Peer Reviewed Articles by Eugene R. Schlesinger
Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies, 2020
This article articulates an Anglican understanding of catholicity: the recognition that all Chris... more This article articulates an Anglican understanding of catholicity: the recognition that all Christian people belong together, and that the ideal of the church is the visible union of all the baptized with one another and with Christ. Through consideration of the Lambeth Conferences of the first half of the 20th Century, it suggests that the Anglican Communion ought to embrace its incompleteness and provisionality and, eventually, disappear as a distinct entity by being transcended in this ideal catholic church. The greatest barrier to such a vision of catholicity is in our own willingness to embrace it.
Theological Studies, 2019
The Council of Trent teaches that the sacrifice of the Mass is identical to the sacrifice of Calv... more The Council of Trent teaches that the sacrifice of the Mass is identical to the sacrifice of Calvary, but with the crucial difference that the Mass is unbloody (nonviolent). By considering the Last Supper traditions and the theologies of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Bernard Lonergan, this article constructs an understanding of sacrifice as a transformative pedagogy. The sacrifice of the Mass allows us to reconfigure even terrible acts of violence within a nonviolent framework without denying their reality. This provides a crucial theological resource for responding to the scandal of clergy abuse. Keywords Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, clergy sexual abuse, Council of Trent, eucharistic sacrifice, Bernard Lonergan, violence C hrist the Good Shepherd warned of those who would present themselves in sheep's clothing, but are hungry wolves inwardly (Matt 7:15). It has become all too clear that these predators have not only disguised themselves as sheep, but also in the garb of shepherds, as bishops and priests have preyed upon the faithful, or turned a blind eye to such predation, or worked to protect institutional reputation rather than expose and report abuse. These evils have gone on for far too long, and with the reports from the Philadelphia grand jury, and concerning Theodore McCarrick, scarified wounds have been torn open afresh. The crises of the early 2000s were neither the end of the abuse, nor of the cover-up, as it has turned out. Healing-whether personal, interpersonal, or institutional-will be a long and painful process, and in a situation of such betrayed and damaged trust, the way forward is anything but clear.
Journal of Anglican Studies, 2019
In face of uncertainty about the Anglican Communion’s future, this article attempts to rearticula... more In face of uncertainty about the Anglican Communion’s future, this article attempts to rearticulate a vision of Anglicanism’s vocation in terms of its incompleteness and provisionality. Drawing from the thought of Michael Ramsey, Ephraim Radner and Paul Avis, I suggest that Anglicanism’s vocation, like that of any church, is to disappear. At the same time, it is a vocation tempered by the knowledge that, even in its incompleteness and provisionality, Anglicanism has a pastoral responsibility to provide care for the Christians within the Communion. Finally, this is a penitent vocation, and one which is held out as an invitation to all Christian churches.
Open Theology, 2018
This article lays the groundwork for articulating a Christian theology of sacrifice within the fr... more This article lays the groundwork for articulating a Christian theology of sacrifice within the framework of cognitive linguistics. I demonstrate the affinity and potential for mutual enrichment between three disparate fields of discourse. Beginning with Jonathan Klawans’s methodological proposals for understanding sacrifice as a meaningful phenomenon for those who engage(d) in it, I suggest that the double-scope conceptual blending described by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner provides a helpful resource for Klawans to clarify his thought and answer objections to his proposals. Fauconnier and Turner’s account of double scope blends is set within an evolutionary account of human development and is the condition of possibility for language, art, science, and religion. I then put Fauconnier and Turner into dialogue with Sarah Coakley’s recent attempts to locate sacrifice within the evolutionary spectrum, and suggest that they provide a more helpful theory of language than Chomsky’s purely formal account.
Theological Studies, 2018
This article responds to Pope Francis's call in Laudato Si' for an ecological expansion of missio... more This article responds to Pope Francis's call in Laudato Si' for an ecological expansion of mission and seeks to provide it with theological support. This support comes by way of a trinitarian rendition of the missiological concept missio Dei. Drawing from Thomas Aquinas and Bernard Lonergan's accounts of the trinitarian missions, it articulates a theological ecology (as opposed to an ecological theology), in which the traditional doctrine of God is the controlling motif. Through the missions of the Son and Holy Spirit, God transforms the moral-intellectual-volitional comportment of humanity and recruits them into a shared mission of environmental concern.
International Journal of Systematic Theology, 2018
At key junctures in his theologies of spiritual exegesis, the Eucharist and the church, Henri de ... more At key junctures in his theologies of spiritual exegesis, the Eucharist and the church, Henri de Lubac appeals to the notion of Christ's sacrifice as providing the pivotal content for the topic at hand. Despite this, de Lubac scholarship has devoted scant attention to the role of sacrifice in his thought. Using the fourfold sense of Scripture and the scholastic categories of res and sacramentum to establish a formal structure for de Lubac's thought, I demonstrate that sacrifice provides an integrative motif for these disparate areas of de Lubac's thought, better accounting for the 'organic unity' of his theology.
This article confronts the ongoing reality of intra-Anglican divisions, both in North America and... more This article confronts the ongoing reality of intra-Anglican divisions, both in North America and within the broader Anglican Communion. Beginning with a treatment of Augustine of Hippo’s doctrine of the <i>totus Christus</i>, I suggest that the proper criterion for ecclesial communion is the recognition of one another as members of Christ, rather than doctrinal or ethical teachings. I then supplement this criterion with a definition of ecclesial unity drawn from Ephraim Radner. The church’s unity is not a unity of consensus, but a unity that embraces even one’s enemies. Finally, I propose a reading of the eucharistic fraction rite that synthesizes its twin dimensions of sacrifice and communion. This understanding of the rite opens up the imaginative space for an emergence of the will to reunion.
In book 10 of City of God, Augustine appeals to the notion of true sacrifice in order to countera... more In book 10 of City of God, Augustine appeals to the notion of true sacrifice in order to counteract the attraction of pagan worship. This appeal to the concept of sacrifice gives a distinct shape to the Christology and ecclesiology he develops in this book. Set against this polemical horizon, and within the context of his wider thought, it becomes clear that sacrifice is itself soteriological motif for Augustine. The work it does in this context is to serve as another way of describing the return of humanity to God through the Incarnate Christ. The cross, the Eucharist, the moral life, and the church itself are all identified as instances of the one true sacrifice of Christ. In this way, sacrifice provides an integrative motif for discussing Augustinian Christology, ecclesiology, sacramental theology, and soteriology.
The article puts Jon Sobrino and Hans Urs von Balthasar into a mutually corrective dialogue regar... more The article puts Jon Sobrino and Hans Urs von Balthasar into a mutually corrective dialogue regarding poverty and the church. Sobrino’s goals and outlook are laudable, but his proposal lacks an adequate metaphysical basis, which is seen most clearly in his account of God’s suffering. Balthasar’s theology gives an account of a church characterized by a eucharistic poverty, one of self-dispossession for the sake of others,
but also upholds the divine immutability. At the same time, Sobrino’s attentiveness to concrete history serves to correct Balthasar’s problematic and romanticized views of poverty.
This article examines the relationship between church and world in order to provide a theological... more This article examines the relationship between church and world in order to provide a theological basis for a missionary ecclesiology. From Vatican II’s Pastoral Constition on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, I establish that the church’s existence is interior to the world, interior to the human project, and engaged in human history. The church world relationship is one of ontological dependence and reciprocal influence. Latin American voices, especially Ignacio Ellacuría, Jon Sobrino, and the CELAM conferences, provide this consideration with a greater attention to the concrete historical conditions in which real women and men live. A recognition that mission arises from the demands of the church’s catholicity, and an engagement with Ellacuría’s and Sobrino’s notion of the crucified peoples as a site of encounter with Christ, reconfigures the missionary relationship. The church is not simply the world’s benefactor, but is itself the beneficiary of the world.
This article engages Robert W. Jenson on the question of the relation between the immanent Trinit... more This article engages Robert W. Jenson on the question of the relation between the immanent Trinity and the person Jesus of Nazareth and proposes a restatement of the doctrine of God that takes into account his concerns. I note that many of the criticisms levelled against Jenson are contradictory and offer instead a rearticulation of Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of God, refracted through the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, as a more viable mode of engaging Jenson’s ideas. In particular, I suggest an <i>analogia temporalis</i> rooted in the divine processions to account for the relationship between time and eternity, thereby showing how Thomas’s theology can both accommodate and benefit from many of Jenson’s insights, while also avoiding the more serious charges levelled against him.
Ecclesiology, 2015
I argue that the ecclesiology expressed in the American 1979 Book of Common Prayer is, in additio... more I argue that the ecclesiology expressed in the American 1979 Book of Common Prayer is, in addition to being a baptismal ecclesiology, also inherently missional. After briefly attending to debates about patterns of initiation, I turn my attention to the prayer book’s theology of ministry, wherein all ecclesial ministry is rooted in baptismal identity. I weigh the relative merits of considering the laity as an ‘order’ within the Church, and consider the diaconal nature of the Church and its mission. I finally pursue the connections between between a baptismal ecclesiology and Christian mission. This involves a consideration of the prayer book’s baptismal liturgy (with particular reference to the baptismal covenant), and of the fact that baptism implicates the Church in mission because it implicates Christians in the paschal mystery.
The Journal of Theological Studies, 2015
This article examines Friedrich Schleiermacher’s arguments for the necessity of the church for th... more This article examines Friedrich Schleiermacher’s arguments for the necessity of the church for the Christian Faith with particular reference to how they cohere with his fundamental starting point, the turn to the subject. The three arguments are: from the communal nature of humanity, from the need for a corporate life of blessedness as opposed to the corporate life of sin, and as a deduction from the doctrine of providence. Through examining each in turn it becomes clear that the necessity of the church is integral to Schleiermacher’s theology and that these three arguments are moments in the unfolding of a single coherent argument. I further note the ways in which the explicit Christocentrism in Schleiermacher’s later works led to development in his approach to the question. Demonstrating the inherently ecclesial nature of Schleiermacher’s thought demands that greater attention be paid to this facet of his theology.
Journal of Reformed Theology, 2015
This article examines recent articulations of Reformed sacramental theology by Michael Horton and... more This article examines recent articulations of Reformed sacramental theology by Michael Horton and Nicholas Wolterstorff, both of whom appropriate the insights of
speech act theory in their accounts of Calvinist sacramentology. I put these expressions of Reformed thought into conversation with the fundamental theology of the French Roman Catholic, Louis-Marie Chauvet, noting areas of convergence. I contend that Chauvet’s sacramental theology provides the resources for the Reformed to develop their own sacramental theology in a considerably higher direction, while also remaining true to their fundamental commitments.
Ecclesiology, May 2014
In this article, I draw from Henri de Lubac’s ecclesiology to delineate the relations between the... more In this article, I draw from Henri de Lubac’s ecclesiology to delineate the relations between the three forms of Christ’s body (historical, ecclesial, and sacramental). Using the heuristic frameworks of scholastic sacramental theology and of spiritual exegesis, I demonstrate that language concerning the ecclesial body is significantly more complex than with the historical or sacramental bodies. The ecclesial body is at once entirely provisional—the sacrament of Christ—and the fulfillment itself—the totus Christus. This leads me to pose the question: what aspects of the Church endure through eternity and which pass away? I argue that it is the faithful who abide, while the visible institutional structures of the Church will be no more. I clarify how the institutional aspects of the Church relate to the congregatio fidelium and suggest that academic ecclesiology concern itself with the lives of the faithful rather than simply with faith and order.
Philosophy and Theology, 2013
An examination of Rahner’s theology and cognitive linguistics
shows that the two are basically i... more An examination of Rahner’s theology and cognitive linguistics
shows that the two are basically in accord concerning sacramental efficacy. This article also puts cognitive linguistics into conversation with Rahner’s theologies of expression. In Rahner’s theology of the symbol, he argues that all beings express themselves in that which is not themselves. Furthermore, Rahner noted the existence of uniquely powerful “primordial words” (Urworte), which mediate the reality to which they point. Cognitive linguistics sees all human knowing as mediated by the “embodied mind,” and characterized by concept integration, wherein a given thing comes to be known in terms of another. This understanding of embodied mind, poses a significant challenge to the Christian tradition. This challenge is answered, though, by Rahner’s distinctive anthropology and christology.
Journal of Theological Interpretation, 2013
Despite some notable and vocal objections, the claim that Christians bear a responsibility toward... more Despite some notable and vocal objections, the claim that Christians bear a responsibility toward the environment is now more or less a truism. In this article, I seek to strengthen, rather than prove, that commitment by an argument ex convenientia (from aptness). I analyze the Petrine epistles’ imagery of water and fire. I make explicit the connections between these images and the sacrament of baptism as well as their connection to creation, redemption, and the eschatological consummation. By this analysis, I aim to forge reinforcing symbolic links between biblical interpretation, sacramental practice, and the created order, thereby solidifying and foregrounding Christian commitments to ecological engagement. My primary theological interlocutors are Karl Barth and Sergius Bulgakov, whom I consult to make sense of the imagery of water and fire, respectively. My treatment of Barth and Bulgakov allows me to use their respective theologies to supplement what I perceive as one another’s weak points. This gives an ecology that is concretely rooted in the Christ event (from Barth), and which demands human participation and sacramentality (from Bulgakov).
Westminster Theological Journal, 2012
The author discusses the adoption of a Reformed sacramental theology concept in the reading and i... more The author discusses the adoption of a Reformed sacramental theology concept in the reading and interpretation of biblical passages in the book of John. He discusses arguments relating to the sacramental language which references baptism and the Eucharist. He explains why the language employed by Jesus Christ in his dialogue with Saint Nicodemus may be deemed as too strong. He also reflects on sacramental connections in passages concerning doctrinal commitments and God's grace.
Anglican Theological Review, 2012
In our cultural climate abortion remains a divisive issue, in which
much of the rhetoric is tox... more In our cultural climate abortion remains a divisive issue, in which
much of the rhetoric is toxic. My argument bypasses the usual but
contested questions of rights, the beginnings of life, and even
moral rectitude, and instead analyzes the Book of Common
Prayer's eucharistic liturgy to inform and transform the way
Christians approach the debate. Proceeding along ex convenientia lines, I develop a eucharistic account of the body as indefinable and ungraspable, and apply the epiclesis to show that the Eucharist cultivates dispositions oriented away from the practice of abortion. As eucharistic action is voluntary, rather than coerced, this approach also vitiates any potential violation of conscience, keeping it within the parameters set by the Episcopal Church's statements on abortion. Finally, the practice of Eucharist transforms the way opponents in the abortion debate view one another, by referring beyond the current state of affairs to a future of joyful unity and sharing.
Books by Eugene R. Schlesinger
University of Notre Dame Press, 2023
This is an important work, unlocking de Lubac in a fresh way that resituates him within the flow ... more This is an important work, unlocking de Lubac in a fresh way that resituates him within the flow of twentieth-century theology and suggests a different way of conceiving his relation to Vatican II."-Philip McCosker, coeditor of Cambridge Companion to the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas This study provides a compelling account of the major works of Henri de Lubac, one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century, and argues that soteriology provides a lens through which their inner unity can be discerned.
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Peer Reviewed Articles by Eugene R. Schlesinger
but also upholds the divine immutability. At the same time, Sobrino’s attentiveness to concrete history serves to correct Balthasar’s problematic and romanticized views of poverty.
speech act theory in their accounts of Calvinist sacramentology. I put these expressions of Reformed thought into conversation with the fundamental theology of the French Roman Catholic, Louis-Marie Chauvet, noting areas of convergence. I contend that Chauvet’s sacramental theology provides the resources for the Reformed to develop their own sacramental theology in a considerably higher direction, while also remaining true to their fundamental commitments.
shows that the two are basically in accord concerning sacramental efficacy. This article also puts cognitive linguistics into conversation with Rahner’s theologies of expression. In Rahner’s theology of the symbol, he argues that all beings express themselves in that which is not themselves. Furthermore, Rahner noted the existence of uniquely powerful “primordial words” (Urworte), which mediate the reality to which they point. Cognitive linguistics sees all human knowing as mediated by the “embodied mind,” and characterized by concept integration, wherein a given thing comes to be known in terms of another. This understanding of embodied mind, poses a significant challenge to the Christian tradition. This challenge is answered, though, by Rahner’s distinctive anthropology and christology.
much of the rhetoric is toxic. My argument bypasses the usual but
contested questions of rights, the beginnings of life, and even
moral rectitude, and instead analyzes the Book of Common
Prayer's eucharistic liturgy to inform and transform the way
Christians approach the debate. Proceeding along ex convenientia lines, I develop a eucharistic account of the body as indefinable and ungraspable, and apply the epiclesis to show that the Eucharist cultivates dispositions oriented away from the practice of abortion. As eucharistic action is voluntary, rather than coerced, this approach also vitiates any potential violation of conscience, keeping it within the parameters set by the Episcopal Church's statements on abortion. Finally, the practice of Eucharist transforms the way opponents in the abortion debate view one another, by referring beyond the current state of affairs to a future of joyful unity and sharing.
Books by Eugene R. Schlesinger
but also upholds the divine immutability. At the same time, Sobrino’s attentiveness to concrete history serves to correct Balthasar’s problematic and romanticized views of poverty.
speech act theory in their accounts of Calvinist sacramentology. I put these expressions of Reformed thought into conversation with the fundamental theology of the French Roman Catholic, Louis-Marie Chauvet, noting areas of convergence. I contend that Chauvet’s sacramental theology provides the resources for the Reformed to develop their own sacramental theology in a considerably higher direction, while also remaining true to their fundamental commitments.
shows that the two are basically in accord concerning sacramental efficacy. This article also puts cognitive linguistics into conversation with Rahner’s theologies of expression. In Rahner’s theology of the symbol, he argues that all beings express themselves in that which is not themselves. Furthermore, Rahner noted the existence of uniquely powerful “primordial words” (Urworte), which mediate the reality to which they point. Cognitive linguistics sees all human knowing as mediated by the “embodied mind,” and characterized by concept integration, wherein a given thing comes to be known in terms of another. This understanding of embodied mind, poses a significant challenge to the Christian tradition. This challenge is answered, though, by Rahner’s distinctive anthropology and christology.
much of the rhetoric is toxic. My argument bypasses the usual but
contested questions of rights, the beginnings of life, and even
moral rectitude, and instead analyzes the Book of Common
Prayer's eucharistic liturgy to inform and transform the way
Christians approach the debate. Proceeding along ex convenientia lines, I develop a eucharistic account of the body as indefinable and ungraspable, and apply the epiclesis to show that the Eucharist cultivates dispositions oriented away from the practice of abortion. As eucharistic action is voluntary, rather than coerced, this approach also vitiates any potential violation of conscience, keeping it within the parameters set by the Episcopal Church's statements on abortion. Finally, the practice of Eucharist transforms the way opponents in the abortion debate view one another, by referring beyond the current state of affairs to a future of joyful unity and sharing.
Close examination of the sources at the heart of traditional communion ecclesiology: Trinitarian theology, the sacraments of initiation, and eucharistic theology, yields an ecclesiology in which the church is constituted by both liturgy and mission. These are two distinct ways of participating in the triune life of God, which is revealed in the paschal mystery. The church's pilgrimage to God's kingdom takes it through the world in mission. The church, as the body of Christ, is given away to God and to the world, for the world's salvation. The result is a contemporary restatement of traditional ecclesiology, transposed into a missional key.