Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry by Hans Boersma

Abstract

71 Book Reviews not simply mean “work of the people,” and the difference between having a right to grace and having a right to the rites of the Church faithfully enacted (the baptized faithful, we learn, possess the latter but not the former). The rest of the book devotes a chapter to each of the seven sacraments , with the chapter on the Eucharist understandably being as twice as long as the others. The book evinces a strong desire on the author’s part to communicate the Church’s timeless teachings on her sacraments, but it brings the reader up to speed on recent magisterial documents as well. Liturgy 101 is also sensitive to the contemporary context: formulae from both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite are quoted and analyzed, and prevalent abuses and errors, such as the overuse of general absolution and dissenting theologies of sin, are gently corrected. Throughout the work, Van Slyke is careful to tailor his words to the non-specialist without sacrificing accuracy, and he covers not only the bare essentials of each sacrament (matter, form, minister, and recipient) but its underlying theology. The latter he finds principally in the “sacramentals” surrounding each sacrament, that is, the non-essential ceremonial elements instituted by the Church for the celebration or conferral of this or that sacrament . Finally, reflecting the series’ pastoral focus, each chapter ends with two helpful sections: Discussion Questions and Further Reading. Liturgy 101: Sacraments & Sacramentals is an ideal and succinct primer on sacramental theology and the basic facts that every Catholic should know about the seven visible channels of invisible grace instituted by Christ for our sanctification. I can easily envision its use in a wide variety of venues, from high school and introductory undergraduate courses to RCIA to private study. Michael P. Foley Baylor University Waco, Texas Hans Boersma Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2011 xii + 206. Paperback. $20. Liturgical and sacramental theologians frequently bemoan the loss of rituality among people in late modern society. The narrative of these theologians goes something like this. No longer practiced in the rituals of field and table, liturgical ritual has become foreign to the human subject. As a salve for the loss of rituality, it is necessary 72 Antiphon 16.1 (2012) to turn to the foundations of ritual in order to develop a ritual imagination ; hence, the turn to ritual studies in liturgical theology. This analysis leaves me, for the most part, unimpressed. After all, even an amateur anthropologist can discern traces of ritual within American society, ranging from the yearly celebration of Thanksgiving to the pomp and circumstance of college football. Perhaps something more complex is afoot. In Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry, Hans Boersma provides one such diagnosis in his description of the loss of a sacramental ontology. By sacramental ontology he means the “link between heaven and earth that allowed premodern Christians to see God’s own truth, goodness, and beauty in the world around them” (x). An evangelical Christian and professor at Regent College in Vancouver, Boersma spent a year reading the nouvelle theologians. The result of this inquiry appeared in an earlier, 336-page tome entitled Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford University Press, 2009). Heavenly Participation is a popular adaptation of the 2009 volume, yet shares the methodological approach of ressourcement practiced by nouvelle théologie. The book consists of two parts influenced by the exitus/reditus motif common to patristic literature. In Part One, the exitus, Boersma presents a narrative of both the weaving and fraying of the sacramental tapestry. According to the author, early Christians had a deep sense of the sacramental quality of existence. That is, they recognized that the world is a sign that participates in the reality of God (24). The Augustinian, and for Boersma, Platonist-Christian synthesis found its source in the christology of the Fathers, including Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Gregory of Nyssa. This claim, developed in chapter two, is essential to the remainder of the book. Sacramental ontology, emerging from christology, is the foundation of all Christian teaching on God, human nature, the Church...