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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
MATERIAL EUCHARIST
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
Material Eucharist
DAVID GRUMETT
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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© David Grumett 2016
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2016
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
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above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016935487
ISBN 978–0–19–876707–7
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1. Elements 17
1.1. Transformations of Nature 18
1.2. Grain 28
1.3. Salt 35
1.4. Olive Oil 38
1.5. Water 42
1.6. Leaven 45
1.7. Baking 50
1.8. Grape and Vine 58
1.9. Conclusion: From Nature to Christ 69
2. Action 71
2.1. Silence and Representation 72
2.2. On Earth as in Heaven 79
2.3. Life and Sacrifice 85
2.4. Communing 93
2.5. Priesthood, Matter, and Transformation 96
2.6. Conclusion: Eucharistic Action and Life in the World 101
3. Christ the Bond of Creation 103
3.1. The Host as Talisman 105
3.2. Christ the Preserver 111
3.3. Christ the Bond of Substance 122
3.4. The World as Altar 130
3.5. The Altar, the World, and God’s Body 134
3.6. Conclusion: Eucharist, World, and Matter 142
4. Flesh, Substance, and Change 144
4.1. Matter and Transformation 145
4.2. Assimilating Flesh 152
4.3. The Council of Trent: Tradition and Innovation 159
4.4. The Eucharist and Aristotle 166
4.5. Alternatives to Transubstantiation 173
4.6. Union in the Eucharist and in Christ 181
4.7. Conclusion: The Eucharist as Flesh and as Substance 189
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
x Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
Growing up with the symbols, sights, smells, sounds, words, and matter of the
Eucharist around me prompted a series of theological questions. Why were
bread and wine used rather than other elements? What happened to them at
the altar, and how was this caused? In what ways was the matter of the
Eucharist similar to the matter of other things in the world, and in what
ways was it different? What happened to me when I received the elements?
What was the relation between physical reception and inward disposition?
What was the link between the Eucharist and the church community that
celebrated it? In view of all this, it would be fair to say that I came to theology
through the Eucharist. Had I not been thus placed, the world of practice and
interpretation that this book unfolds would never have been opened to me.
Through much of Christian history there has been a close relationship
between theology and the Eucharist. The words and actions of the eucharistic
liturgy shaped theology and have been shaped by it. However, there is a
tendency, especially in academic writing, for theological concepts to be exam-
ined in their relation to other theological concepts and their scriptural ground-
ing, rather than to be understood as rooted in the lived eucharistic faith of
Christian communities as viewed through their eucharistic texts, liturgies,
and practices. It is not, of course, true that no theologians are interested in
the Eucharist. However, among those who are, there is a tendency to focus on
the community that the Eucharist creates when Christians come together to
celebrate it.
This collective focus is understandable, because there is something intrin-
sically corporate about the Eucharist. Jesus says to his disciples: ‘Where two or
three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’1 These words, which
have frequently been applied to the Eucharist, have been taken to mean that
collective worship is a fuller expression of Christian identity than solitary
prayer. Indeed, some would claim that there cannot be a private Eucharist
celebrated by the priest alone, because it would otherwise not be a collective
1
Mt. 18.20.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
2 Material Eucharist
celebration. Admittedly, two factors have accentuated the Eucharist’s private
character: its daily celebration by a priest, viewed as part of the priest’s
devotion, and its celebration for a dead person following their death.2 In
each case, a priest would celebrate the Eucharist frequently, even if very few
people were present. Nevertheless, as reflected by responses, which are said by
people together, and by the universal use in these of the collective pronoun
‘We’, the Eucharist is fundamentally a celebration by more than one person. In
the Eucharist, Christians support each other in the faith and seek to draw
others into that faith. Relationships are central, with dedicated and frequently
heroic pastoral care and support often underpinning the eucharistic commu-
nity. This community is rightly viewed as a sign of hope in a suffering and
often pessimistic world, contesting social isolation and the commodification of
persons with solidarity and loving respect for all. The Eucharist thereby
presents an alternative model of living to social isolation and economic
commodification, calling into question the powers and authorities that sustain
these pathologies.
The increased awareness over recent decades that the Eucharist is a collect-
ive act of worship is theologically, pastorally, and politically justified. Globally,
the Eucharist is celebrated more frequently than ever before, and is received
more frequently by a greater number of Christians than ever before. With the
rapid expansion of Christianity in Latin America and parts of East Asia, as well
as the fall of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, Malachi’s vision of
the Lord’s name being great among the nations and a pure offering being
made in every place is now closer to reality than at any previous point in
history.3 There is no point in time when the Eucharist is not somewhere being
celebrated.
Although eucharistic celebration is undoubtedly collective, it is more than
the sharing by the church community in Christian fellowship. The interior of
the church in which I first received the Eucharist has, in its east window high
above the altar, an image of Christ upon the cross, which provides a com-
manding visual presence and transparent theological context for the Eucharist
celebrated beneath it. The figure is Christ triumphant, crowned and arrayed in
eucharistic vestments including an alb, a gold dalmatic, a purple chasuble, and
a pallium. Above him are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha
and omega, while at either side beneath are the host and chalice, and the
emblem of the lamb. This juxtaposition of images situates the Eucharist in
an historical and cosmic setting far larger than that of the church community.
As in the book of Revelation, Christ is depicted as the beginning and the
end of history.4 Vested upon the cross and with arms outstretched, he
celebrates at the ultimate site of priestly prayer and supplication.5 However,
2 3
MRR 1.212–33. Mal. 1.11.
4 5
Rev. 1.8, 21.6, 22.13. Heb. 5.5–10.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
Introduction 3
the commanding placement of the image and the crown upon Christ’s head
also suggest resurrection. Christ is raised from the dead and is himself the head
of the body of the Church, with all things taking place literally under his feet.6
The Eucharist, this window suggests, is about the life, death, and resurrec-
tion of Christ, but also of worshippers. Christians come to the Eucharist as
embodied beings of flesh and blood to contemplate and receive the material
elements of bread and wine that, being transformed, acquire new spiritual
significance. Theological understandings of this transformation vary widely.
One view is that the bread and wine are changed into Christ’s body and blood
such that the bread and wine remain only in appearance. Another view is that
the bread and wine undergo no change whatsoever, and that any change that
occurs is solely in the heart of the believer. Yet regardless of the particular
eucharistic theology that is held, the fact that the Eucharist is received by
embodied beings of flesh and blood means that its relation to the flesh and
blood of Jesus Christ cannot be ignored. In the Eucharist, created material
elements are taken into the liturgical celebration of the Christ who, at his
incarnation, assumed material human flesh. The Eucharist also celebrates
Christ’s resurrection, in which that flesh became in some sense indestructible,
and the ascension, when the flesh of the earthly Jesus was assumed back into
the Godhead to reign at the Father’s right hand. The Eucharist thereby relates
the birth, life, death, and resurrection of flesh and blood Christians to the
birth, life, death, and resurrection of the flesh and blood Jesus Christ.
Variations between forms of eucharistic theology may usually be accounted
for by the differing doctrinal emphases that underlie them. For instance, a
strongly incarnational theology might present Christ’s presence in the bread
and wine as analogous with the presence of his divine nature in his human
body. Alternatively, a theology that places greater weight on Christ’s ascension
into heaven might emphasize his bodily absence from the bread and wine, and
see the lifting up of Christians in the power of the Holy Spirit as the primary
way Christ becomes present.
The overall argument of this book is that both theologians and churches
should give the material elements of bread and wine more attention. Their
neglect, I contend, has contributed to a disconnection of the Eucharist from
the material lives of Christians and from doctrinal truths about the material
life and identity of Jesus Christ. This is true of theological interpretation
but also of much liturgical interpretation. Having embarked upon a well-
intentioned search for meaning and relevance, large numbers of churches
have developed forms and styles of eucharistic celebration that draw attention
away from the materiality of the elements, and thereby from the flesh and
blood human bodies that receive them. Words are preferred to gestures,
6
Eph. 1.20–3.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
4 Material Eucharist
explanation is privileged over silence, and a culture of relaxed familiarity
erases a sense of reverence for something that is more than ordinary stuff.
Excessively formal and formulaic approaches to liturgy may, of course, distract.
However, today the impression can easily be given that worship is grounded
primarily in words rather than in embodied material action. Liturgical action is
still, of course, taught and transmitted. However, the success of this transmis-
sion is by no means guaranteed, as memories quickly fade. Liturgical books,
interpretation, and formation need to be just as much concerned with what
clergy and worshippers do as with what they sing or say.
The Eucharist is not, however, related only to the inner lives of Christians or
to the collective lives of Churches. An act of worship with a transformed
material reality at its heart, the Eucharist stands as a contestation of forms of
secular materialism that present matter and its products as self-sufficient and
self-sustaining. In every Eucharist, Christ is proclaimed to be the ultimate
origin of material change and the final end of material consumption. Whereas,
in postmodern consumer societies, material goods are presumed to be sources
of solidity and satiety, in Eucharistic celebration, the matter exemplified in
bread and wine is oriented to its true spiritual end.
This book does not promote any particular liturgical programme, still less
the theology or practice of any single denomination. As an Anglican with
Roman Catholic leanings, I seek rather to recover an immensely rich tradition
of liturgical practice and theological reflection on it that might give inspiration
today. In this sense, what I offer is constructive theology rather than systematic
theology as classically understood. No attempt is made to present a compre-
hensive view of how the Eucharist should be celebrated or interpreted. It
should also be said that this study, being one of constructive retrieval, develops
an understanding of eucharistic materiality that is unashamedly diachronic.
Although attentive to difference and contrast, it ranges widely across different
periods, theological trajectories, and liturgical contexts, identifying practices
and interpretations from across Christian traditions that have the potential to
aid understanding of the relation between the Eucharist and matter. Moreover,
the study pushes the boundaries of what is often regarded as ‘church’ practice.
Some of the practices described might appear questionable, especially against
the backdrop of modern secular Western culture. However, it cannot be
assumed that particular practices are any less justified because they pose a
challenge to this mindset. Moreover, particular practices are no less a part of
church culture simply because they take place outside a formal church setting,
are not written down as part of a formal rite, have been challenged at some
time or other, or have been initiated by laypeople.
Indeed, in this book, lay witness and practice feature prominently. Some-
times this is obvious. For example, the host has been taken to people on the
point of death by laymen, laywomen, and even children. The manufacture of
the eucharistic bread and wine, and the production of the ingredients for the
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/8/2016, SPi
16 Material Eucharist
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Nach dem Frühstück stieg ich den schlüpfrigen Berg hinab in das
Dorf und stattete der Sitt Ferīdeh und ihrem Manne einen Besuch
ab. Ich fand ein zweites christliches Paar dort; der Mann war der
Sāhib es Sanduk, wohl eine Art Schatzmeister. Die beiden Männer
sprachen über die Lage der syrischen Armen. Nach der Meinung
des Feldmessers brauchte keiner Hungers zu sterben, wie das von
ihm aufgestellte Budget des Durchschnittsbauern bestätigte. Selbst
der ärmste Fellahīn kann im Jahre 1000–1500 Piaster verdienen
(140–220 Mark), hat aber außer der Kopfsteuer und der
Entschädigungssumme für seinen militärischen Ersatzmann keinen
Pfennig Geld auszugeben. Fleisch ist ein unbekannter Luxus; ein
Faß Semen (ranzige Butter) kostet höchstens 8–10 Mark und genügt
auf Monate hinaus, um den Burghul und andre Mehlgerichte
schmackhaft zu machen. Werden die Körnerfrüchte und der Semen
knapp beim Bauer, so braucht er nur in das Gebirge oder in das
flache Land hinabzugehen, das noch herrenloses Gebiet ist, und
sich eßbare Kräuter zu sammeln oder nach Wurzeln zu graben. Sein
Haus baut er sich eigenhändig, den Platz, auf dem es steht, hat er
umsonst, Geräte und Möbel braucht er nicht hinein. Und Kleidung?
Da ist ihm wenig genug vonnöten: einige Leinenhemden, alle 2–3
Jahre ein wollenes Gewand und ein Baumwollentuch um den Kopf.
Selten nur bleiben die Alten und Kranken ohne Pflege; haben sie
noch eine Familie, so sorgt diese für sie, sind sie aber ganz ohne
Angehörige, so können sie ihr Leben leicht durch Betteln fristen,
denn kein Orientale weist die Bitte um eine kleine Gabe zurück,
wenn der Arme auch nur selten Geld geben kann. Wenige Fellahīn
besitzen eigenes Land, sondern sie arbeiten um Tagelohn auf den
Gütern der Reicheren. Die Hauptgrundbesitzer um Kal'at el Husn
gehören der aus Tripoli stammenden Familie der Danādischeh an.
Noch bis vor kurzem war die Burg nicht Eigentum der Regierung,
sondern gehörte dem Geschlecht der Zabieh, in deren Besitz sie
zwei Jahrhunderte gewesen, und deren Nachkommen noch jetzt
eine Wohnung am äußeren Wall innehaben. Hier fiel der
Schatzmeister mit der Bemerkung ein, daß selbst der
mohammedanischen Bevölkerung die ottomanische Herrschaft
verhaßt wäre, und daß sie sich viel lieber von einem Fremden
regieren lassen würden — möge er immerhin ein Ungläubiger sein
— am liebsten von den Engländern, denn Ägyptens Wohlfahrt hätte
einen tiefen Eindruck auf die Syrer gemacht.
An diesem Abend ließ mich der Kāimakām fragen, ob ich allein
zu speisen wünschte, oder ob ich ihm und seiner Frau die Ehre
geben wollte. Ich bat um den letzteren Vorzug. Trotz seines wahrhaft
rührenden Bemühens, mir ein guter Wirt zu sein, war er doch still
und traurig zu Beginn des Diners, bis wir endlich ein Thema
anschnitten, das ihn seinem Kummer einigermaßen entzog. Die
großen Toten kamen uns zu Hilfe und trugen Worte auf ihren Lippen,
die schon Menschengeschlecht um Menschengeschlecht Balsam ins
sinkende Herz geträufelt haben. Der Kāimakām war wohlvertraut mit
der arabischen Literatur; er kannte die Meister der Wüstendichtung
auswendig und trug Lied um Lied vor, sobald er erfahren, daß ich sie
zwar hochschätzte, aber nur wenig von ihnen kannte. Sein eigner
Geschmack freilich neigte sich mehr modernerer Dichtung zu; einer
seiner Lieblingsdichter schien der dem zehnten Jahrhundert
angehörende Mutanabbi zu sein. Noch glüht etwas vom Feuer der
Alten in Mutanabbis Zeilen, und hell lohte es wieder auf, als der
Kāimakām die berühmte Ode zitierte, in der der Dichter Abschied
von den Freuden der Jugend nimmt: