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Thought and the Eucharist Philosophical Models and Their Theological Appropriation

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Thought and the Eucharist Philosophical Models and Their Theological Appropriation Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 86/1 (2010) 83-106. doi: 10.2143/ETL.86.1.2051611 © 2010 by Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. All rights reserved. Thought and the Eucharist Philosophical Models and Their Theological Appropriation Joris GELDHOF K.U.Leuven The history of the relationship between Thought and the Eucharist is long and complex. Theology, resorting to concepts and the formation of philosophical thought, has never ceased to attempt an understanding of the mystery of the Eucharist. Theologians have certainly reflected on “the sacrament of sacraments”, lyrically described by Vatican II as “a sacra- ment of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Pascal banquet”1 inas- much as it is “the fount and apex of the whole Christian life”2. But philosophers themselves have thematized and examined the Eucharist, too, not only as a social ritual or a religious practice but also as a constitu- tive element of Christian faith. Xavier Tilliette demonstrates this in his recent volume on “Eucharistic philosophies”3. This fundamental observa- tion invites theologians to meticulously study what the philosophers have written, and then to make a critical and constructive assessment. In the current context, the task of dedicating the necessary energy to the deepen- ing of relationships between thought and the Eucharist has become of utmost importance. How is it possible to contemplate the Eucharist with- out being absorbed in a strictly scientific and rationalistic discourse on the one hand, or on the other hand, without spiritualizing it – which would finally and inevitably end up in a refutation of theology itself? This article presents an authentic exercise of theological thought which confronts each of these two positions. In order to establish a synthesis of Eucharistic thinking, I will refer to the monumental work of Jean Greisch, and in particular to the philosophical models which he highlights in his historical-systematic reconstruction of the philosophy of religion in the 1. Sacrosanctum Concilium, nr. 47 (cf. also Lumen Gentium, nr. 26), to which the recent apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis by Benedict XVI probably makes ref- erence. The idea of considering the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity is in any case an idea from Saint Augustine, taken up again by Saint Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae III, q. 73, a. 3), reaffirmed by the Council and reminded by the exhortation. 2. Lumen Gentium, nr. 11. 3. Xavier TILLIETTE, Philosophies eucharistiques de Descartes à Blondel (Philosophie et théologie), Paris, Cerf, 2006. This book is based on a work written by the same author which is entitled Eucharistie et philosophie, Paris, Institut Catholique de Paris, 1983. All subsequent translations of this work are mine. 993364_ETL_2010_1_03_Geldhof.indd3364_ETL_2010_1_03_Geldhof.indd 8833 229-06-20109-06-2010 112:35:232:35:23 84 J. GELDHOF wake of Kantian philosophy4. This method permits the analysis of diverse philosophical and theological approaches to the Eucharist5. The thread which I will follow will thus be based on the following question: Which model is the most appropriate to contemplate the Eucharist in the contem- porary context? I. GREISCH’S PHILOSOPHICAL MODELS: AN OUTLINE IN VIEW OF THEOLOGICAL PURPOSES Before applying Greisch’s models to our theme of the Eucharist, it is fitting to describe them briefly. The first model is called speculative according to historical motifs; this model contains close links to German idealism6. Here, Greisch discusses three founding intellectuals (Schleier- macher, Hegel and Schelling) before he then turns toward two 20th cen- tury representative figures, Franz Rosenzweig and Karl Rahner. The sec- ond paradigm or model is that of criticism. Greisch draws attention to two different philosophical axes. Firstly he deals with Kant and Neokantians7, who wanted to reflect on transcendental questions and fundamental con- ditions of knowledge. Secondly, he deals with the atheistic and reduction- ist approaches of Ludwig Feuerbach and Friedrich Nietzsche. The third model, phenomenology, is equally subdivided in two major fields of inter- est. First, there is a more or less scientific phenomenology marked by the emergence of religious sciences which were equally represented by Rudolph Otto, Gerardus van der Leeuw, and Mircea Eliade. Next Greisch distinguishes a philosophical phenomenology in a more technical sense of the term, which was profoundly inspired by the example of Edmund Hus- serl, who, as is generally known, had a significant reception in France8. 4. Jean GREISCH, Le Buisson ardent et les Lumières de la raison: L’invention de la philosophie de la religion. Volume I: Héritages et héritiers du XIXe siècle. Volume II: Les approches phénoménologiques et analytiques. Volume III: Vers un paradigme herméneu- tique (Philosophie et théologie), Paris, Cerf, 2002-2004. All translations from this hitherto untranslated work are mine. 5. It would be appropriate here to refer to the interesting book by Kevin W. IRWIN, Mod- els of the Eucharist, Mahwah NJ, Paulist Press, 2005. In utilizing the methodology of “mod- els” as Avery Dulles has done for that which concerns the Church and revelation, Irwin analyzes different theological models in order to interpret the Eucharist. Differently from Irwin, I will follow models of a philosophical origin in view of a theological appropriation and evaluation. This will not prevent us from being able to adhere to Irwin’s conclusions. 6. GREISCH, Le Buisson ardent (n. 4), I, p. 63. 7. Strangely, GREISCH (ibid., I, p. 385 – cf. ibid., I, p. 416), included two Protestant theologians in his discussion of Neokantianism: Ernst Troeltsch and Paul Tillich. He was motivated to do so because they are “two thinkers who belong to the Neo-Kantian school of Baden, [which] inclined more towards the philosophy of values and culture than towards epistemology”. 8. Cf. the “theological turn” of (French) phenomenology (GREISCH, Le Buisson ardent [n. 4], I, p. 67). This term is borrowed from Dominique Janicaud. 993364_ETL_2010_1_03_Geldhof.indd3364_ETL_2010_1_03_Geldhof.indd 8844 229-06-20109-06-2010 112:35:232:35:23 THOUGHT AND THE EUCHARIST 85 The fourth model is attributed to Ludwig Wittgenstein and his philosophy of language. Greisch calls it analytic and associates it preponderantly with the Anglo-Saxon philosophical world9. Finally, the fifth model is characterized as hermeneutics and it is this last model which Jean Greisch undoubtedly favors. According to him, it is this paradigm which, from now on, will be capable of engaging in the fundamental task of the philosophy of religion, more so than the other models. This task involves being aware of all the aspects which constitute the religious phenomenon: the content of beliefs, the meaning of rituals, the customs of believers, the histories of the great religions as well as their power and current impact, mentalities and spirituality, moral behav- ior and sets of rules, etc. Greisch estimates that an “explicitly” herme- neutic paradigm10 is the most promising to be able to account for all of these perspectives, without trying to unite them in an inclusive amalgam which would neglect the real tensions between them. Still according to Greisch, the great advantage of a hermeneutic approach is that it is pos- sible to penetrate the object which is being examined without destroying, reducing, or alienating it from itself. In a mutually dynamic process, the interpreting allows the interpreted to be reconfigured. In the following reflections, I will not hold to Greisch’s “ideal-typical” order of presentation11, nor will I focus on the evaluation of his own pref- erences and points of view, although I am fully aware of the many good motifs that give life to Greisch’s philosophy of religion. The reason why I deviate from Greischian concepts not only involves the consciousness that the calling of a theology of the Eucharist differs from that of the phi- losophy of religion; I also believe that the option for a hermeneutical approach, even if it is well-founded and justified, could and should be enriched by other approaches, much more so than Greisch wants to admit. I have in mind one of these approaches in particular, namely the specula- tive one. I will argue that a contemporary theology of the Eucharist is developed best not as a reaction against speculative reflection but instead as a speculative endeavor in itself. This said, one must reiterate that the most important objective of this contribution is not a critical assessment of Greisch’s work12, but a genuine 9. In what follows I will leave this model unattended. Apart from a few thinkers who have dealt with aspects of Eucharistic doctrines from a logical-analytical point of view (like e.g. Alexander Pruss), there seems to be too little correspondence with the continental tradition to render the insights of analytic philosophers relevant for the purposes of this article. A due discussion of this philosophical current would require a separate study. 10. GREISCH, Le Buisson ardent (n. 4), III, p. 16; I, p. 69. 11. Ibid., I, pp. 7.60. 12. With this aim in view we shall consult the article by Paul GILBERT, L’invention de la “philosophie de la religion” selon Jean Greisch, in NRT 128 (2006) 67-74; cf. also my review of the third volume of GREISCH, Le Buisson ardent (n. 4), in ETL 81 (2005) 554- 556. 993364_ETL_2010_1_03_Geldhof.indd3364_ETL_2010_1_03_Geldhof.indd 8855 229-06-20109-06-2010 112:35:232:35:23 86 J. GELDHOF reflection on the relationship between thought and the Eucharist. Let us therefore look now at how this relationship can be revealed with the help of Greisch’s paradigms. It must be mentioned straightaway that the order of chosen models reveals a certain logic taken up in the conclusion. More- over, at each step, I will try to combine a Greischian model with aspects which correspond to Tilliette’s perspective. This should therefore be mutu- ally fruitful for philosophy, theology, and the history of ideas in order to produce an appropriate Eucharistic theology for today and tomorrow.
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