Cosmocentric Sacramentality
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COSMOCENTRIC SACRAMENTALITY WATER, OIL, AND FIRE IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CELEBRATION OF BAPTISM Dissertation Proposal Linda Gibler May, 2005 COSMOCENTRIC SACRAMENTALITY: WATER, OIL, AND FIRE IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CELEBRATION OF BAPTISM Abstract The Universe is God-drenched. Every being, form, and particle of the Universe participates in sacramentality when it conveys or responds to God’s blessing. Believing that Nature is the first book of revelation and that Creation is the primary teacher, I present a cosmocentric sacramentality based on sacramentals, focusing on water, oil, and fire in the ritual celebration of baptism. Cosmocentric sacramentality situates the human experience of sacraments within their cosmological context, which includes the depths of the history of the Universe, the breadth of the Earth community, and the particularity of each being. To establish this context, I trace the deep history and properties of specific sacramentals from the Beginning, 13.7 billion years ago, through the formation of Earth, to the embodiment of the sacramentals within the person to be baptized. I then explore the biblical and patristic use of water, oil, and fire, focusing particularly on the blessings and instructions to catechumens. I complete the historic investigation of these sacramentals with the current Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults and the blessings of water, oil, and fire used in the Easter Vigil. Cosmocentric sacramentality establishes a deep connection between the persons celebrating baptism and the Earth community, between the moment of celebration and the history of the Universe from its beginnings throughout time. ii Table of Contents ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................II HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / OVERVIEW............................................................................. 1 THESIS STATEMENT.................................................................................................................... 5 LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................. 6 ROMAN CATHOLIC TRADITION..................................................................................................... 6 PATRISTIC ROOTS......................................................................................................................... 7 Kilian McDonnell ................................................................................................................... 7 Paul Palmer.......................................................................................................................... 11 CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT........................................................................ 17 Edward Schillebeeckx........................................................................................................... 17 Edward Kilmartin ................................................................................................................. 21 Kenan Osborne ..................................................................................................................... 24 FUNCTIONAL COSMOLOGY......................................................................................................... 29 Thomas Berry........................................................................................................................ 31 Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry ........................................................................................ 34 John Haught.......................................................................................................................... 37 IN CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 40 SIGNIFICANCE ............................................................................................................................ 40 METHODOLOGY......................................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER OUTLINE ................................................................................................................... 44 TIME SCHEDULE ........................................................................................................................ 46 RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 47 REFERENCES............................................................................................................................... 51 Historical Background / Overview Cosmocentric sacramentality situates the Roman Catholic celebration of sacraments within their cosmic context.1 I use baptism and its sacramentals of water, oil, and fire as a limiting focus for this dissertation, although I believe similar work could be done for each of the seven ritual sacraments and all their sacramentals. Sacraments are traditionally defined as outward signs of inward grace, through which grace is conveyed to the soul. A sacramental is a substance used in a sacrament.2 In the early church, objects used in rituals as well as all of nature were experienced as sharing in and participating in the sacraments. They were witnesses and participants. A Patristic view holds that nature shares in the same fate as humanity. Nature was exiled from the garden along with sinful humans and was restored when Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan. This God-drenched experience of Nature was lost for many reasons. One was the concentration of Christians in the cities. Away from the rivers, they had less of an experience of flowing, fresh water. In cities, pedestal fonts, instead of flowing rivers, held water for baptism. Away from the fields, the use of fire was controlled, and fire was feared instead of celebrated as in the annual practice of burning the fields after the harvest to renew their fertility. Away from orchards, 1 ‘Cosmocentric’ does not imply putting the cosmos before God but rather stresses the foundational primordiality of the cosmos, which provides the context for sacraments. 2 ‘Sacramental’ may also refer to actions and words used in a ritual sacrament.This paper, however, will focus on physical sacramentals only. 1 the awareness of the fecundity of olive trees retreated and oil became commodified. As the Church moved through the medieval experiences of the plague, Nature was less likely to be trusted. The divine image became experienced primarily in the sky. In the churches, natural substances had to be purified by blessings before they were fit for sacramental use. After the Patristic Era, there is little attention paid to the nature of particular sacramentals. Rather, the focus of scholastic interest was on the efficacy of the material to serve divine purpose. The differences between water and oil seem to have been forgotten, or at least no longer considered a matter of concern. During the Reformation, there is no evidence that the conversation about the meaning of sacramentals resumed. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) reiterated the tradition of the use of sacramentals inherited from the Fathers but did not add anything to their understanding. It was the nature of this council to hold on to what was essential in the Catholic tradition and not to add to it or to explicate it further. Following the inquiries of Dom Odo Casel, Edward Schillebeeckx explored the meaning of sacraments. He does not consider sacramentals directly, but he does expand on the meaning and experience of sacraments. Schillebeeckx expands the use of sacrament beyond the seven ritual sacraments prescribed by Trent to include the notion of Jesus as the primordial sacrament. He argues that because of Jesus’s complete human response to God and God’s complete embrace of Jesus, Jesus was the sacrament out of which all other sacraments flow. 2 Schillebeeckx follows this by saying that the Church is a foundational sacrament because it extends Jesus’s body in time. The Church is Jesus present to the world now, and its members are the body of the Church. However, Schillebeeckx does not limit the body of Christ to the Roman Catholic Church or even to the Christian Churches. He holds that the entire human community of faithful people makes up the body of Christ. In his work, which the Second Vatican council embraced, the notion of sacrament was extended beyond its ritual meaning, located in the person of Jesus, and by extension, granted to the Church and to the entire human community of believers. Later theologians such as Edward Kilmartin and Kenan Osborne posit the extension of this meaning of sacrament to the cosmos itself. Kilmartin considers an appreciation of nature that would be at the heart of a cosmic sacramentality, and Osborne tells us that every cloud is a potential sacrament. In Osborne’s thought, every thing conveys God’s blessing, but it is not until a human responds to the blessing that it is sacramental. Both Kilmartin and Osborne point to a sacramentality of the cosmos but do not fully develop the concept or explore what it might mean for an understanding of sacramentals. Schillebeeckx, Kilmartin, and Osborne suggest two points of departure for a cosmocentric sacramentality. One is that all things are potential sacramentals. I argue that the better we know these beings, which are used and recognized as sacramentals, the better we can