A Curricular Experiment in Sacramental Edification and Instruction

ISSN： 2041-0999

Source： Usus Antiquior, Vol.3, Iss.1, 2012-01, pp. : 36-46

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Abstract

Phenomenology enriches our awareness of the robust relationship between the appearances of things and those things in themselves. Through this modern philosophical tool, the manner of appearance of things is discov- ered to have an ontological density often ignored if not denied prior to the work of Edmund Husserl in the early twentieth century. According to Robert Sokolowski ‘manifestation in all its forms is a dimension of being’ (Eucharistic Presence, p. 32): in other words, the appearance of a thing is an aspect of the being of the thing itself. Such observations bear strikingly on the field of liturgical theology, inasmuch as formal worship constitutes both a funda- mental moral action and at the same time a set of what might be called aesthetic gestures or acts, often evaluated in terms of solemnity, beauty, simplicity vs. elaborateness, and the like. Applied to worship, then, phenom- enology keeps both of these aspects in play. Another benefit of the phenom- enological approach is its power, in virtue of the bridge (re)forged between the thing and its manifestation, to turn ‘mere metaphors’ into analogies. Consequently, one may begin to explore in new ways the relationships between the phenomenon of Christian worship and other phenomena of group activity, such as education. This article mounts such an exploration, by first describing the historical experience of teaching an introductory class on Christian worship, then evaluating that experience through the lens of Sokolowski’s phenomenological theology. The project is framed within the context of the opening statement of paragraph three of Sacrosanctum Concilium, which asserts that the sacraments have, among others, a dimension ‘pertaining to instruction’. The paper aims to shed light on the question, how do Catholics in the pew learn what Joseph Ratzinger has referred to as ‘the right way to give the faith its central form of expression in the liturgy’?