The second biannual congress of the Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology (LEST II, Nov. 3-6, 1999) was dedicated to a fundamental theological reflection on the question of how to conceive of 'sacramental presence in a postmodern context'. This volume contains the main lectures presented at the conference, as well as the formal responses to those lectures and a selection of supplementary papers. These papers examine the Christian claim that God is present in human history, in the light of the contemporary rethinking of the relationship between transcendence and immanence. In addition to an extensive introductory paper by L. Boeve, contributions include, among others, M.-C. Bingemer, L.-M. Chauvet, G. De Schrijver, K. Hart, W. Jeanrond, F. Kerr, J.-Y. Lacoste, T. Merrigan, P. Moyaert, D. Power, I. Verhack and G. Ward.

Drawing on performance studies and sacramental and liturgical theology, Ruthanna B. Hooke develops a theology of proclamation grounded in the body’s experience of preaching. The author explores the claim that preaching is a sacramental event of communion with the triune God by comparing the steps involved in voice production with the fourfold shape of the Eucharist. This comparison yields a description of preaching as an event of self-offering that allows space for the humanity of the preacher and as an encounter with the Holy Spirit that is communal and prophetic. Preaching draws participants into Christ’s dying and rising, and hence into a mode of power known in vulnerability. Calling hearers into the eschatological event of the resurrection, preaching inherently moves toward proclamation on political and ethical issues. Hooke uses this theological framework to offer ways of preaching on environmental crisis and on racism. The author calls preachers to embodied engagement with preaching and describes a way for preachers to bear witness to Jesus Christ not only in the content of their proclamation, but in their way of being in the preaching event.

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.

Almost 500 years ago, a Mexica survivor of the conquista was on his way to catechism lessons just outside present-day Mexico City. He experienced a holy presence on the hill of Tepeyac that changed the hermeneutic of the dignity of the poor forever. This book is about Our Lady of Guadalupe under her popular title "Santa Maria Tonantzin Guadalupe." It centers on her indigenous and feminine identity as the "Preaching Woman." She and the people she animates, the Hispanic-Latino community, are "icons" of the presence of the Holy Trinity. As Sacrament of the Holy Spirit and bearer of the Sacramental Word, she enables the pueblo, the people of God, to exercise their baptismal ministry as holy preachers.

In this insightful, interdisciplinary study, Robert Sokolowski uses the methods of phenomenology to examine Christian religious beliefs, particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist. In so doing, he comes to terms with many theological and cultural issues raised by modernity. Although the Eucharist is the center of focus, other issues in Christian faith are also examined, such as the Christian understanding of God, Creation, the Incarnation, Redemption, and biblical Revelation. Sokolowski employs a method that he calls "the theology of disclosure," which studies the structures of appearance and should be distinguished from both positive and scholastic theology. He takes appearances as objective disclosures, not as mere psychological events. When discussing the Eucharist, he shows how it uses the form of quotation and how it draws on various temporal dimensions of human existence as it reenacts the sacrifice of Christ before the eternal Father. The author also considers how Christian belief differs from other forms of religion and from modern atheism. By demonstrating how the Christian understanding of God differs from other ways of understanding the divine, he attempts to show that Christianity is not simply one religion among many but the truth of religion. These deeper themes are explored as necessary contexts for the Eucharist, which could not be properly understood except against the background of the Christian understanding of God as eternal and as Creator and Redeemer. The author provides a comprehensive theological treatment of major issues in Christian faith and does so with categories that are appropriate to our present intellectual and cultural world. This study, which draws upon the work of many classical and contemporary theologians, especially Hans Urs von Balthasar, contributes significantly to speculative theology and to Eucharistic studies. It will be of great use to theologians and philosophers, as well as to students of Christian philosophy and sacramental theology. Robert Sokolowski, a priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, has taught philosophy at The Catholic University of America since 1963. He has written six books and numerous articles dealing with phenomenology, philosophy and Christian faith, moral philosophy, and issues in contemporary science. He has been an auxiliary chaplain at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., since 1976 and was named monsignor in 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Indispensable for graduate and divinity programs with interests in Catholic theology and phenomenology of religions.--Religious Studies Review "Intellectually stimulating. . . . The author contributes many insights to the theology of the Eucharist, some of which I had never seen before and found enlightening and moving. The depth of his scholarship is obvious."--Rev. James T. O'Connor, St. Joseph's Seminary, New York "A careful reading of this profound analysis of the Holy Eucharist will be rewarded with a more fruitful participation at Mass. Here we find a modern model of the Catholic theologian who shows us in the concrete how to practice 'faith seeking understanding.'"--Kenneth Baker, S.J., Editor, Homiletic and Pastoral Review

Eucharist: Our sacrament of unity--that we never stop discussing and debating. Nor should we! Nathan Mitchells earlier book Cult and Controversy demonstrated the breadth of his scholarship on the history of Eucharistic practice and piety in the Church. In this expanded edition of Real Presence, Dr. Mitchell brings that scholarship to bear on the contemporary dialogue about the Eucharist. What he says is vital to Sunday practice and parish life. Teachers, preachers, catechists, and students especially will find help in Mitchells insights into the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its teachings on the Eucharist; into the ways that contemporary biblical scholarship opens up our understanding of Jesus and the Eucharist; into those two wonderful words that have again and again challenged the Church to go ever deeper--real presence; and into the theologies of the Eucharist coming from contemporary Europeans such as Jean-Luc Marion, Herbert McCabe, and Catherine Pickstock. This new and expanded edition also includes Nathan Mitchells essay 'Eucharist in the Work of Some Contemporary European Theologians' and an expanded commentary on Eucharist in Luke's Gospel.Nathan Mitchell holds a doctorate in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame and is associate director for research at the Notre Dame Center for Pastoral Liturgy. Published by Liturgy Training Publications. -- Provided by publisher.

Jan-Heiner Tück presents a work that explores the sacramental theology, lived spirituality, and Eucharistic poetry of the Church’s doctor communis, St. Thomas Aquinas. Although Aquinas’ Eucharistic poetry has long occupied an important place in the Church’s liturgical prayer and her repertoire of sacred music, the depth of these poems remains hidden until one grasps the rich sacramental theology underlying it. Consequently, Tück first offers a detailed but approachable primer of Aquinas’ theology of the sacraments, before diving deeply into the Angelic Doctor’s theology and poetry of the Eucharist. The Scriptural accounts stand at the heart of the systematic framework developed by Aquinas, and thus significant attention is devoted to showing the harmony between the accounts of Christ’s passion and the detailed exposition of the Summa theologiae. Moreover, the Eucharistic controversies of the ninth and eleventh centuries provide the contrapuntal context in which Aquinas did his thinking, praying, and writing. Not surprisingly, therefore, the response he crafts to these controversies draws upon both speculative powers and contemplative prayer, brought together in the unity of Aquinas’ theology and spirituality. The net result is a twofold treasure for the Church: a careful systematic presentation of Eucharistic theology and the lived devotional expression of the same in the carefully constructed—and now much beloved—stanzas of Pange lingua gloriosi, Lauda Sion, Adoro te devote, etc. By revealing the lively interplay of the saint’s powerful speculative intellect and a heart steeped in love for the Eucharistic Lord, Tück offers a sophisticated exposition of Aquinas’ Eucharistic poetry and the roots it sinks into a wider theological framework. Finally, the contemporary significance and power of Aquinas’ work is drawn out, not only in the rarefied realm of intellectual inquiry but also in the everyday expanse of ordinary life.