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The Eucharist Sacrifice and the Changing Utopian Moment in Post

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The Eucharist Sacrifice and the Changing Utopian Moment in Post The Eucharist Sacrifice and the Moment Changing Utopian in Post Reformation Christianity ADAM SELIGMAN The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel ABSTRACT In this study, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, and especially English Puritanism, is analyzed in terms of the transformation of the soteriological doctrines of Christianity. This transformation, in turn, is seen as crucial to a restructuring of utopian themes in Christian civilization. Based on the restructuring of models of social authority and of Christian community, a new vision of the ideal social order was posited. The uto- pian visions posited by these changes and the contradictions inherent in them are viewed as central to the emergence of modern notions of political and social praxes. Introduction IN THIS STUDY, it will be argued that the major assumptions under- lying Christian utopian visions and their realization were radically transformed in the period of the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, the Refor- mation and, more specifically, its Calvinist variants, will be presented as con- taining a salient utopian or millennial moment-with lasting importance for the structuring of modern social life. In pursuing this line of inquiry, we are in fact following on the thought of Max Weber, who saw in the 'inner-worldliness' of ascetic Protestantism one of the fundamental components of the modern world order (Weber, 1958; Schluchter, 1979; Eisenstadt, 1968, 1988). The present study will explore the role of ascetic Protestantism in fundamentally restructuring one of the major and defining components of the Western Christian tradition. The transforma- tion effected by ascetic Protestantism in the utopian models and modes of millennial action within the Western Christian tradition was, it is argued, a crucial aspect in the development of the modern socio-political order. The Western Christian tradition has from its inception been infused with a utopian element which often took the form of millennial inspired social action. From a tradition of protest and an ideology of more or less marginal social groups, millennialism became, in certain Reformation societies, notably in Puritan England and New England, a major force for the construction and reconstruction of social and political centers and the building of new collective entities (Bloch, 1985; Hatch, 1977; MacClear, 1975; Pocock, 1975; Tuveson, 31 1968). In this transformation, the utopian potential of age-old millennial expectations became a focus for social change and institutional restructuring. The roots of this transformation of millennial visions as a form of social action lay, we argue, in the changing modes of conceptualizing and symbolizing the social order, especially of the definitions of communal identity and social authority that developed with the Reformation. These changes were connected to a major transformation in the symbolization of the resolution of the Axial tension in Christianity and so, we shall argue, to the very positing of its uto- pian themes. Summary of Pre-Reformation Developments The articulation of millennialism as a form of radical protest against the institutional orders of the Church and the Empire was a persistent feature of Western Christiandom. The following characteristics of Christian millen- nialism are of major relevance to our study: Until the 5th century, millennialism (in the sense of expectation of "imminent, total, ultimate, this-worldly, collective salvation") was an integral component of Christian belief (Bultman, 1956, Cullman, 1953; Talmon, 1960). Among the different groups which constituted the early Christian communities, millennialist doctrines and orientations emerged with various degrees of saliency, with the Montanists of the 2nd and 3rd centuries being the most important and influential. With the growing institutionalization of the Church and the need for the Chris- tian faith to legitimize itself in the face of the alternate world visions of Hellenism and Judaism on the one hand, and the Eastern mystery religions on the other, the early chiliasm of the Church underwent a fundamental reorientation (Bowersoch, 1986; Brown, 1968). Central to this process were the ideas of Augustine of Hippo who transformed the City of God from an eschatological vision into a mystical territory incarnate in the Church and united by no temporal bonds other than common participation in the sacraments (Markus, 1970). Thus, in the 5th century, the millennial doctrine of the Church underwent a drastic change as the City of God was projected into a transcendent, unhistorical, and other-worldly realm (Lowith, 1949; Momigliano, 1966; Patrides, 1964). And from 431 and the denunciation of millennialism by the Council of Epheson, millennialism as a socio-cultural orientation achieved in Christian Europe a dual articulation. On the one hand, a non-radical, allegorical interpretation locating the millennium in the present (community of believers); and on the other, a radical, earthly, historically perceived and future-directed articulation of millennial doctrines. Moreover, a this-worldly interpretation of millennial doctrines continued to be articulated throughout pre-Reformation Europe as part of a radical tradition of protest (Cohn, 1972; Kaminsky, 1957; Lambert, 1977; Leff, 1974; Reeves, 1969). .
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