The Sacraments - The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body [Paperback]

Louis-Marie Chauvet (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Liturgical Press (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814661432
• ISBN-13: 978-0814661437
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #692,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent study of the sacraments, December 30, 2006

By 

K. D. Kelly (Johnstown, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sacraments - The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body (Paperback)

I purchased this book in preparation for a dissertation on post-modernism and the sacraments. Unfortunately, within my own Lutheran Confession, there is not a great deal of contemporary (20 century LCMS) theological thought going on. One need turn then to the Reformed or the Roman Catholics for insight. This book by Chauvet has been a tremendous asset to my own research and understanding of the sacraments. Obviously Chauvet writes as a Roman Catholic scholar and I have some differences with him, but I did find, among other things, his discussion of the separation of "Word" and "Sacrament" to be of interest.

For a scholarly work, I find it a hard book to put down. Chauvet writes in an engaging style, and goes to great lengths to explain in a very systematic way his thought. Lutherans looking for a book that will make you think? This is it!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars postmodern general theology of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, November 2, 2006

By 

John Bruscia (Newport Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Sacraments - The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body (Paperback)

Louis-Marie Chauvet, in his book, The Sacraments The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body, offers a broad, postmodern theological position on the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. He attempts a systematic approach to understanding a general theology of sacraments, rooted in the concept of "sacramentality." Chauvet's utilizes a comprehensive "symbolic order" to achieve his theological goals, which includes the multifaceted use of language, culture, scripture and tradition, as well as the actual elements used within the sacramental rites: bread, wine, water, oil, candles, garments, etc. Chauvet is interested in explaining how sacraments "mediate" God's presence, allowing humanity to come into communion with God. Yet he is insistent that one can never hold, control or own God. Therefore, for Chauvet, all knowledge, revelation and experience of God must be mediated by the multiple interactions of the symbolic order.

Paradoxically, the mediated reception of God must always be balanced with a certain kind of "absence." This absence includes both non-ownership and incompleteness; persons must allow themselves to be transparent vessels of God's grace, sharing the life of God which he or she receives. There must be a constant relational element, the passing from one hand to the next, giving what has been given. Absence, nakedness, transparency, a position of non-ownership, an ego-free abandonment to God allows persons to move in this direction. This entails assuming a stance of liberating openness to God, accepting a "dependency-contingency" on God's providence. Only in a state of absence can one truly remain receptive and dependent on God. In fact, according to Chauvet, one can only truly receive from God when one is receptive in this manner. It is liberating because God's love - grace, is gratuitous gift, allowing persons to freely act upon it (or not).

Included, is the dynamic that persons must overcome the desire for a direct connection to God. According to Chauvet, one must learn to embrace the mediation offered through the symbolic, and for Catholics, sacramental rituals, and overcome the "temptation of immediacy," which ultimately becomes a sabotaged attempt to circumvent human bodily contingency with its accompanying loss of the essential cultural, historical and social nature of human existence in which the mediation must take place.For Chauvet, the ritual action of liturgy creates a "symbolic disconnection" which places the assembly in another, non-utilitarian world. This creates a space where God can enter, a space of gratuitousness. For Chauvet, everything in the liturgical environment facilitates this, the language; position of the parties; the use of implements and objects; the confession with the lips becomes the "confession of faith in action." It is this symbolic mediation that places the Christian in contact with God sacramentally. "Again, the theological takes `place' in the anthropological" (Chauvet 126) and as illustrated above, calls forth personal response: People becoming Christian.