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Chauvet and Anglican Sacramentology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2018

Michael Niebauer
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Abstract

This essay demonstrates how Louis-Marie Chauvet’s sacramental theology both coheres with the sacramentology of the Anglican divines and challenges the multitude of sacramental expressions within Anglicanism today. After giving a brief background to the sacramental controversies inherited by both Chauvet and Richard Hooker, the first section of this essay argues that key similarities exist between unitive Anglican sacramental concepts and core components of Louis-Marie Chauvet’s fundamental theology as outlined in his monograph Symbol and Sacrament. After demonstrating that, through these similarities, Chauvet’s theology should be seen as a fruitful conversation partner with Anglican sacramentology, the second section of the essay will focus on two concepts within Symbol and Sacrament (the Eucharist as stumbling block and ritual as symbolic rupture) that hold the potential to enrich sacramentology within Anglicanism today.

Keywords

AnglicanismLouis-Marie ChauvetThomas CranmerRichard Hookermetaphysicspostmodernismsacramentology
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , May 2018 , pp. 50 - 65
Copyright
© The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2018 

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Footnotes

1.

The Revd Michael Niebauer is a Teaching Fellow in Theology at Duquesne University.

References

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3. Roughly the beginning of the Archbishopric of Thomas Cranmer in 1532 to the ratification of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

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18. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 116.

19. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 140.

20. Boeve, ‘Theology in a Postmodern Context’, p. 10.

21. Crockett, ‘Holy Communion’, p. 309.

22. Crockett, ‘Holy Communion’, p. 310.

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25. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 43.

26. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 45.

27. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 45.

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29. Chapman, Anglicanism, p. 81.

30. Chapman, Anglicanism, p. 84.

31. While I believe Chauvet can be a helpful voice within Anglican sacramentology, issues regarding the divides within the global Anglican Communion as a whole are outside of the scope of this essay. However, two components of what follows may be of some help. First, the hope is that a focus on the sacraments as appropriated within the local congregation can be of some assistance for clergy regardless of their position amidst the Anglican divisions. Second, while Chauvet may not be able to aid in the totality of divisions within Anglicanism today, he can be of great help for those particular divisions that are predicated upon liturgical disagreement.

32. Boeve, ‘Theology in a Postmodern Context’, p. 8.

33. Pretot, ‘The Sacraments as “Celebrations of the Church”’, p. 35.

34. Such adoption is consistent with Roman Catholic theology, which recognizes no particular philosophical scheme as normative for the whole of theology.

35. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 331.

36. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 337.

37. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 339.

38. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 336.

39. Chauvet, Symbol and Sacrament, p. 336.

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41. Cocksworth, ‘Eucharistic Theology’, p. 65.