Article contents
Christian Rituals: An Essay in Sacramental Symbolisms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Abstract
Both anthropologists and theologians, each in their separate ways, are interested in rituals and their symbol-units. Victor Turner, from extensive fieldwork, has evolved a definition of ritual as “prescribed formal behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers.” Monica Wilson has insisted that “it is the values of the group that are revealed” in rituals and their symbol-units. The present essay is located at the interface of anthropology and theology. It surveys pertinent anthropological information and then analyzes the Christian rituals of baptism, confirmation and eucharist, and their symbol-units, to clarify and focus their meanings and the values and ontology of the Christian group which are revealed in them.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The College Theology Society 1980
References
1 Cassirer, Ernst, An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1944), p. 26.Google Scholar
2 Ibid., p. 24. Emphasis in original.
3 See “Symbols in African Ritual,” in Doglin, Janet L.et alii (eds.), Symbolic Anthropology (New York: Columbia, 1977), pp. 183–94Google Scholar; Turner, Victor, The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu of Zambia (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968)Google Scholar; Turner, Victor, The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca: Cornell, 1967)Google Scholar; Turner, Victor, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago: Adline Publishing, 1969).Google Scholar
4 Turner, , Forest of Symbols, p. 19.Google Scholar
5 Ibid.
6 Cassirer, Ernst, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Vol. 3 (New Haven: Yale, 1953–1957), p. 93.Google Scholar
7 Turner, , Forest of Symbols, p. 20.Google Scholar
8 “Nyakusa Ritual and Symbolism,” American Anthropologist 56 (1958): 241.Google Scholar
9 Turner, , “Symbolic Studies,” Annual Review of Anthropology (1975), p. 151.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., p. 156.
11 Ricoeur, Paul, The Symbolism of Evil (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), pp. 14–18.Google Scholar
12 Cassirer, Ernst, Language and Myth (New York: Harper and Row, 1946), p. 8.Google Scholar
13 Cassirer, , An Essay on Man, p. 36.Google Scholar
14 Turner, , Forest of Symbols, p. 28.Google Scholar
15 Jung, Carl, Psychological Types (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949), p. 601.Google Scholar
16 Edinger, Edward F., Ego and Archetype (New York: G. P. Putnam's, 1972), p. 109.Google Scholar
17 Ricoeur, , Symbolism of Evil, p. 15.Google Scholar
18 Roszak, Theodore, Where the Wasteland Ends: Politics and Transcendence in Post-industrial Society (New York: Doubleday, 1972), p. 139.Google Scholar Emphasis in original.
19 Berger, Peter, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York: Doubleday, 1966), p. 17.Google Scholar
20 See Coutourier, C., “Sacramentum et Mysterium dans l'oeuvre de Saint Augustin,” in Rondet, H. (ed.), Etudes Augustiniennes (Paris: 1953).Google Scholar
21 Dialogus de Sacramentis in Legis Naturalis et Scriptae, 33D-34A, 34D-35A.
22 Denzinger-Schönmetzer, , Enchiridion Symbolorum, 1606.Google Scholar Emphasis added.
23 Fr.McGuire, , The New Baltimore Catechism and Mass (New York: Benziger, 1953), q. 304.Google Scholar
24 Exodus Rabbah 3:13, cited from Lehrman, S. M.Exodus in Freedman, H. and Simon, M. (eds.). Midrash Rabbah (London: Soncino Press, 1961), III: 73.Google Scholar
25 Jeremias, Joachim, Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries (Philadelphia: West-minster, 1962), p. 25.Google Scholar
26 Beasley-Murray, G., Baptism in the New Testament (London: MacMillan, 1963), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar
27 van Gennep, Arnold, The Rites of Passage (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960).Google Scholar
28 Turner, , Forest of Symbols, p. 95.Google Scholar
29 Richards, Audrey I., Chisungu (London: Faber and Faber, 1956), p. 121.Google Scholar
30 Turner, , Forest of Symbols, p. 102.Google Scholar
31 See Winkler, Gabrielle, “The Original Meaning of the Prebaptismal Anointing and its Implications,” Worship 52 (1978): 24–45.Google Scholar
32 PG 33, 1079.
33 Winkler's judgment, in “The Original Meaning,” that the Syrian church emphasized the rebirth meaning of baptism while Paul and the Palestinian church emphasized its meaning as assimilation to Christ's death allows her to draw too sharp a distinction between the ritual emphases of the two churches. In support of her position she cites a segment of that part of Cyril's catechesis that I have fully cited in the text. My judgment is that both Paul and Cyril's witness emphasize the meaning of baptism as assimilation to Christ's death and resurrection, which is clear from a reading of both Romans 6 and the citation from Cyril given in the text. My further judgment is that the connection between a God-achieved rebirth and a God-achieved resurrection from the dead, as they were ritually symbolized, is much more evident than any distinction one might draw between them.
34 De Resurrectione 8 (PL 2, 806).Google Scholar
35 This statement is not meant to prejudge the scholarly issue of whether the presbyteros of the time was a priest as that term is now understood. It is simply a statement of the common opinion that the prebyteros of that time originated the ordained priesthood of our time.
36 Denzinger-Schönmetzer, 215.
37 Rite of Confirmation (Washington: NCCB, 1977), pp. 25, 27, 28.Google Scholar
38 Lampe, G. W. H., The Seal of the Spirit (London: SPCK, 1967), p. xxiv.Google Scholar
39 See Jeremias, Joachim, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus (New York: Charles Scribner's, 1966), pp. 15–88.Google Scholar
40 de Vaux, Roland, Ancient Israel. Its Life and Institutions (New York: McGraw Hill, 1961), p. 489.Google Scholar
41 Glatzer, Nahum N. (ed.), The Passover Haggadah (New York: Schocken, 1969), p. 9.Google Scholar
42 Ibid., p. 27.
43 Guzie, Tad, Jesus and the Eucharist (New York: Paulist, 1974), p. 45.Google Scholar
44 Cf., Riesenfeld, Harald, “Sabbat et jour du Seigneur,” New Testament Essays: Studies in Memory of T. W. Manson (Manchester University Press, 1959)Google Scholar; Rordorf, Willy, Der Sontag (Zurich: Zwingli Verlag, 1962)Google Scholar; Mosna, S. C., Storia della domenica dalle origini agli inizi del V Secolo (Roma: Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, 1969)Google Scholar; Bacchiocchi, Samuele, From Sabbath to Sunday (Rome: Pontifical Gregorian University Press, 1977).Google Scholar
45 Cf., The Epistle of Barnabas 15, in Lightfoot, J. B., The Apostolic Fathers (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1974Google Scholar; reprinted from the edition of 1891), p. 52; Justin, Apologia I pro Christianis 67, in PG VI, 430.
46 Bacchiocchi, , From Sabbath to Sunday, p. 301.Google Scholar
47 Cullman, Oscar, Essays on the Lord's Supper (Richmond: John Knox, 1959), p. 12.Google Scholar
48 Jeremias, Joachim, Jesus' Promise to the Nations (London: SCM Press, 1958), p. 60.Google Scholar
49 The Greek verbs which have been translated historically “hallowed be,” “be done,” and “come” are all in imperative forms. They are commands to God, “our Father,” to bless his name, do his will and establish his kingdom. So I have translated them. More trouble-some is the translation of artos epiousios. Traditional versions vary. Jerome has “super-substantial.” Itala has “daily,” which Martin Luther and subsequent translations followed. However, for a number of reasons, many modern scholars translate epiousios as “pertaining to tomorrow,” and hence artos epiousios as “tomorrow's bread.” The RSV offers “our bread for the morrow” as an alternative reading in both the Matthean (6: 9-13) and Lucan (11: 2-4) versions. See also Jeremias, Joachim, The Prayers of Jesus (London: SCM, 1967), pp. 82–107Google Scholar; and Vögtle, Anton, “The Lord's Prayer: A Prayer for Jews and Christians,” in Petuchowski, Jakob J. and Brocke, Michael (eds.), The Lord's Prayer and Jewish Liturgy (New York: Seabury, 1978), pp. 93–117.Google Scholar What then is “tomorrow's bread”? It is an image standing for the fulfillment of the age of salvation. It is, in short, another way of speaking of the kingdom or rule of God, which is so often described in banquet (bread) terms.
50 Worship 50 (1976): 526.Google Scholar
51 Worship 52 (1977): 261.Google Scholar
- 3
- Cited by