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Retrieving a Thomistic Grammar of the Eucharist

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by eScholarship@BC Celebrating the Eucharist as Subjects of Charity: Retrieving a Thomistic Grammar of the Eucharist Author: David Turnbloom Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104540 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2015 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Theology CELEBRATING THE EUCHARIST AS SUBJECTS OF CHARITY: RETRIEVING A THOMISTIC GRAMMAR OF THE EUCHARIST a dissertation by DAVID FARINA TURNBLOOM submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 © copyright by DAVID TURNBLOOM 2015 Celebrating the Eucharist as Subjects of Charity: Retrieving a Thomistic Grammar of the Eucharist David Farina Turnbloom Directed by: John F. Baldovin, SJ This dissertation argues that the eucharistic theology found in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae is not a Christocentric, static, hierarchical economy of grace production. Rather, it is a deeply Trinitarian, dynamic, communal drama of graced participation. Based on Aquinas's insistence that grace is a participation in the Divine Nature that is signified by the sacraments, I turn to the Secunda Pars in order to explicate the relationship between grace and human action that is presupposed in the sacramentology of the Tertia Pars. Insofar as the res tantum of the Eucharist is the unity of the mystical body of Christ, special attention is given to the relationship between grace, theological virtue, and moral virtue. Through close examination of the process through which charity is said to increase in the subject, the unity of the mystical body is seen, not as a mystical state, but as a graced action that is simultaneously God's action (insofar as grace formally moves us through charity) and the Church's action (insofar as the moral virtues dispose us to receive the presence of God as the extrinsic principle of our actions). The unity of the mystical body of Christ is, then, rightly called the grace of the Eucharist because the spiritual life affected by the Eucharist is the active presence of charity in the Church. The result of the Eucharist is the Church's participation in the Divine Nature. This project aims at providing a grammar that allows for fruitful dialogue in modern sacramental theology. Within Catholic Eucharistic theology, the scholastic language of metaphysics is regularly given place of privilege to such an extent as to view other grammars of the Eucharist with suspicion. This dissertation provides a Thomistic grammar of the Eucharist that largely avoids the traditional scholastic grammars. It is the hope that such retrieval is a catalyst for constructive dialogue between modern grammars (of all denominations) and traditional scholastic grammars. Acknowledgements This work is dedicated to every school teacher I have had since I started kindergarten at St. John’s Elementary School in 1989. While all of my teachers have contributed to who I am in more ways than can be articulated, I would like to name a few whose influence has been particularly important: Sandra Watters, Dan Bergan, David Penchansky, Cara Anthony, J. Michael Joncas, James Keenan, Charles Hefling, Richard Gaillardetz, Bruce Morrill and John Baldovin. Whether or not I knew it at the time, all of the studying I have done through the guidance and encouragement of these teachers was undertaken so that I, too, might become a teacher. i Table of Contents Introduction: Finding a Lost Voice…………………………………………………………1 I. Grammars……………………………………………………………………………....2 II. Scholastic Grammars………………………………………………………………..5 III. Modern Grammars………………………………………………………………….11 IV. The Problem: Lacking Context………………………………………………….15 V. The Solution: Finding a Lost Voice…………………………………………...19 Chapter 1: Why the Secunda Pars? …………………………………………………….26 I. Introduction…………………………………………………………………..………26 II. The Sacraments: Signification and Causality…………………………….29 III. Baptism and Penance: Infusing Charity…………………………………….35 IV. The Eucharist: Increasing Charity……………………………………………42 V. Unanswered Questions……………………………………………………………49 Chapter 2: Grace and the Embodied Spiritual Life…………………………….51 I. The Teleological Nature of the Spiritual Life……………………………..53 1. The Structure of the Summa Theologiae……………………………..53 2. The Place of the Prima Secundae in the Summa…………………..58 II. Grace and the Spiritual Life…………………………………………………….60 1. Grace Actualizing the Image of God…………………………………..…61 2. The Spiritual Life Conforming to Grace……………………………….67 III. Belief and Signs……………………………………………………………………..69 IV. Conclusion: Cooperative Participation………………………………………77 Chapter 3: The Theological Virtues and the Embodied Spiritual Life I. Theological Virtues: Orders and Degrees………………………………….82 1. Faith, Hope, and Charity…………………………………………………….82 2. Orders of Generation and Perfection…………………………………..84 3. Three Degrees of Charity……………………………………………………89 ii II. Falling in Love with God………………………………………………………….91 1. Justification………………………………………………………………………92 2. Infusion…………………………………………………………………………….97 III. Growing in Love for God……………………………………….………………100 1. Sanctification…………………………………………………………………..101 2. Increase………………………………………………………………………..…103 IV. Being Saved by Love…………………..………………..............................108 Chapter 4: The Moral Virtues and the Embodied Spiritual Life …….112 I. Moral Virtues………………………………………………………………………..113 1. The Codependence of Moral Virtues…………………………………..114 2. Acquiring and Increasing Moral Virtue………………………………127 II. Embodied Friendship……………………………………………………………130 1. Operating Ex Caritate………………………………………………………131 2. Dispositive Acts of Charity………………………………………………..137 3. Communal Embodiment of Friendship with God………………..144 III. Grammars of Grace and Virtue……………………………………………….147 Chapter 5: The Eucharist and the Embodied Spiritual Life…………….150 I. Lamenting the Loss of a Loss…………………………………………………151 1. The Deadly Dichotomy……………………………………………………..152 2. Consequences of the Deadly Dichotomy……………………………..156 II. Jesus Establishes the Way……………………………………………………..161 1. Paschal Mystery as Sacrificial Sign of God’s Love………………..162 2. Provocation as Possibility of Theosis………………………………….166 III. Sacraments Show the Way……………………………………………………..171 1. Writing the Signs through Religion……………………………………172 2. Reading the Signs through Faith………………………………………..176 3. Graced Cooperation………………………………………………………….179 IV. Eucharist as Food for the Way……………………………………………….182 1. Writing Christ through the Eucharist…………………………………183 2. Spiritually Eating through Faith………………………………………..186 iii 3. The Unity of the Church: The Fellowship of Sinful Saints…….191 V. Celebrating the Loss………………………………………………………………195 Chapter 6: Overcoming Sacramental Minimalism with Liturgical Theology…………………………………………………………………………….198 I. Aquinas’s Sacramental Minimalism………………………………………..199 II. Aquinas’s Liturgical Instincts………………………………………………..202 IV. Chauvet’s Liturgical Theology of Symbolic Exchange……………….207 1. Language and the Economy of Symbolic Exchange……………..207 2. Liturgical Symbols and Sacramental presence…………………...210 3. Sacramental Presence: A Gift that Obligates………………..……..213 4. Ritual Rupture: Divine Operation……………………………………..214 IV. Shared Concern for the Church………………………………………………216 Chapter 7: A Liturgical Theology of Right Religion………………………….219 I. Goodness and Rightness………………………………………………………..221 II. Religious Signification…………………………………………………………..223 III. Right Religion……………………………………………………………………...226 1. Religious Prudence………………………………………………………….227 2. Striving for Right Religion………………………………………………..229 IV. Writing a Diverse Christ for a Plural World…………………………..…233 1. Prudently Writing Christ…………………………………………………..234 2. How Do We Write Christ?..........................................................237 V. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..…242 iv Introduction Finding a Lost Voice All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. ~Acts 2:4 ~~~ The theological importance of St. Thomas Aquinas need not be defended. However, his continued relevance as a positive resource for sacramental theology at the beginning of the 21st century is not as self-evident. Since the Second Vatican Council, a plurality of grammars has developed within sacramental theology. Certain Thomists have scrupulously retained a scholastic grammar, while other theologians, influenced by Nouvelle Theologie, have opted for grammars more heavily rooted in patristic theology, still others have adopted grammars which take much influence from more modern sources such as phenomenology, anthropology, linguistics, and sociology. In this introduction, I simply want to point out the obvious: this plurality exists and causes a problem which needs a solution. Broadly speaking, this dissertation seeks to offer a grammar which helps bridge the disconnection between other grammars. In this brief introduction, I will justify such a project by pointing out that there is a problem, namely, a disconnection between certain grammars of sacramental theology. I will then argue that this problem is, if not overcome, at least mitigated by the use of a 1 common grammar. I. Grammars Every time an author sets out to write, she should be clear about how she is using words. This is especially true about the words in the title of a dissertation. I would like to
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