Symbol and Sacrament: A Contemporary Sacramental Theology by Michael G. Lawler

Abstract

732 BOOK REVIEWS Symbol and Sacrament: A Contemporary Sacramental Theology. By MICHAEL G. LAWLER. New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987. Pp. 290. $11.95. In this book Michael Lawler, Dean of 1the graduate school and pro· fessor of Theology at Creighton University, offers both foundations for a contemporary Roman Catholic sacramental theology (chapters one and two) and presentations of each of the sacraments (chapters three to nine) that summarize the historical evolution of each sacrament's theology and praotice and (most usually) apply insights from the first il:wo chapters that are aimed to present a contemporary theology of each sacrament. In general the foundational presentations on " prophetic symbol" (chapter one) and "sacrament: a theological view" (chapter two) are the more interesting and thought provoking. The later chapters are merely adequate summaries of the :tradition which sometimes rely on dated research and oversimplified understandings of historical periods. Unfortunately therefore, the book's usefulness, especially as a text, is marred. In chapter one Lawler argues that sacraments are most adequately understood as prophetic symbols because through both the sacramental word and sacramental action believers experience God's revelation and continuing action in human life. Lawler often reiterates that those who experience the prophetic symbols of sacraments must live into them and thus experience God through them (p. 19). "To say symbol is not to say not real, but rather fully real, ithat is, representatively and concretely and effectively and personally real. Prophetic symbols realize sacred reality precisely by symbolizing it" (p. 28). In this chapter Lawler offers some intriguing approaches to sacraments and sets up the way he will deal with individual sacraments. The second chapter is much less satisfying because in it the author attempts to do too much: to present the history of the definitions of sacrament in Catholic theology, the nature of sacraments as signs (and then as causes), as signs of faith, and their institution by Christ. Here the absence of any reference Ito the way the Franciscan school understood sacramental causality (when discussing the Scholastic contribution to sacramental theology) , or to the usefulness of the number seven, or to the role of the Spirit in sacramental theology and practice, or to ithe indwelling of the Church in the Trinity through sacraments is disappointing. What is particularly noteworthy, however, is the way the author describes the sacramentality of all of creation, how "sacramentality is a bedrock in the Christian tradition" (p. 60) and how the Church can be undersitood as sacramental. Chapter three on " baptism: ritual of life and death " is particularly BOOK REVIEWS 733 well presented since the author combines the biblical notion of corpo· rate personality with a communal understanding of Church as essen· tial bases for understanding initiation, especially infant baptism. While one could argue that his presentation of infant baptism ought to follow from a theology of adult initiation (thus using more fully his quotation on p. 82 from von Balthasar that " the baptism of in·£ants is not a proper model for the sacramental process ... [and] that it must be considered an exception ..."), his consideration of the pastoral problem of baptized non-believers here and in the chapters on confirmation and marriage is most useful. Where the Rite of Chris· tian Initiation for Adu1ts is discussed most fully is in chapter four on confirmation, where Lawler takes careful, moderate and pastorally realistic positions on what to do with those whose sacramental initia· tion has nol: been followed up with Christian education or practice. Here the author refers in a useful way to the present rite for confirmation as a source for sacramenital theology. The author's emphasis on the role of the church in sacraments is care· fully described in his treatment of penance and reconciliation (chapter five) . Here the church is viewed as the agent of reconciliation, which agency is seen in history most clearly in the early evolwtion of public penance. The author offers good insights about the present rite of penance and carefully critiques it where appropriate. Unfortunately his appreciation of exhomologesis seems not to include praise and thanksgiving in penance; he leaves these joyful aspects of reconciliation to sharing in the eucharist as the term of the process...