This thesis argues that Christian baptism is most profitably understood from the perspective of anthropological studies of ritual, A dialogue with its categories establishes that baptismal theology has often implicitly assumed social anthropology's findings on ritual in general. It also suggests that the primary ritual categories of myth, symbol and metaphor are foundational to baptism's theological development. The anthropology of myth is deployed to locate the narrative basis for baptism. The proposal is made that the story of Jesus' Baptism, which is understood as the revelation of the eschatological new creation, provides baptismal ritual with its imitative source and legitimates its symbols and metaphors. An analysis of iconography is an important part of this justification. This proposal is developed by exploring the properties of baptismal symbols. The concepts of symbolic elusiveness, deep structure and natural symbolism are exploited to give an account of symbols based on water and oil. The sensual experience of olfaction and the flow of human blood are found to be important interpretative concepts which lead naturally to a consideration of the corporeality of baptismal symbolism. Recognising that symbols promote a shared ritual experience, the properties of ritual metaphors are then considered as the primary means for facilitating a baptismal identity. Criteria for an evaluation of the three major metaphors - birth, death and washing - are derived from anthropology and applied. It is concluded that the metaphor of childbirth has a strong claim to be regarded as the appropriate primary metaphor for organising baptism's ritual context. Baptism thus understood offers fresh contours for baptismal theology today and overcomes some of the difficulties presented by more traditional methodologies. Especially, it allows contemporary concerns about baptism to be effectively addressed. Among these are questions about the intelligibility of its liturgical symbols and the relationships between its key metaphors.

The contention of this thesis is that place is much more important in human experience and in the Christian scheme of things than is generally recognised. I first survey the manner in which place has been progressively downgraded in Western thought and practice in favour of a concentration upon space and time. I note that during the latter part of the twentieth century scholars in a variety of disciplines have suggested that place is much more important than this prevailing discourse would suggest. Few theologians, however, recognise the importance of place. I suggest that, in this respect, theologians owe more to the mores of modernity than to a thorough engagement with the Christian scriptures and tradition. Second, I embark upon such an engagement with the scriptures. My findings suggest that their witness confirms that, from a Christian perspective, place is vital. With this in mind, my third step is to propose that the best way of understanding the role of place in a manner consonant with the Biblical narrative is sacramentally. Fourth, I test this hypothesis by examining the Christian tradition's approach to pilgrimage and investigate how it might be applied to holy places and churches in general. Finally, I conclude that a renewed appreciation of place by theologians and churchpeople, which their scriptures and tradition invite, would enable them to offer much to a society still trapped in the paradigm of modernity which underestimates place, with dehumanising effect.

Thesis advisor: Oliva Blanchette / This dissertation is a synthetic exercise in philosophy and theology, proceeding from the perennial question: "What is the specific difference between sacrament and superstition?" It answers that the difference lies in the order of revelation. Sacraments are a form of revealed praxis, and only the divine guaranty of revelation distinguishes them from other forms of human action, including superstitious action. Revelation takes shape in historical sensible signs demanding human interpretation, such as inspired scripture. These revealed signs also include precise human actions, however, in the form of the prescriptions of sacramental praxis. As the words of Scripture do not signify merely human intentions, but express the divine will, so sacramental action signifies a divine intention, not a purely human intention, in the form of this precise praxis. Sacraments, therefore, far from attempting some kind of natural purchase on the supernatural, in fact demand the opposite: the surrender of the human to the divine will, the admission of human insufficiency. This answer is based on a theological appropriation of Maurice Blondel's philosophical investigation of human action in his early philosophical work Action (1893), in which he rehabilitates the question of the supernatural on a properly philosophical footing by establishing a hypothetical necessity for a supernatural complement to human action. Blondel and Aquinas, therefore, both find the point of heterogenous insertion for the supernatural in human subjectivity: in the virtues for Aquinas, in voluntary human action for Blondel. The dialectic of Action (1893) hinges on the phenomenon of superstitious action, which functions as a middle term in the dialectic. Superstition for Blondel corresponds to an attempt at human `self-sufficiency': actively placing in a finite object of the will the transcendent perfection that can only be received passively as gift from outside the natural order, by insertion of a heterogenous factor in the human action. Given that human action is irreducible in Blondel's philosophy and even thought itself is a form of action, so superstition works its way into all forms of human practice, including intellectual pursuits like philosophy and theology, giving rise to `closed' and self-sufficient philosophical and theological systems. Moreover, Blondel audaciously turns Kant's accusation of superstition against sacraments around, arguing that it is the extreme rationalists, not the unlearned devout, who are guilty of the most insidious form of superstition by effectively fetishizing their own thought, finding there the completion that Blondel's dialectic demonstrates to be impossible in the natural order. Sacramental action, by contrast, since it requires submission of human to divine will and the admission of human insufficiency, it is at the very antipodes of superstition. The theological appropriation of Blondel's philosophy provides a heuristic in sacramental theology, since it entails that the supernatural efficacy of the sacraments cannot be attributed, even partially, to the natural efficacy of human action. It is hard to see how post-conciliar theories of `symbolic efficacy' avoid superstition, therefore, since they attempt to find in natural human action the heterogenous supernatural that cannot be reduced to the merely naturally perceptible. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Over the last fifty years Western Christianity has been criticized as a cause and enabler of Earth's ecological crisis. This criticism is based on the conclusion that Christianity promotes a spiritual-material dualism and that the material side of life has little sacred value. It is also based on the observed hesitancy of many Christians to embrace modern scientific understandings of creation, especially evolution. Some Christian writers have responded by accepting modern cosmology and evolution, and advocating for a sacramental creation spirituality, oftentimes supported by fresh readings of earlier Christian writings. This dissertation looks at Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662 CE), Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464 CE), and Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955 CE). Teilhard attests to an experience of natural sacrament in perceiving an increasingly transfigured creation, meaning the glory of God is ever more perceptible as a timely conscious insight into creation and as an emergent aspect of cosmogenesis and evolution moving toward Christ-Omega, the end and fulfillment of all creation. The teachings of Maximus readily support this sacramental view of creation by affirming a universal, ontological, and "real" presence of the Logos of God. A theological insight of Nicholas's doctrine of learned ignorance is that the Christian God always incarnates, transfigures, fulfills, and exceeds the entire cosmos. Together the teachings of Maximus and Nicholas support Teilhard's call for a theology of a Creator God robust enough to encompass the most expansive and complicated propositions about creation made by science, while remaining as close as the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The integrated teachings of these three figures suggest an ontological consecration of creation. This consecration inspires sacramental experiences of God in and through creation that complement the sacramental experience of Christ in the Eucharist. Over the evolutional time frame, these sacraments converge as one and the same sacrament at Christ-Omega. The complementary and ultimately convergent relationship between these sacramental experiences supports the ethical conclusion that just as one receives and responds to Christ present in the elements of the communion table, so one ought to receive and respond to oneself, one's neighbors, and all creation as the universal consecrated neighborhood.

Although scholars have widely acknowledged the prevalence of religious reference in the work of Cormac McCarthy, no studies have yet paid any adequate attention to the most pervasive religious trope in all his works: the image of sacrament, and in particular, of eucharist. I contend that a thorough and appropriately informed study of sacrament in the work of Cormac McCarthy can uniquely illuminate his whole body of writing and I undertake that study in this dissertation. Two things are obvious in the work of Cormac McCarthy: that these novels attempt to establish some sort of moral system in light of metaphysical collapse, and that they are often adorned with sacramental imagery. My argument is that these two facts can and do intelligibly speak to one another, and that a particular theological understanding of sacrament demonstrates how. By reading McCarthy alongside postmodern accounts of action, identity, subjectivity, and narration, I show how he exploits Christian theology in order to locate the value of human acts and relations in a sacramentally immanent way. This is not to claim McCarthy for theology, but it is to assert that McCarthy generates an account of what goodness might look like in a death-ridden world through reference to the theological tradition of sacrament. I begin by addressing the scope and source of McCarthy’s violence. In Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men I read McCarthy as following Nietzsche in scorning an ascetic ideal that locates the value of life beyond life. The ideas of reason and fate in Nietzsche as they develop in Adorno and Arendt is then studied in these same novels. Arendtian ideas of action deeply influence my reading of Suttree next, and this lead into a study of storytelling in the three novels of the border trilogy which is again deeply indebted to Arendtian notions of narration. Last, I look to contemporary theology and The Road for examples of sacrament that can cohere these various themes under a single sign and establish the grounds for a postmodern morality.

Popiežius Benediktas XVI 2011 m. sausio 22 d., susitikęs su Romos Rotos tribunolo teisėjais ir darbuotojais, kalbėjosi apie kandidatų santuokai paruošimą ir labiausiai atkreipė dėmesį į veiksmus, kuriuos būtina atlikti prieš laiminant santuoką. Bažnyčia santuokai visuomet skyrė didelį dėmesį: pasiruošimas santuokai yra apsuptas ypatingu rūpesčiu, globa bei įvairiomis normomis. Bažnyčia teisinėmis priemonėmis reguliuoja įvairias iš santuokinio ryšio kylančias sutuoktinių gyvenimo sritis. Ir ne tik patį santuokos sudarymą, bet ir pasiruošimą santuokai bei kitus veiksmus, kuriuos būtina atlikti prieš laiminant santuoką. O tai, kas susiję su santuoka ir jos galiojimu, visada kelia daug emocijų. Apsisprendimas kurti šeimą yra svarbus ir iš kandidatų santuokai reikalauja atsakingo pasiruošimo. Vis dažniau kalbama apie santuokos krizę, formuojasi paviršutiniškas požiūris į šeimos gyvenimą, propaguojamos laisvos nepastovios sąjungos. Katalikų Bažnyčia turi savo požiūrį į santuoką. Ji iškelia šią instituciją kaip neišardomą vyro ir moters sąjungą, ją pavadindama sandora. Bažnyčia santuoką laiko sakramentu, o sakramentus išimtinai tvarko tik Bažnyčia. Todėl būtent Bažnyčia nurodo normas. t. y., ko reikia, kad priimti sakramentai būtų galiojantys ir teisėti. Bažnyčia laikosi nuostatos, kad tarp tikinčiųjų galioja tik bažnytinė santuoka. Dabartinė tikėjimo krizė įtakoja, kad net ir krikščionys santuoką sudaro rimtai neįsisąmoninę, ką iš tiesų reiškia santuoka, kokia jos esmė, kam... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Meeting with the judges of the Roman Rota and its staff on the 22nd of December, 2011, pope Benedict XVI talked over personal preparation for entering marriage and, especially, mentioned some requirements necessary to fulfill before allowing the spouses to express their matrimonial consent sacramentaly. The Church always, in a special way, takes care of marriage and, in order to protect and maintain it in a deep Christian spirit, furnishes not only relative canonical norms, but also provides certain pastoral assistance for the spouses enabling them responsibly and fruitfully be predisposed toward the holiness and duties of their new state and, afterwards, to contract their conjugal covenant validly and legitimately. Recently, mainly due to the superficial attitudes that flourish among the faithful toward understanding the dignity and aims of Christian marriage and the lack of adequate preparation that precedes its celebration, this institution undergoes some crisis. In this context, the role of the pastors of the Church making provisions to organize duly the assistance to the parties instructing them about the essence, rights and obligations of marriage, at the same time, investigating about the evidence that nothing stands against its valid and licit celebration, appears to be of essential value. Only after carrying out the necessary inquiries and diligently observing the norms issued by the local conference of bishops, the pastors can proceed to assist at a marriage. A... [to full text]

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This thesis examines the nature of what I have termed "the sacramental vision" of Gerard Manley Hopkins and David Jones: it is an exploration of the mutually sustaining relationship between poetry and religion; or, as Jones puts it, between art and sacrament. The key to the relationship is to be found in language: the inherited language of theologian and poet is saturated with metaphor, sign and symbol, linguistic forms of a particularly resistant and irreducible kind. In literature, as in religion, such forms represent ultimate points of vision, to which in trust we assent, and from which we infer belief, that is, we are required to convert what begins as "an impression upon the Imagination" into a belief which may be tested by reason. The poet's renewal of such sacramental signs is a necessary exercise of the religious imagination if each generation is to remake the beliefs it has inherited. The opening chapter is an examination of the origins of Hopkins's and Jones's use of the sacramental sign and the subsequent chapters scrutinise the value of sign-making to the development of the poetic method of both poets. I suggest that this method is best elucidated through three controlling principles: the Coleridgean view of the sacramental potential of language helps to define the verbal content of the poem; the Thornist sacramental schema instresses the form of the poem; and the Newmanesque process of notional and real assent determines the grammar or inscape of the total oeuvre as a chronicle of the development of the poet's spiritual growth. Hopkins and Jones deepen our understanding of a grammar common to faith and belief, shared by poet and theologian, by claiming that poetry should be the tranforming crucible of the encounter between the experience of the poet, the reader and the divine.

<p>This project examines the medieval practice of the sacrament of penance and the innovative ways in which medieval literature engaged with the pastoral project of the Catholic church to provide the penitent with a way to deal with sin. Drawing from medieval literature, religious writing and theological sources, this project begins by illustrating the extent to which each of these didactic texts produces a "model of confession" that reaffirms the teachings of the church. However, approaching these texts with careful attention to language and to the grammar of sin and penance, I show that each of these undeniably orthodox works departs from traditional accounts of the sacrament of penance in significant ways. I suggest that such departures point to moments of theological exploration. My dissertation thus interrogates the category of orthodoxy, showing it to be more capacious and exploratory than is generally recognized. Further, I suggest that the vernacular penitential literature of the late medieval period, motivated by pastoral considerations, actively engages with academic and clerical theological debates surrounding the heavily contested sacrament of penance. </p><p>Chapter one examines <italic>Jacob's Well<italic>, a fifteenth-century vernacular penitential treatise. I argue that the narrative exempla often work against the instruction offered within each chapter, compelling the reader to consider theological problems not addressed within the doctrinal material. These resistances, I suggest, are intentional and not only suggest certain limitations in traditional penitential manuals, but encourage a more conscientious penitential practice and a better understanding of church doctrine. In chapter two I consider the <italic>Showings<italic> of Julian of Norwich. I show how Julian critiques the church's penitential system and offers an alternative form of confession and penance that holds the sinner accountable for sins while reassuring the penitent of God's love and forgiveness. Chapter three compares two fifteenth-century morality plays, <italic>Mankind<italic> and the <italic>Castle of Perseverance<italic>. Through a reading of the treatment of mercy in both plays, I suggest that the Castle's departures from traditional accounts of sacramental confession allow the author to explore the scope of God's mercy and experiment with the idea of universal salvation while still promoting orthodox instruction. I conclude this dissertation with Thomas Hoccleve's poem "Lerne to Die," one of the earliest treatments of the Ars moriendi theme. Examining some of the differences between sacramental confession and deathbed confession, I show how the absence of the sacrament in this dramatic account of unprepared death emphasizes the power of God's grace and limitations of human effort. However, Hoccleve ultimately reaffirms the necessity of final confession by the end of the poem.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (D. Min.)--McCormick Theological Seminary, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.