Sacramental Practice Research Articles

Representation of Vivāha Saṁskāra in the Kalyāṇsundara Sculptures

Saṁskāras, as sacramental practices, have been an integral part of the Indian culture and they concretised the fundamental premises of ancient Indian social organisation as Āshram, Puruṣārtha and Varṇa. Encoded in the Gṛhyasūtras, Saṁskāras were elaborated in Dharmasūtras, Mahākāvya and Purāṇas. The normative structure of ritual prescriptions in Sūtra literature was disseminated through legends and narratives of Purāṇas that assigned them a divine character and enhanced their popularity and relevance for the society. Besides literary references, the Saṁskāras’ pervading influence in socio-cultural life may be surmised through their artistic projections also. This article, in particular, underlines the significance of the Vivāha Saṁskāras as a nuptial ritual that initiated the Gṛhastha Āshram or life of the householder, facilitating the acquisition of both individual and social objectives of human existence. It cites the projection of the divine marriage ceremony of Śiva and Pārvatı̄ represented as Kalyāṇsundara motif in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa art at Elephanta and Ellorā, as epitomising continuity of Saṁskāras tradition for the fulfilment of socio-religious obligations in early medieval Deccan. Further, it implies that such artistic manifestations were instrumental in the process of socialisation and cultural assimilation.

Duties of the penitent and confessor in the light of 21 Constitution of the Fourth Lateran Council

At the beginning of the 13th century there was a crisis in the institutional Church, in response to which Pope Innocent III during the Fourth Lateran Council introduced the obligation of annual confession and emphasised the importance of this sacramental practice.
 The 21st Council Constitution obliged every believer to go to Confession at least once a year and to receive the Eucharist during the Easter season. This obligation applied to every baptised man and woman upon reaching the age of discernment, which the Council’s commentators at the time put at around seven years. Although, according to the medieval canonists, this obligation referred to confession of mortal sins, in practice all the faithful were encouraged to go to confession annually. The own parish priest had the duty to see that this commandment was fulfilled by the faithful entrusted to his pastoral care.
 In response to the serious obligation of the faithful, the Constitution Omnis utriusque sexus also imposed important duties on confessors. The confessor was to be prudent towards the confession of the penitent; he was compared to a doctor who must choose the treatment appropriate to the illness. Finally, the 21st Constitution of the Fourth Lateran Council emphasises the obligation of confessional secrecy on the part of the confessor and at the same time introduces severe penalties for a priest who breaks it.
 Many of the provisions described are still relevant in contemporary Church legislation. Even today, in the face of the Church’s crisis, it seems advisable to return to the fruitful celebration of the sacrament of Penance, which concerns both confessors and penitents.

The Globalization of Catholicism as Expressed in the Sacramental Narratives of Jiangnan Catholics from the Late Ming to Early Republican Period

From the Late Ming to the Republican period, Chinese Catholics living in Jiangnan (present-day Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Anhui) progressively appropriated the sacramental doctrine and practices of the Church. This study examines the implementation and evolution of the sacraments of baptism, marriage, and extreme unction, and it focuses on each of them at a different moment in the process of acculturation. The latter can be analyzed in terms of both localization and globalization: on the one hand, the religiosity displayed by the grassroots communities integrated elements proper to Chinese tradition and sensitivity. On the other hand, local believers developed a consciousness of their participation in the global Church through active sacramental practice. Sacramental acculturation and identity building were mediated by a “ritual rhetoric” that provided communities with topoi through which to endow their existence with accrued meaning and blessings.

The Eucharist as Iconic Experience of Divine Love: Ancient – Future Orienteering with Julian of Norwich

This paper explores Julian of Norwich’s experience of divine love through her understanding of “poynte,” culminating in her mystical revelation of the blood of Jesus. In the medieval context of plague, war, and hopelessness, Julian experiences the blood of Jesus on the cross present in the Eucharist as a place of safety and joy, something which can speak to the contemporary reader during this time of pandemic, racial strife, and global pessimism. First, the stage is set by historically examining the socio-cultural milieu of fourteenth-century England, mystical spirituality, and sacramental practice of the Eucharist in the medieval Church. Next, the image of blood as it relates to Julian Norwich’s idea of time expressed as “poynte” in her Showings is presented to illuminate the transformation of suffering into God’s great love which upends all social and religious barriers to unify people in neighborly love. Contemporary implications are made for viewing the Eucharist as icon of remembrance through which Christ is experienced in his suffering at a kingdom table of divine love for a world that suffers and bleeds. Julian of Norwich presents visions of healing, restoration, and theosis where all of humanity’s wounds are healed by Jesus’ bloody wounds. In a Eucharistic preview of the festal banquet of kingdom shalom, Julian’s vision of divine love as a place of safety and joy inform a present Eucharistic table where all are welcome for Jesus is present with his suffering ones and iconically in the faces of his wounded children gathered around the table.

La variante C

The pandemic is a watershed between a ‘before’, that was already suffering the fatigues of the crisis of the model of a Church’s religion, and an ‘after’ that cannot simply ‘resume’ spaces and times denied in the months of the most rigid lockdown in which the Government had imposed, and willingly accepted by the hierarchies of Catholic Church, the cancellation of any activity in presence. The pandemic has imposed itself as a total social fact and this characteristic asks for a broader reflection on some issues that have more to do with the presence in society of the Church and not just with a simple resuming of ordinary religious functions and services. There are consequences on the sacramental practice, on the community dimension and on the public relevance of the Italian Catholic Church.

A Call for a More Robust Word in Word and Sacrament

The relationship of word and sacrament rests at the very core of a Reformed theology of worship. However, the fundamental inseparability of the two has struggled to find balance within the practice of worship and preaching in congregational life. The last 50 years has seen a significant increase in sacrament practice within the Presbyterian Church. The effort has largely been sparked by the desire to establish a better theological balance of word and sacrament consistent with the ecumenical world church. During that same period, however, preaching’s engagement with the church’s sacramental life has not been well served by the discipline of homiletics. The teaching of preaching has significantly ignored the theological depth and rich imagery of baptism and communion. It is time to call for a more vibrant engagement with the word on the occasions when the sacraments are being celebrated. This essay offers an exploration of how the preacher can live into relatively recent liturgical change that elevates sacramental practice while honoring the Reformed theological heritage of word and sacrament.

Sacramental Homiletic Formation: Blessing and Breaking the Practices of Preaching

This article uses three touchstones of Calvin's understanding of the Spirit in sacramental practice to reflect on homiletic pedagogy. It describes practices of hospitality, dependence and discernment in an exegetical “field journal” for the purpose of forming preachers in postures of Spirit-empowered faith. The field journal on which this article reflects can be accessed at: https://www.academia.edu/49222052/A_Textual_Field_Journal_for_Preaching .

‘Live Bread for the Starved Folk’: Some Perspectives on Holy Communion

Abstract This essay argues that ecclesial existence involves learning to view the world and to move in it in ways informed by the Christian community’s sacramental practices. Of particular concern here is the practice of Holy Communion. This looking and moving is not about one thing; it is rather about many things. Frequently, such discussions are exhausted by fruitless debates about the metaphysics of the elements, or strangled by concerns to defend certain prescriptive practices or shibboleths. This essay is unconcerned with these matters. Instead, it brings together some observations about the practices of the Lord’s Supper with a range of themes representative of commitments shared by Christian communities broadly – people, God, stories, hospitality, power, catholicity, martyrdom, and hope – with the intention of provoking a thicker assessment of eucharistic modes of being in the world, and promoting practices marked by the kinds of imaginative freedom that the gospel instigates.

Rethinking the Eucharist in the aftermath of COVID-19 disruptions: A comparative study of Reformed and Pentecostal theology of sacraments

This contribution recommends a re-thinking of Christian traditions with regards to sacraments and use of technology in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It is a comparative study that employed field observations from two congregations with different traditions: one from Protestant Reformed tradition and another from Pentecostal Charismatic background to analyse how they conducted Holy Communion services. By highlighting positive aspects of COVID-19 disruptions on traditional practices, the study challenged traditional understanding of ‘sacred space’ and re-appropriates the virtual role of a priest as symbolic embodiment of the presence of Christ extended through virtual, audio and tele-visual presence. The contribution also demonstrated how ontological questions help us discern what separates the sacred from the secular and concluded that the transformative nature of the sacrament of the Holy Communion has a uniquely power-levelling role in communities.Contribution: This article contributes to conversations on the role of technology in sacraments within the Reformed Christian tradition and presents a systematic and practical reflection on the intersecting modes of sacramental practices within different Christian traditions.

The Altar and the Rail: “Catholicity” and African American Inclusion in the 19th Century Episcopal Church

Examining the denominational history of The Episcopal Church from the point of view of mission shifts the view of the church’s nature and its most important figures. These become those people who struggled to overcome boundaries of race, culture, and geography in extending the church’s reach and incorporating new people into it, and puts issues of racial relationships at the forefront of the church’s story, rather than as an aside. White Episcopalians from the 1830s forward were focused heavily on the meaning of “catholicity” in terms of liturgical and sacramental practice, clerical privilege, and the centrality of the figure of the Bishop to the validity of the church, in increasingly tense and conflicted debates that have been traced by multiple scholars. However, the development of catholicity as a strategic marker of missional thinking, particularly in the context of a racially diverse church, has not been examined. The paper investigates the ways in which Black Episcopalians and their white allies used the theological ideal of catholicity creatively and strategically in the nineteenth century, both responding to a particular missional history and contending that missional success depended upon true catholicity.

Reflections on Ministry amongst Children during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract The role and function of children’s ministry during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic is explored, including a comparison of observations from four different contexts: Norway, South Africa, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom. Theological reflection examines the emerging ecclesiologies, form and adaptation of sacramental practices and pastoral care of families during this time of crisis. This investigation acknowledges awareness that there were significant restrictions and consequent challenges facing churches during this time, causing implications on children’s ministry that were unprecedented and frustrating for the Church on a global scale. Observations and recommendations are presented to aid churches globally in ensuring that children’s ministry during such times of crisis is child-centred, values the child as part of the body of Christ, fosters intergenerational role modelling and solidarity, and helps rather than hinders children on their spiritual journey.

“Like a Wolf Takes a Sheep”: The Wall Paintings of the Chapel of St Barbara in the Old Cathedral of Salamanca

In 2019 a cycle of wall paintings depicting the story of St Barbara was brought to light in the chapel dedicated to her in the Old Cathedral of Salamanca (Crown of Castile, Spain). They were painted c. 1350-1360, at the time the chapel was constructed and decorated by Bishop Juan Lucero, and, upon their discovery, they were found to be very well preserved. Following their immediate restoration, this article explores their significance in the hagiographic and iconographic tradition of St Barbara, a controversial, yet, very popular female saint whose story required successive adaptations in the West to keep her within the boundaries of the orthodoxy of sacramental practices. The special interest of the Salamanca wall paintings is predicated on their relatively early date and on their coherence with the development of the hagiographic tradition of St Barbara in the Crown of Castile, where, in contrast to other European regions, the account numbered 915 in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina was preferred until the 16th century in both Latin and vernacular versions, thereby ignoring the aforementioned adaptations. This led to the creation of striking scenes, especially that of St Barbara’s self-baptising, which, according to this research, is a unique scene, unparalleled in other cycles.

Pratique religieuse et pouvoirs à la fin du Moyen Âge : les litterae confessionales de la pénitencerie apostolique

The registers of petitions to the Apostolic Penitentiary preserved from the 15th century include a chapter mainly devoted to “letters of confession”, and, then, at century's end to other privileges relating to sacramental practice. Given their variety, these letters at once allow us to describe how the privatization of late medieval religious life was expressed with regard to belonging to a parish and to analyse how the papacy used the devout aspirations of a social elite to manifest its sovereignty and position as head of the hierarchical Church beyond the territorial divisions which characterize Latin Christendom. A free choice of confessor granted to the faithful, giving priests competencies for absolving episcopaly reserved cases, possession of a portable alter, authorization to celebrate mass in private contexts even in periods of interdict, are all privileges men and women, mainly clerics and nobles, solicited the Apostolic Penitentiary for, manifesting their membership in the elite both by this “private” practice and by the tangible bond with the pope that the “letter of confession” represented.

RISK AND SACRAMENT: BEING HUMAN IN A COVID‐19 WORLD

AbstractIn this article we examine the changing relationship to risk as revealed by the covid‐19 pandemic and the ways this has, and may in future, alter sacramental practice, considering the radical effects this could have on traditional Christian practice. We consider the cultural trends that may lie behind this developing approach to risk, examining this in the context of an emergent transhuman identity that is technologically moderated and seeks to overcome risks of human mortality.

Das Politische als Passion und Fragment. Erik Peterson und Carl Schmitt in der Auseinandersetzung um die Grundlagen der Politischen Theologie

Abstract In the current dispute over the crisis of democracy arises, among others, the question about a theological concept of the Political. The article traces this problem back to the debate between Erik Peterson and Carl Schmitt after 1933. While Schmitt, apologizing Nazi dictatorship, emphatically proclaimed the Political as the »total«, Peterson responded that the Political in the very moment of its totalization ceases to be political but receives instead a cultlike quality. Opposing this scenario, Peterson developed a concept of the Political which finds its central image in the figure of the martyr whose body is broken by imperial violence. The Political is not conceived out of the political agency, but out of the »passio«, at the place where the new aeon of the crucified and risen Christ and the old aeon of the agonistic political are colliding. The sacramental practice of the church, then, is the place where the presence of the new order of the Political is instituted and anticipated in an eschatological and provisional way.

Catholic Fasting Literature in a Context of Body Hatred: A Feminist Critique

Some concerned Catholic theologians and popular writers have addressed the ubiquity of body hatred in the United States in their prescriptive considerations of liturgical fasting. This essay brings a feminist theological lens to their writings to argue that this Catholic fasting literature presents dualistic and decontextualized accounts of embodiment and of sacramental practice that reify the discursive structures of body hatred in the US context. In response, the author advocates for a shift in Catholic theological discourse about fasting as one attempt to resist body hatred and support more liberative possibilities for embodiment in this context.*

Baptism, the New Testament, and the Baptist Tradition: Towards a Baptist Sacramental Theology and Practice of Baptism

In the New Testament baptism is an integral part of becoming a Christian and part of the proclaimed gospel. Yet many Baptists fail to see this, understanding it merely as a sign of a salvation already secured. However, this article argues that the “one baptism” of Ephesians 4.5 is faith-baptism/missionbaptism, conversion-baptism/initiation, and that the baptism referred to in the New Testament refers to this one baptism of Spirit and water. In this article he outlines the case for this, contending that in key passages “baptism” is an example of synecdoche, a form of metaphor in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole – in this case, baptism for the whole process of becoming a Christian (cf. 1 Peter 3.21). He then argues the case for a sacramental interpretation of baptism – that it is more than a symbol – from a thorough-going Baptist and Evangelical perspective. The author concludes with reflections on the necessity of baptismal reform and the relevance of a return to conversion-baptism for the contemporary church in a post-Christian, post-Christendom, mission setting.

Wtajemniczenie chrześcijańskie bramą i drogą do nowego życia paschalnego. Refleksja na kanwie propozycji bpa Zbigniewa Kiernikowskiego

Following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church notices the need for the existence in particular dioceses of an institutional way of Christian initiation for adults who wish to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. At the same time, there is a universal recognition of the need to organize in local churches and relatively big parishes special places where it would be possible for adults to gradually experience post-baptismal initiation. Zbigniew Kiernikowski, the Bishop of Legnica, offers us a comprehensive proposition of Christian initiation for adults, which can be experienced both prior to and after the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation. He updates the way of initiation in a very specific manner, which the Church recommends in the Rite of Christian initiation of adults adjusted to Polish customs. His proposition is firmly set in the biblical, liturgical, ecclesial and existential contexts. Its great asset is the author’s pastoral practice. The outline of the catechumenate and proposed catecheses were not created by him while sitting at a desk, but rather as a result of his ministry, the long-term programmes implemented personally in the dioceses of Siedlce and Legnica, the catecheses delivered, the scrutinies carried out and the sacraments celebrated. Yet, it needs to be stressed that the presented catecheses do not deal with all the essential dimensions of a Christian’s new life. Neither are they a systematic theological lecture on the sacraments of initiation. His numerous texts contain very interesting intuitions related to the existence of a new man, the Son of God, who is born thanks to being immersed in the waters of baptism. His proposition of experiencing initiation is incredibly valuable and unique against the backdrop of the Polish contemporary thought and sacramental practice.

The Symbiosis of Philosophy and Theology in Blondel’s Supernatural Hypothesis

Maurice Blondel’s philosophy makes strong claims about the theological enterprise. Namely, philosophy and theology achieve their fulfillment only in mutual dependence and both court superstition to the extent that they attempt self-sufficiency. This symbiotic relationship drives Blondel’s seminal work Action, which not only deduces a hypothetical necessity for the supernatural from a realist phenomenology but also establishes strictly philosophical exigencies with theological import: a true revelation in sensory signs, a historical Savior as Mediator, and a sacramental practice, a robust response to the Enlightenment critique of the Christian religion.

Interpretacja pokutna Janowego opisu obmycia stóp uczniom przez Jezusa. Cz. 2: Argument odwołujący się do antropologii kulturowej

The article argues – within the sacramental framework – for a specifically penitential interpretation of the Johannine foot-washing narrative, adding a new argument in favor of a penitential reading of the pericope. Prefaced by a list of eleven arguments in favor of this approach, a new rationale is then presented, this time based on advances in cultural anthropology as reflected in the works of J.H. Neyrey and R. DeMaris. Neyrey’s reading of Jn 13:1-20 sees both a rite of status transformation (in vv. 6-11) and a ceremony confirming roles and statuses (in vv. 12-20); this is further enriched by DeMaris’s reading arguing for the presence of one particularly Johannine rite, which confirmed and renewed the disciples’ status gained through baptism. Both of the above readings are now reinterpreted by means of a sacramental key. As a result, the meaning of the foot-washing points toward a sacramental practice, namely a penitential rite of confession and remission of post-baptismal sins, as reflected in other Johannine texts (Jn 20,22-23; 1 Jn 5,14-16).