Reformed Sacramentality

Steffen Lösel is associate professor of systematic theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He received his master of divinity from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and his doctorate in theology from the University of Tübingen. His book, Kreuzwege: Ein ökumenisches Gespräch mit Hans Urs von Balthasar, appeared in 2001 with Ferdinand Schöningh.

"This `final word' from Australian liturgical theologian Graham Hughes is a distinctive and rich contribution to contemporary discussions about sacramentality. Hughes challenges the ways in which a Reformed disseminated sacramentality—where awareness of God and the sacred are located in everyday experience—has shaped the sacramental understanding of many Protestant churches and placed them in danger of `secular colonization by modernity.' He takes on what he calls the `uncertain place' of materiality in the Reformed tradition, arguing that material physical forms—sacramental things—have a necessary place in the church's life and practice. In doing so, he ably demonstrates the need to balance disseminated sacramentality with a `condensed' sacramentality, through which our awareness of the sacred is found in specific trusted material actions, our physicality is acknowledged and engaged in Christian worship, and our encounter with God is given physical form. Readers new to Hughes will also find Steffen Lösel's introductory essay a helpful and clear survey of Hughes's work and thought, placing this book in context with Hughes's major contribution, Worship as Meaning."E. Byron Anderson, Styberg Professor of Worship, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL"The fruit of a lifetime of prayer and study, driven by a pedagogical desire to help his students resist the corrosive effects of modernity. Hughes well knows that we won't think our way into freedom from an overly cognitive spirituality without robust liturgical practices which transcend (and even upend) entrenched cognitive habits."Worship Journal

• ContentsForeword - Gordon W. Lathrop   viiIntroduction - Steffen Lösel   xiChapter One: Disseminated and Condensed Sacramentality   1Chapter Two: What Is a Sacrament? What Is Sacramentality?   37Chapter Three: The Uncertain Place of Materiality in the Reformed Tradition   91Chapter Four: The Embodied Word: In Search of a Reformed Sacramentality   113Chapter Five: Faith’s Materiality, and Some Implications for Worship and Theology   153Chapter Six: The Last Interview   177Bibliography   191Index   207