharist and administration of the other sacraments, Christ the priest is always the principal, albeit invisible, agent.Less
In his version of Christ's redeeming priesthood, Aquinas adopted and modified Anselm's theory of redemption as ‘satisfaction’. Unlike Anselm, Aquinas saw Christ's function as mediator between God and human beings being exercised as priest, prophet, and king. The meritorious sacrifice of Christ was accepted by God as being inspired by love. Like Origen, Chrysostom, Luther, and Calvin, Aquinas wrote a work on the Letter to the Hebrews; in that commentary he remarked: ‘only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers’ (8. 4). In his Summa Theologiae Aquinas dedicates one ‘question’ of six ‘articles’ to ‘the principal act of priestly office’, the sacrifice in which Christ was both priest and victim and efficaciously expiated human sin. Aquinas's account of Christ's priesthood is filled out by what he wrote about Christ as mediator (one question of two articles), about the sacraments, and about the ascension, as well as in the liturgical texts that he composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi (instituted in 1264). For Aquinas the sacramental life of believers derives from Christ's priesthood and passion. In the celebration of the Eucharist and administration of the other sacraments, Christ the priest is always the principal, albeit invisible, agent.
Gerald O'Collins and Michael Keenan Jones
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199576456
- eISBN:
- 9780191723032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576456.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The Council of Trent (1545–63) promulgated four decrees that concerned priesthood, but explicitly mentioned the priesthood of Christ himself only in the 1562 decree on ‘the Most Holy Sacrifice of the ...
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The Council of Trent (1545–63) promulgated four decrees that concerned priesthood, but explicitly mentioned the priesthood of Christ himself only in the 1562 decree on ‘the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass’. It did not expound in any document: (1) the triple office of Christ as priest, prophet, and king; (2) the priesthood of Christ as exercised during his public ministry; and (3) the common priesthood (and prophetic kingship) of all the baptized—a theme developed four centuries later by the Second Vatican Council. Disputes with the Reformers had moved the Eucharist, the cultic function of the ordained priesthood, and its connection with Christ's priesthood to the forefront. This resulted in a stress on the priesthood as cultic and hierarchical, with the preaching of the Word as a priestly function left out of the picture. The seventeenth‐century ‘French School’, led by Bérulle, Condren, Eudes, Olier, and Vincent de Paul, dedicated themselves to the reform of the clergy. In doing so, they had much to say about the priesthood of Christ. As well as respecting the common priesthood of all the faithful and the ministry of preaching, they showed a keen interest in the self‐sacrificing nature of Christ's own priesthood, which made him victim as well as priest—a self‐sacrificing dedication to be followed by those who share his priesthood.Less
The Council of Trent (1545–63) promulgated four decrees that concerned priesthood, but explicitly mentioned the priesthood of Christ himself only in the 1562 decree on ‘the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass’. It did not expound in any document: (1) the triple office of Christ as priest, prophet, and king; (2) the priesthood of Christ as exercised during his public ministry; and (3) the common priesthood (and prophetic kingship) of all the baptized—a theme developed four centuries later by the Second Vatican Council. Disputes with the Reformers had moved the Eucharist, the cultic function of the ordained priesthood, and its connection with Christ's priesthood to the forefront. This resulted in a stress on the priesthood as cultic and hierarchical, with the preaching of the Word as a priestly function left out of the picture. The seventeenth‐century ‘French School’, led by Bérulle, Condren, Eudes, Olier, and Vincent de Paul, dedicated themselves to the reform of the clergy. In doing so, they had much to say about the priesthood of Christ. As well as respecting the common priesthood of all the faithful and the ministry of preaching, they showed a keen interest in the self‐sacrificing nature of Christ's own priesthood, which made him victim as well as priest—a self‐sacrificing dedication to be followed by those who share his priesthood.
Volker L. Menze
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199534876
- eISBN:
- 9780191716041
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199534876.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Chapter 4 combines a discussion of the developments of non-Chalcedonian church life with an account of how the imperial government tried to reintegrate the centrifugal elements in the eastern ...
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Chapter 4 combines a discussion of the developments of non-Chalcedonian church life with an account of how the imperial government tried to reintegrate the centrifugal elements in the eastern provinces. After a few years in exile the non-Chalcedonian bishops started to ordain a separate hierarchy that challenged the sacramental authority of the Chalcedonians—most visible by taking a non-Chalcedonian Eucharist. Prominent among the non-Chalcedonians appears John of Tella whose mass ordinations made him one of Justinian's dangerous opponents (and perhaps also an advocate of a different (eucharistic) ecclesiology). The problems which the religious controversy caused for the average layperson are addressed as well as the development of the different Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian liturgies (especially the case of the Trisagion). If read in context, the sources show that Justinian responded with a genuine attempt of rapprochement towards the non-Chalcedonians in the early 530s.Less
Chapter 4 combines a discussion of the developments of non-Chalcedonian church life with an account of how the imperial government tried to reintegrate the centrifugal elements in the eastern provinces. After a few years in exile the non-Chalcedonian bishops started to ordain a separate hierarchy that challenged the sacramental authority of the Chalcedonians—most visible by taking a non-Chalcedonian Eucharist. Prominent among the non-Chalcedonians appears John of Tella whose mass ordinations made him one of Justinian's dangerous opponents (and perhaps also an advocate of a different (eucharistic) ecclesiology). The problems which the religious controversy caused for the average layperson are addressed as well as the development of the different Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian liturgies (especially the case of the Trisagion). If read in context, the sources show that Justinian responded with a genuine attempt of rapprochement towards the non-Chalcedonians in the early 530s.
Gerald O'Collins and Michael Keenan Jones
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199576456
- eISBN:
- 9780191723032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576456.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter draws conclusions from the material set out in the first nine chapters. Some of these theses are relatively uncontroversial: e.g. that ‘the Jewish matrix and some New Testament books ...
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This chapter draws conclusions from the material set out in the first nine chapters. Some of these theses are relatively uncontroversial: e.g. that ‘the Jewish matrix and some New Testament books other than Hebrews are indispensable sources for those who explore the priesthood of Christ’ (Thesis 1); that ‘the Son of God became a priest, or rather the High Priest, when he took on the human condition’ (Thesis 2); that ‘the three offices of Christ are distinguishable but inseparable’ (Thesis 5); that the priesthood of Christ is eternal (Thesis10) and essentially Trinitarian (Thesis 11). Other theses point to areas of reflection on Christ's priesthood that have often been ignored: e.g. that ‘in his public ministry Jesus exercised a priestly ministry’ (Thesis 4); and ‘the priesthood of Christ involved him in becoming vulnerable to lethal persecution’ (Thesis 6). Some theses are more controversial: e.g. ‘that at the Last Supper, when instituting the Eucharist as a sacrificial meal, Jesus committed himself through a cultic, priestly act to his self‐sacrificing death’. Among other things, this thesis entails arguing that ‘sacrifice’, if understood appropriately, is still a viable term for Christians to use and that the Last Supper was a sacrificial meal.Less
This chapter draws conclusions from the material set out in the first nine chapters. Some of these theses are relatively uncontroversial: e.g. that ‘the Jewish matrix and some New Testament books other than Hebrews are indispensable sources for those who explore the priesthood of Christ’ (Thesis 1); that ‘the Son of God became a priest, or rather the High Priest, when he took on the human condition’ (Thesis 2); that ‘the three offices of Christ are distinguishable but inseparable’ (Thesis 5); that the priesthood of Christ is eternal (Thesis10) and essentially Trinitarian (Thesis 11). Other theses point to areas of reflection on Christ's priesthood that have often been ignored: e.g. that ‘in his public ministry Jesus exercised a priestly ministry’ (Thesis 4); and ‘the priesthood of Christ involved him in becoming vulnerable to lethal persecution’ (Thesis 6). Some theses are more controversial: e.g. ‘that at the Last Supper, when instituting the Eucharist as a sacrificial meal, Jesus committed himself through a cultic, priestly act to his self‐sacrificing death’. Among other things, this thesis entails arguing that ‘sacrifice’, if understood appropriately, is still a viable term for Christians to use and that the Last Supper was a sacrificial meal.
Gerald O'Collins and Michael Keenan Jones
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199576456
- eISBN:
- 9780191723032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576456.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This closing chapter is also built around twelve theses: four opening theses on the priesthood of all the baptized and then eight (sometimes more controversial) theses on the ordained ministry. As ...
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This closing chapter is also built around twelve theses: four opening theses on the priesthood of all the baptized and then eight (sometimes more controversial) theses on the ordained ministry. As regards the priesthood of all the faithful, the chapter argues that ‘the triple office of all the baptized and, in particular, their priesthood, possesses a certain priority over the participation in Christ's triple office by those in the ordained ministry’. No one can receive the ministry of the ordained without being previously baptized. In line with what was said about Christ's own priesthood, the chapter states that the priesthood of all the faithful involves them in becoming ‘vulnerable to persecution and lethal hostility’. The institution of ministerial priesthood did not coincide totally with the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, but also involved an earlier call by Jesus and a post‐resurrection commissioning. The chapter then suggests how a structured, threefold leadership of bishops, presbyters or priests, and deacons emerged in the second century. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ continues to call ordained ministers; they do not derive their ministry merely through delegation from the community of the baptized (Thesis 7). The final thesis builds on a tradition that goes back to Augustine: ‘in the celebration of the Eucharist ordained priests are visible signs of the invisible Christ, Priest and Victim or Offerer and Offering, whose unique and sufficient sacrifice, accomplished once and for all in his life, death, and resurrection, continues to be present and operative on behalf of the whole human race’ (Thesis 12).Less
This closing chapter is also built around twelve theses: four opening theses on the priesthood of all the baptized and then eight (sometimes more controversial) theses on the ordained ministry. As regards the priesthood of all the faithful, the chapter argues that ‘the triple office of all the baptized and, in particular, their priesthood, possesses a certain priority over the participation in Christ's triple office by those in the ordained ministry’. No one can receive the ministry of the ordained without being previously baptized. In line with what was said about Christ's own priesthood, the chapter states that the priesthood of all the faithful involves them in becoming ‘vulnerable to persecution and lethal hostility’. The institution of ministerial priesthood did not coincide totally with the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, but also involved an earlier call by Jesus and a post‐resurrection commissioning. The chapter then suggests how a structured, threefold leadership of bishops, presbyters or priests, and deacons emerged in the second century. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ continues to call ordained ministers; they do not derive their ministry merely through delegation from the community of the baptized (Thesis 7). The final thesis builds on a tradition that goes back to Augustine: ‘in the celebration of the Eucharist ordained priests are visible signs of the invisible Christ, Priest and Victim or Offerer and Offering, whose unique and sufficient sacrifice, accomplished once and for all in his life, death, and resurrection, continues to be present and operative on behalf of the whole human race’ (Thesis 12).
Jana Marguerite Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195315431
- eISBN:
- 9780199872022
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315431.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter considers states of life in relation to the time “in between” the redemption and the final event in salvation history, known alternately as the eschaton or the Parousia. God continues to ...
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This chapter considers states of life in relation to the time “in between” the redemption and the final event in salvation history, known alternately as the eschaton or the Parousia. God continues to work in this time by reconfiguring married and single households. While Christians cannot know the fullness of what the eschaton will be like, Augustine suggests that there are hints in this world, especially in the life of the church. The church is itself a household, and one that encompasses both the married and the single. The ecclesial household is the ultimate household through which God demonstrates how the smaller daily familial households are to be reconfigured. The church as Household of God demonstrates new, reconfigured household practices particularly through its own household rituals of washing in baptism and eating at the Eucharist.Less
This chapter considers states of life in relation to the time “in between” the redemption and the final event in salvation history, known alternately as the eschaton or the Parousia. God continues to work in this time by reconfiguring married and single households. While Christians cannot know the fullness of what the eschaton will be like, Augustine suggests that there are hints in this world, especially in the life of the church. The church is itself a household, and one that encompasses both the married and the single. The ecclesial household is the ultimate household through which God demonstrates how the smaller daily familial households are to be reconfigured. The church as Household of God demonstrates new, reconfigured household practices particularly through its own household rituals of washing in baptism and eating at the Eucharist.
