“So in the Incarnation, God as God was able perfectly to fulfil the worship of God which is nevertheless, as worship, only possible for the creature. This descent is repeated and perpetuated in the eucharist which gives rise to the ecclesia, that always ‘other-governed’ rather than autonomous human community, which yet is the beginning of universal community as such, since it is nothing other than the lived project of universal reconciliation. Not reducible to its institutional failures and yet not to be seen as a utopia either, since the reality of reconciliation, of restored unity-in-disparity, must presuppose itself if it is to be realizable (always in some very small degree) in time and so must be always already begun. The Incarnation was the ‘impossible’ arrival of that always-already and for that reason involved the coincidence of a finite personality with an infinite hypostasis. The concrete social realization of the always-already must run, as Rowan Williams frequently emphasizes, only through and despite the mess of constant institutional wranglings and renegotiations, as well as inter-personal tribulations (since we must not forget that ‘Church’ may most be there when two or three idly or perplexedly wander beside a river). Although ontologically non-reactive, it is always temporally present despite temporal false deprivations."
Friday, July 25, 2014
Friday Theology: John Milbank On The Church
Time to breathe life into a semi-regular feature of this blog. It really depends on what I’m reading in any given week and whether I remember that it’s Friday.
John Milbank is a contemporary British theologian, sometimes associated with a school of thought known as Radical Orthodoxy. He’s a difficult thinker to engage, since his project is a prolonged engagement with modernity and philosophy that demands a lot of the reader. However, in this paragraph, from the Preface to the Second Edition of his book Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (Blackwell Publishing, 1990, 2006) he offers a helpful comment on how the church, understood broadly, and its worship and liturgy can only be understood in terms of the economy of the Trinity.
“So in the Incarnation, God as God was able perfectly to fulfil the worship of God which is nevertheless, as worship, only possible for the creature. This descent is repeated and perpetuated in the eucharist which gives rise to the ecclesia, that always ‘other-governed’ rather than autonomous human community, which yet is the beginning of universal community as such, since it is nothing other than the lived project of universal reconciliation. Not reducible to its institutional failures and yet not to be seen as a utopia either, since the reality of reconciliation, of restored unity-in-disparity, must presuppose itself if it is to be realizable (always in some very small degree) in time and so must be always already begun. The Incarnation was the ‘impossible’ arrival of that always-already and for that reason involved the coincidence of a finite personality with an infinite hypostasis. The concrete social realization of the always-already must run, as Rowan Williams frequently emphasizes, only through and despite the mess of constant institutional wranglings and renegotiations, as well as inter-personal tribulations (since we must not forget that ‘Church’ may most be there when two or three idly or perplexedly wander beside a river). Although ontologically non-reactive, it is always temporally present despite temporal false deprivations."
“So in the Incarnation, God as God was able perfectly to fulfil the worship of God which is nevertheless, as worship, only possible for the creature. This descent is repeated and perpetuated in the eucharist which gives rise to the ecclesia, that always ‘other-governed’ rather than autonomous human community, which yet is the beginning of universal community as such, since it is nothing other than the lived project of universal reconciliation. Not reducible to its institutional failures and yet not to be seen as a utopia either, since the reality of reconciliation, of restored unity-in-disparity, must presuppose itself if it is to be realizable (always in some very small degree) in time and so must be always already begun. The Incarnation was the ‘impossible’ arrival of that always-already and for that reason involved the coincidence of a finite personality with an infinite hypostasis. The concrete social realization of the always-already must run, as Rowan Williams frequently emphasizes, only through and despite the mess of constant institutional wranglings and renegotiations, as well as inter-personal tribulations (since we must not forget that ‘Church’ may most be there when two or three idly or perplexedly wander beside a river). Although ontologically non-reactive, it is always temporally present despite temporal false deprivations."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Mad Padre
Followers
Blog Archive
Labels
- Advent (5)
- Adventures in Alberta (11)
- Adventures in Atlantic Canada (17)
- Adventures in Ontario (2)
- All (1)
- All Saints Collingwood (110)
- All Saints King City (128)
- American Civil War (2)
- Angl (1)
- Anglican Church (321)
- Anglican Military Ordinariate (6)
- archaeology (1)
- Beer (2)
- Blogs and Blogging (13)
- Book Reviews (58)
- C.S. Lewis (1)
- C.S. Lewis and Narnia (1)
- Canada At War (18)
- Canadian Armed Forces (25)
- Canadian Forces Chaplain School (2)
- Canadian Military History (1)
- Chaplain Stories (23)
- Chaplaincy Issues (7)
- Children's Ministry (9)
- Christianity and Islam (4)
- Christianity and Society (13)
- Christmas (2)
- Church and Society (8)
- Church History (11)
- Climate (1)
- Climate and Environment (1)
- Conversations (1)
- Cool Stuff (11)
- CS Lewis (1)
- Cultural Studies (1)
- Daily Devotional (37)
- Daily Office (2)
- Death and Dying (5)
- Depression and Suicide in the Military (10)
- Drones (3)
- Easter (2)
- ebooks (7)
- Ecumenism (1)
- Epiphany (6)
- Ethics and Society (31)
- Eucharist (1)
- Evangelism (1)
- Family News (5)
- Films (4)
- Firearms (1)
- First World War (2)
- Flowers (1)
- Food Insecurity (1)
- Friday Theology (19)
- Funerals (5)
- Funny Stuff (36)
- Gaming and Ethics (7)
- Good Friday (2)
- Great War (3)
- Grief and Loss (1)
- Hebrew Scriptures (3)
- Holy Week (6)
- Homiletics and Preaching (6)
- Interfaith Dialogue (3)
- J.R.R. Tolkien (1)
- Jordan Peterson (2)
- Judaism (2)
- Language Play of the Week (9)
- Lent (44)
- Lent Madness (1)
- Lent Madness 2023 (20)
- Lent Madness 2024 (20)
- Literacy and Literature (12)
- Literature and War (2)
- Liturgy (2)
- Living History (1)
- Marriage and Relationships (6)
- Marriage and Society (3)
- Me and My iphone (12)
- Mental Health (9)
- Military and Literature (2)
- Military and Society (59)
- Military and Spirituality (40)
- Military and Suicide (13)
- Military Chaplaincy (109)
- Military Culture (7)
- Military Ethics (68)
- Military Families (10)
- Military Goats (11)
- Military History (67)
- Military History American Civil War (5)
- Military Humour (32)
- Military News (220)
- Military Picture of the Week (36)
- Military Rantings (10)
- Military Reading (3)
- Military Service (42)
- Minature Wargames - My Figures (18)
- Miniature Wargames - Battle Reports (11)
- Miniature Wargames - Miscellaneous (2)
- Music (2)
- Oh Canada (10)
- Over There (122)
- Pandemic (1)
- Physical Fitness (1)
- Pluralism (1)
- Poetry (1)
- Prayer (3)
- Psalms (1)
- PTSD Issues (45)
- Random Stuff (1)
- Reconciliation (2)
- Regional Ministry (1)
- Religion and Conflict (5)
- Religion and Society (74)
- Religion In The News (12)
- Remembrance Day (1)
- Royal Canadian Regiment (4)
- Running (37)
- Sacraments (1)
- Saints (18)
- Saints Days (3)
- Seen on the Run (16)
- Self Care (1)
- ser (1)
- Sermon (3)
- Sermons (346)
- Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) (1)
- Spirituality (23)
- Technology and Humanity (1)
- Terrorism (1)
- The Bible and Society (4)
- The Great War (1)
- The Secular (1)
- Theology (35)
- Tolkien (1)
- Tom Holland (1)
- Travel Stories (3)
- Truth and Reconciliation Canada (2)
- Video Gamex (1)
- Volkswagen Westfalia (8)
- Wanderings (8)
- War and Literature (3)
- Worship (4)
No comments:
Post a Comment