“Church Practices”: Sacraments or Invocations? H¨tter's Proposal in Light of Barth's

Abstract

The concept of "church practices" has entered in a prominent way into current theological discussion. While the lineage of this concept includes Alasdair MacIntyre and Stanley Hauerwas, the concept most recently has been taken up as a special point of concentration by a group of Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Anglican theologians, which this year has brought out a book entitled, Knowing the Triune God: The Work of the Spirit in the Practices of the Church. Among its accomplished contributors is Reinhard Hütter who, as is indicated by the title of his recent book, has been a principal advocate in the development of the concept. Hütter's work is especially instructive for the following reasons: (a) his account of what is meant by the concept of church practices; (b) his account of the comprehensive role church practices (together with church doctrine) play in determining what theology is and does, and; (c) his criticism of Barth's account of church practices and, consequently, of the way in which Barth does theology. Since Hütter's account of church practices gains some of its descriptive force from its polemical relation to Barth's theology of the Christian community, it is useful to compare Hütter's proposal (first section) with Barth's (second section). Further, it may be noted, Barth provides something that Hutter does not-the exegetical support for his proposed understanding of one church practice-water baptism. (The implication of his exegesis for the understanding of the other church practices is, I believe, evident.) The question posed, then, is: are Barth's exegetical grounds (recounted in the third section) for his description of church practices clear enough and convincing enough to withstand Hutter's criticism and alternate proposal? Contrariwise, Hutter is challenged to provide more convincing exegetical grounds for his proposal than has Barth.