Semiotics and Daniel Hardy's Eucharistic Theology

Abstract

The eucharist, without doubt, was important in Daniel Hardys ecclesiology. In Wording a Radiance he describes eucharist as the defining of According to Hardy, eucharist is practical activity which founds church and means through which Christians share in life, death and resurrection of Jesus This sacrament is, therefore, reenactment and recalling of pure by which righteousness was constituted in Jesus' time.* 1Hardy contends that by attending to strictly local context of performance of eucharist one can discern manner in which it contributes to formation and renewal of any given community, by presenting them with themes and counter-themes of human existence, and stimulat[ingl them to a new course of social life-a new enactment of meaning that approximates to goodness in their place.2 This is because in eucharist many different people come together, called together by goodness of God's revelation, seeking to discern manner in which their life together can be renewed and shaped by God's purposes-that is, the extensity of participants' life in world and its time . . . are stimulated to courses of action that more closely approximate to intensity of goodness.3 This movement of community in relation to its discernment of goodness contributes to formation of social fife of community: it enables sociopoiesis, or the generation and shaping of relations, and therefore facilitates ongoing formation of community.4 Consequently, for Hardy, eucharist, as reenactment of of Jesus' life that constitutes church and as activity that enables ongoing growth and movement of social life of church, measures Church by progress of each member's pilgrimage to God within sociopoiesis of a given church and in sociopoiesis that gathers all churches and all creatures in God's creation.5Hardy's suggestion that eucharist is a measure of church is part of his attempt to overcome seeming divide between natural sciences and humanities and theology. In face of sciences being often thought of as measuring outside world and society by seemingly fixed and objective means, humanities and theology seem to Hardy to have turned inward in an attempt not to lose their identity.6 This, he believes, need not be case. Hardy posits that increasingly humanities and sciences recognize relational character of much of what we know. In this context, all creatures of God come to fullness of their being through their interrelatedness to one another as result of primordial of creation itself. Given interrelatedness of all that has been created, eucharist is indeed a of church, not in terms of providing some fixed, absolute form of measurement, but rather as a way through which variable and interrelated life of church in world can be understood in relation to life, death, and resurrection of Christ at heart of church's identity. In other words, eucharist as measure enables social relations that form communal life of church to be seen within context of-that is, in relation to-the primal event of church, life of Christ. By thus bringing life of church in relation to revelation of Christ and facilitating ongoing formation of social life of church, raising people to flourishing as a society,7 eucharist can be understood as a measure of church.Hardy suggests that abductive reasoning lies at heart of capacity of eucharist to be a of church. Hardy is influenced by Coleridge's understanding of abduction as a mode of reasoning that generates probabilistic claims about world, noting that for Coleridge every knowing and all love involve abduction, from chaotic spontaneity . …