Reformed Sacramentality

"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 sacramentalitywhere awareness of God and the sacred are located in everyday experiencehas 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 formssacramental thingshave 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 Lsel'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 "This volume reintroduces Hughes's critical and constructive achievement in his book Worship and Meaning and extends it by presenting his argument for a distinctively Reformed sacramentality. A welcome addition to Reformed and ecumenical reflection!"Amy Plantinga Pauw, Henry P. Mobley, Jr., Professor of Doctrinal Theology, Louisville Presbyterian Seminary "I highly recommend this book, especially to those who are confused about what is happening in Christian sacramental theology today. Hughes's contribution, first in Worship as Meaning and now in Reformed Sacramentality, helps us to rethink how meaning is transacted in worship and sacrament today. Hughes opens up a new way of talking about the sacraments." Calvin Theological Journal "This posthumous study is a long-awaited consideration of an issue which concerns all thoughtful practitioners in the Reformed Tradition: it explores the origins of Reform's bifurcation of spirit and form, its long favouring of the cognitive over the physical (and indeed the affective) mode, of speech over symbol in sermon and sacrament. Hughes constantly reaches out to other Christian traditions as he delineates a new Reformed canonicity. It is especially pertinent to his own church, the Uniting Church in Australia (Reformed/Methodist), for a reclamation of the materiality of faith itself, and therefore of both word and sacrament, is a key to the recovery of rich and enduring forms of worship."The Rev. Dr Robert Gribben, Professor Emeritus of Worship and Mission, Uniting Church Faculty of Theology, Melbourne, Australia "Reformed Sacramentality is a splendid resource that opens up fresh ways for theologians and clergy to understand sacramentality. Its richest offering is help for thinking about the relationship between holy things and ordinary things: that is, divine presence in rites and sacraments, and divine presence everywhere and at all times. This book is a superlative scholar's final gift to our own reflections on sacraments, whether located in the Reformed tradition or not." Anglican Theological Review "No one thought more clearly or creatively about the place of worship in a postmodern environment than did Graham Hughes. Firmly grounded

Steffen Lsel 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 Tbingen. His book, Kreuzwege: Ein kumenisches Gesprch mit Hans Urs von Balthasar, appeared in 2001 with Ferdinand Schningh.

Contents Foreword - Gordon W. Lathrop Introduction - Steffen Lsel Chapter One: Disseminated and Condensed Sacramentality Chapter Two: What Is a Sacrament? What Is Sacramentality? Chapter Three: The Uncertain Place of Materiality in the Reformed Tradition Chapter Four: The Embodied Word: In Search of a Reformed Sacramentality Chapter Five: Faiths Materiality, and Some Implications for Worship and Theology Chapter Six: The Last Interview Bibliography Index