Ecology Liturgy And The Sacraments

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.

John Chryssavgis explores the sacred dimension of the natural environment, and the significance of creation in the rich theological history and spiritual classics of the Orthodox Church, through the lens of its unique ascetical, liturgical and mystical experience. The global ecological crisis affecting humanity's air, water, and land, as well as the planet's flora and fauna, has resulted in manifest fissures on the image of God in creation. Chryssavgis examines, from an Orthodox Christian perspective, the possibility of restoring that shattered image through the sacramental lenses of cosmic transfiguration, cosmic interconnection, and cosmic reconciliation. The viewpoints of early theologians and contemporary thinkers are extensively explored from a theological and spiritual perspective, including countering those who deny that God's creation is in crisis. Presenting a worldview advanced and championed by the Orthodox Church in the modern world, this book encourages personal and societal transformation in making ethical and economic choices that respect creation as sacrament.

In a sacramental ecology, divine grace is to be found in the evolutionary emergence of life. The ‘Epic of Evolution’ is the scientific story that reveals that we live in an approximately 14 billion year old universe on a planet that is approximately 4.6 billion years old and that we are a part of the ongoing process of life that has existed on Earth for roughly 4 billion years. Nature's Sacrament focuses on the religious and ecological significance of the evolutionary epic in an effort to seamlessly connect the ecological value attributed as a part of an understanding of the evolutionary connectedness of life on Earth, with the Divine grace understood to be present in Christian sacramental worship. David C. McDuffie is a faculty member in the Religious Studies Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where his primary teaching schedule includes courses in World Religions, Religion in America, Christian History, Religion and Environment, and Religion and Politics. Broadly, his research and teaching interests involve the subject area of Religion and Culture, which includes but is not limited to the relationships between religion and politics, science, and health care. This is his first book.

Sacramentology is one of the few theological disciplines that have undergone tremendous changes in the past. In the background of all these developments, this study aims to look for a paradigm, "the world as sacrament," that encompasses various trends and is relevant to the multi-religious context of contemporary society. The aim of this study is to rediscover this paradigm that existed from the beginning of Christianity. Its main concern is to see the different possibilities it offers for today, as well as observing the different concerns that are present in it. It is done from the perspectives of Latin, Greek and Syrian Christian traditions.

The reform of the liturgy has dramatically changed the way Roman Catholics and all Christians understand their worship. The arena of the encounter has shifted from a passive experience of observation of the great Mysteries to one that invites active participation on many levels. Yet, the imagination of many who preach, preside, and gather to worship continues to be shaped by a passive model as well as by the notion of sacramental activity as a product to be received or given. In The Holy Preaching, Janowiak deepens the discussion of Christ's presence in the Word by offering reflection on the disparity between the theology and the practice of preaching and some explanation as to why that disparity exists.

Both resistance to and renewed interest in the sacraments mark current theological thought. This work acknowledges human limitations of the sacraments but stresses that God's relationship to human beings cannot be other than sacramental." Sacramental structures and events constitute salvation history, and thus permeate all theology. What makes this sacramental view comprehensible is faith; faith is an indispensable precondition for a sacramental theology. Therefore, the author first demonstrates the preconditions of faith on which sacramental theology rests, and what place it holds within the whole of theology. Following this, he briefly presents the concept of sacraments and the history of that concept, the teachings of Church tradition on sacraments in general, and the basic features of a sacramental theology. Next, he explains from a theological perspective the traditional sacraments of the Catholic Church, including related topics such as indulgences and sacramentals.

Traces the development of Catholic worship from the apostolic Church to the present.

What motivates practice of the liturgy and sacramental rites of the church? Does the worship of God begin and end within each ritual enactment, or does the truth and value of sacramental celebration reside in the broader context of Christian life in church and society? For more than two decades, prominent Jesuit sacramental-liturgical theologian Bruce Morrill has explored the promise and problems inherent in the Second Vatican Council's call to renew liturgy's basic purpose--namely, the glorification of God and the sanctification of people. Morrill's fundamental argument is that this ancient Christian principle is of a piece, that divine glory and human holiness are, so to speak, two sides of a single coin. The value of liturgy and sacraments is depleted, if not lost, unless they function within a holistic practice of faith that seeks the upbuilding of ethical lives, personal and social. With numerous real-life examples plus references to current sociological studies, the chapters address both modern challenges to and biblical and traditional resources for the celebration of sacramental rites today.