Christian Sacraments in a Postmodern World offers a fresh perspective on the sacramental event by bringing together two generally unrelated subjects in a new way: sacramental theology and postmodern philosophical thought. Osborne shows, in an innovative way, how these two factors of third millennium life can be positively united to encourage powerful new thinking on the ways we Christians not only theorize about sacraments but also live sacraments. Using a key section on sacraments from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and by employing foundational concepts of postmodern philosophy and several issues from medieval Franciscan philosophy, the author develops a distinctly different approach to sacrament events. Here is a visionary, thoughtful work by a major theologian, writer and educator. It is sure to stir thinking and discussion among theologians, philosophers, liturgists and religious educators. +

Penance. Confirmation. Eucharist. Children participate in these sacraments, and many other Catholic rites, thanks to America's long-standing model of parish catechesis. Once children become adults, however, what becomes of their faith formation?In Toward an Adult Church: A Vision of Faith Formation, Jane Regan explores the current structure of parish catechesis. Basing her ideas on contemporary theory and traditional practice, Regan sets forth an intriguing argument: the vitality of the Church depends on establishing a new education paradigm--one that is focused on adults.How can parishes design a framework for adult catechesis? Will such programs be accepted by local church communities? Where does children's faith formation fit into the new structure?Regan answers these questions and offers ideas for developing a balanced approach to religious education--one that addresses the ongoing faith life of adults.

Most people, even non-Christians, know that Christians gather for worship once a week, and that they are right there to support each other when there is a baptism or a wedding or a funeral. But what about other poignant, vulnerable, or life-changing times? How does the church help people handle changes that in the past, in Christendom, were considered "secular"? Does the church have a role at retirement when one's ministry changes, or when a family's children leave home and familiar patterns seem to grind to a halt? Is there any rite possible for someone who is called to Christian ministry but not to ordination? Or to someone whose vows are broken in divorce? Christian Ritualizing and the Baptismal Process asserts that baptism marks the beginning of a process of participation in Christ's ministry, so that no part of life can finally be considered secular. Susan Marie Smith shows how every passage, healing, and ministry vocation is "holy," and she lays the groundwork needed for every church to create the rituals necessary to lament and celebrate the endings and beginnings that happen in every Christian life.

Is post-modern society devoid of sacramentality or a sense of the sacred? This question is central to the challenges posed by revolutionary post-modern sensibilities that tend to render the rites for the celebration of the sacraments obsolete and irrelevant. To address this issue, the author applies the post-modern emphasis on plurality and radical particularity to the communal dimension of traditional societies exemplified in the worldview of the Igbo people of Southeast Nigeria to shed light on the liturgical celebration of reconciliation in the Church today. The contention is that the sacraments are multi-vocal symbols that cannot command the same meaning in different contexts. In this connection, this book provides a clear notion of the theological foundation, principle and framework of the sacrament of reconciliation and offers a practical guide for its authentic liturgical celebration in a plural context. Its argument is that all are being summoned to interpersonal encounter through dialogue, or a relationship founded on mutual recognition and respect for difference. On this basis, the book proposes possible reconciliation rites drawn from the Igbo communal existence that have the capacity to accommodate people with other faith perspectives in a common liturgical celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation.

In the time of the church, transformation, renewal, and the process of coming-to-faith rely on the symbolic efficacy of speech, where God is encountered as a word. The Sacramentality of Preaching examines the thought of Louis-Marie Chauvet and incorporates it into contemporary homiletical theory in order to bolster and renew Christian proclamation that has an intentionally sacramental character. Liturgical preachers will find practical pathways, frameworks, and common language through the use of this innovative sacramentology.

In this book, updated with the texts of the third edition of the Roman Missal, Kevin Irwin reflects on the jewel in the crown of Catholicism—the celebration of the Eucharist. His book—theological, pastoral, and contemporary—is essentially concerned with issues about the Eucharist that face us today, decades after the truly historic and unprecedented revisions that took after the Second Vatican Council. Some of these concerns are the result of unforeseen developments about the Eucharist resulting from other factors, for example the decline in numbers of clergy, which has led in some places to Sunday celebrations without the Mass. Other concerns arise from a lack of proper catechesis about the Mass and a keen desire to understand why and how the Eucharist is at the center of Catholic life. In addition to being expressly theological, this book is also expressly pastoral in that it is a reflection on the life lived by the church as it enacts the Eucharist and seeks to live out what the Eucharist celebrates. The book is aimed at the audience of educated Catholics who seek a deeper appreciation of what the Eucharist is and who want to appropriate that understanding in the way they live their lives. This book will be of particular interest to pastoral ministers, both those present and those in training, and the communities of faith whom they serve.

This book is based on the principle that the liturgy is the enactment of “the work of our redemption” through the raising up, acknowledging and revering elements of the cosmos, the earth, and our “fellow creatures” in our common home. It is inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si (On Care for Our Common Home) (in its entirety, not “just” the sections on the Eucharist and liturgy) because it presents a world view and requires respecting and caring for all creatures who share this planet. It is illuminated by research into the history of sacramental theologies and the contemporary context of concern for the environment. In effect, there is no such thing as one Roman Catholic theology of the sacraments, and ‘more often than not differing contexts in the life of the church and the world required differing contents for sacramental theology. The author argues that concern for the environment is a traditional Catholic premise based on the goodness of creation and that God is creator of “heaven and earth.” He also argues that an ecological approach to sacramental theology can help to understand underlying factors and principles in the enactment of the liturgy of the sacraments about how and where God is discovered in the world in general and in the liturgy and sacraments in an intense and focused way through engagement with all who dwell in our common home.

Theology after Heidegger must take into account history and language as constitutive elements in the pursuit of meaning. Quite often, this prompts a hurried flight from metaphysics to an embrace of an absence at the center of Christian narrativity. In this book, Conor Sweeney explores the "postmodern" critique of presence in the context of sacramental theology, engaging the thought of Louis-Marie Chauvet and Lieven Boeve. Chauvet is an influential postmodern theologian whose critique of the perceived onto-theological constitution of presence in traditional sacramental theology has made big waves, while Boeve is part of a more recent generation of theologians who even more wholeheartedly embrace postmodern consequences for theology. Sweeney considers the extent to which postmodernism a la Heidegger upsets the hermeneutics of sacramentality, asking whether this requires us to renounce the search for a presence that by definition transcends us. Against both the fetishization of presence and absence, Sweeney argues that metaphysics has a properly sacramental basis, and that it is only through this reality that the dialectic of presence and absence can be transcended. The case is made for the full but restless signification of the mother's smile as the paradigm for genuine sacramental presence.

What does postcoloniality have to do with sacramentality? How do diasporic lives and imaginaries shape the course of postcolonial sacramental theology? Neither postcolonial theorists nor sacramental theologians have hitherto sought to engage in a sustained dialogue with one another. In this trailblazing volume, Kristine Suna-Koro brings postcolonialism, diaspora discourse, and Christian sacramental theology into a mutually critical and constructive transdisciplinary conversation. Dialoguing with thinkers as diverse as Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak as well as Francis D'Sa, S.J., Martin Luther, Mayra Rivera, and John Chryssavgis, the author offers a postcolonial retrieval of sacramentality through a robust theological engagement with the postcolonial notions of hybridity, contrapuntality, planetarity, and Third Space. While exploring the methodological potential of diasporic imaginary in theology, this innovative book advances the notion of sacramental pluriverse and of Christ as its paradigmatic crescendo within the sacramental economy of creation and redemptive transformation. In the context of ecological degradation, In Counterpoint argues that it is vital for the postcolonial sacramental renewal to be rooted in ethics as a uniquely postcolonial fundamental theology.

A deep strain of tribal politics is dividing societies around the globe. Organized religions are also coping with scandals, disappointments, and polarizing ideologies. The history of Christianity reveals that such frictions deeply wound the church. Fr. Richard S. Vosko recognizes that liturgical buildings are metaphorical expressions of the people of God. He proposes, in a relational way, that when all physical and psychological boundaries in a place of worship are removed people will discover a common ground. Building on theological foundations and design principles, Vosko envisions what an egalitarian “servant church” can look like. In a bold but thoughtful manner, he presents progressive insights into the fields of church art and architecture.