Sacramental Permeability<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff (The Eucharist) speak of “sacramental permeability.” That phrase brings a number of emphases to the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sacramental Permeability\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff (The Eucharist) speak of “sacramental permeability.” That phrase brings a number of emphases to the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-19T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/\",\"name\":\"Sacramental Permeability\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-19T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-19T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff (The Eucharist) speak of “sacramental permeability.” That phrase brings a number of emphases to the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sacramental Permeability\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sacramental Permeability","description":"Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff (The Eucharist) speak of “sacramental permeability.” That phrase brings a number of emphases to the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sacramental Permeability","og_description":"Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff (The Eucharist) speak of “sacramental permeability.” That phrase brings a number of emphases to the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2014-06-19T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/","name":"Sacramental Permeability","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-19T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-19T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff (The Eucharist) speak of “sacramental permeability.” That phrase brings a number of emphases to the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sacramental Permeability"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":16208,"date":"2014-06-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2014-06-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T00:00:00","slug":"sacramental-permeability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/06\/sacramental-permeability\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramental Permeability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff (The Eucharist<\/a>) speak of \u201csacramental permeability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That phrase brings a number of emphases to the fore. For starters it \u201ctakes seriously the realities of human bodies as a central part of Eucharistic practice and life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once we take the bodies of those who partake of the Body seriously, then we also have to take account of all the things that affect those bodies, \u201cthe bread we consume at our kitchen tables, the bread we steal from the poor\u201d as well as the \u201cbread that is consecrated and consumed during Holy Communion\u201d (5). Eucharistic theology cannot isolate itself from food politics, whether it has to do with the causes of global hunger, American obsession with diet, eating disorders, and so on. (Not to say that Bieler and Schottroff necessarily get these issues right; only to say that Eucharistic theology must <\/em>shed light on them, and must be open to light shed from outside.)<\/p>\n

Further, sacramental permeability means that the Eucharist, as a gift of God\u2019s love made visible, opens potential to see sacramental dimensions everywhere: \u201cThe sacrament of Holy Communion points to the presence of God among us and in the world,\u201d so that it reveals the \u201csacramentality of life\u201d (5).<\/p>\n

Armed with this concept, the authors note, for instance, that the practice of the Eucharist has sometimes conformed to the political economy outside the church rather than embodying an economy of grace. During the middles ages, they observe, \u201cThe Mass became a means to obtain certain favors for the living and the dead. . . . In a certain sense, the benefits of redemption could be bought\u201d (101-2). More generally, they plunder the tradition for resources to offer a ritual challenge to the \u201comnipotent claims of the Homo oeconomicus<\/em>\u201d (91).<\/p>\n

As the eschatological meal, the end of all things, permeable Eucharistic theology thus opens own to encompass all things.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"