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Title: Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (Challenges in Contemporary Theology) by William T. Cavanaugh ISBN: 0-631-21199-3 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: December, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Beyond liberation theology
Comment: A life-changing book in my development as a convert to Catholicism. Few have ever demonstrated the inherent relevance of the Eucharist in the arena of "worldly" power politics. Cavanaugh revealed to me how Catholics need not look so much outside of doctrinal orthodoxy for a response to secular evils. Rather the transformative power of the Eucharist and the Liturgy is ever yet to be discovered, not just as succor for the soul but also for the nations.
Rating: 5
Summary: Radical Ecclesial Politics
Comment: This book is nothing short of groundbreaking. William T. Cavanaugh offers a lucid and provactive study of the social practice of torture and shows masterfully how the church's practice of the Eucharist forms the church into a counter-politics capable of resisting the totalizing aims of the state.
The first section of the book deals with an analysis of the practice of torture itself. Cavanaugh shows how torture is not simply (or even primarilty) an attack on individuals or a form of interrogation, but an attack on bodies, social bodies. The state, through utilizing torture as a means to atomize and isolate individuals, fragments all other social bodies so as to prevent any serious resistance to the regime. Torture, then is primarily social in nature, that is designed to counter all forms of social grouping that the state percieves as a danger.
In the second section, Cavanaugh discusses the situation of the church in Chile under General Pinochet to show how these practices of torture were put into place and how the new-Christendom ecclesiology of French catholic thinkers, parituclarly Maritian set the stage for the church to be ill-prepared for this crisis. The dominant ecclesiology of the time was a dualism in which the church was the "soul" of society and the state the "body." Therefore, the church could not be seen as a social body that could ever stand against the state in any significant way. Cavanaugh shows how toward the last years of the Pinochet regime, the church began to shed this ecclesiology and move toward one more capable of resistance to the regime which resulted in movements like teh Vicarate of Solidarity.
In the final section of the book, Cavanaugh moves into a discussion of the eucharist as a means of the church to sustaian a counter-imagination and a counter-politics to that of the toatlaizing state. Through the celebration of th Eucharaist, Christ's body and blood, tortured to death for us bind us together as a social body - the body of Christ - and redefine the bonds of loyalty that person adheres to. The church, rather than the tribalistic state becomes the dominant social body. Through the eucharist we are fellow-citizens, not with other Chileans (or Americans), but with other members of the church. This provided the framework for the church to be a social body capable of offering an alternative to the violence of the state, who seeks to atomize and dissect all other social groups. Through the eucharist, the church "re-members" itself as the body of Christ and ignites the eschatological imagination that allows them to ressit the false notions of truth that are forced upon them by the dominant regime.
One of the most insightful elements in this book is Cavanaugh's discussion of time. So often in Chrisian treatments of church and state issues, we are accustomed to speaking in terms of spheres. The sphere of the church as distinct from the sphere of the state. However, Cavanaugh resituates the discussion in terms of temporality rather than spaciality. This puts a whole new perspective on how we as Christians should view our participation in the state system. The tension is not between two spheres of creation, but between the old age and the new age brought about in Christ. This speaks against the Lutheran two kingdoms model or even the Barthian one kingdom, two spheres model. The issue is not what sphere we are in, but what timeframe we live in light of. The implications of this are many and I can't wait to read Cavanaugh's new book "Theopolitical Imagination" which I think will touch on this theme further.
The only area of criticism that I have on this book is that I find the practices discussed therein (torture and eucharist) to be a bit narrow. What I mean is that torture is but a subset of the wider forms of violence that the state utilizes to atomize and fragment social groups. Likewise, the Eucharist is but one of the forms of resistance that the church has against such efforts on the part of the state (formost among the others would be the interpretation and performance of Scripture). Thus, while Cavanaugh's discussion is extremely lucid and cogent, I find that this work only looks at two foci within a larger context of issues at hand. The posture of the state's domination system is multivalent and so also are the church's forms of resistance. Explorations in this area would be fascinating and I hope others pick up on this idea.
But, in the final analysis, this is a groundbreaking and amazing book that wil doubtless become a household name in contemporary contributions to ecclesiology and liberation theology.
Rating: 5
Summary: Pragmatic Ecclesialogy has visted us.
Comment: This book is nothing short of excellent. In theological circles the question of the role of the church in the world has been beaten to death. Cavanaugh brings the question back to life in his book. Yet, he, unlike his predecessors, has coupled his theology with good proof of it's pragmatic importance in the real life scenario of Pinochet's Chile. Where the church suffering from Maritainian theology and oppresion by the state was able to move beyond the presuppossed "mystical" realm into the world where they were able to resist the state by refusing to give over their members to victimization. Cavanaugh contends that the proper unity that the Eucharist provides gives the church the ability to move into the real world and have their own "politics" that fights injustice and stands for the opressed. A timely book that outlines an increasingly helpful view of the role of the church in a world that wishes to wreak havoc upon her.
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Title: Theopolitical Imagination by William T. Cavanaugh ISBN: 0567088774 Publisher: T&t Clark Ltd Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: On Religion by John D. Caputo ISBN: 041523333X Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Church Dogmatics: A Selection With Introduction by Helmut Gollwitzer by Karl Barth, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Helmut Gollwitzer ISBN: 0664255507 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Systematic Theology, vol. 1 by Paul Tillich ISBN: 0226803376 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: November, 1973 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation by Gustavo Gutierrez, Caridad Inda, John Eagleson ISBN: 0883445425 Publisher: Orbis Books Pub. Date: June, 1988 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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