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{"id":17905,"date":"2016-02-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2727"},"modified":"2016-02-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T00:00:00","slug":"eucharist-and-atonement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/02\/eucharist-and-atonement\/","title":{"rendered":"Eucharist and Atonement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

MacIntyre thinks this \u201cso very, very odd as to merit much more consideration than it is traditionally given in histories of soteriology.\u201d How are we to explain this absence of formal attention to soteriology?<\/p>\n

MacIntyre suggests that \u201cthe first, and very important reason, for the absence of a full-blown soteriological definition comparable to the Trinitarian and Christological creeds, from the early Canons of the Church, must surely be the centrality not only of a soteriological theme, but of the direct connection between the death of Christ and the forgiveness of sins, to all the eucharistic liturgies of the Church.\u201d He acknowledges that eucharistic liturgies different in many particulars, but finds \u201cat the very heart of such liturgy, even if surrounded by other doxological and dogmatic statements embodied in prayers, an interpretation of the meaning of the eucharist which derives from the mind of Christ himself, as contained in the so-called \u2018institution narrative\u2019\u201d (8). He cites Gregory Dix\u2019s comment that the significant of Jesus death \u201cwas grasped by that church primarily through the eucharist, which arose directly out of what he had said and done at the last supper. There, and there alone, He had explicitly attached<\/em> that particular meaning to His own death and office\u201d (quoted p. 9).<\/p>\n

Thus, \u201cthe understanding of the death of Christ, especially in relation to the forgiveness of human sin, lay at the heart of the eucharist, and the worship which it formed, and the part which it played there defined its role in the life of the church\u201d (10). Instead of theorizing about Christ\u2019s death, they were incorporated into Christ\u2019s death by receiving His body and blood. It seems significant, then, that formalized theories began to arise in the high middle ages, when changes in the eucharistic liturgy distanced the people from the Eucharistic elements and so raised fresh questions about how the death of Christ, now distance and outside of us, could be related to us. <\/p>\n

This is not a polemic against theologizing about atonement. It is<\/em> a plea that theologizing be done from within the eucharist, where we do not contemplate the cross but share in Jesus and His gifts. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"