Sacrifice and Community: Jewish Offering and Christian Eucharist (Illuminations: Theory & Religion)

226 Pages·2006·0.8 MB·English

by  Mathew Levering

Sacrifice and Community
Jewish Offering and Christian Eucharist
Matthew Levering

Sacrifice and Community
Illuminations: Theory and Religion
Series editors: Catherine Pickstock, John Milbank, and Graham Ward
Religion has a growing visibility in the world at large. Throughout the
humanities there is a mounting realization that religion and culture lie
so closely together that religion is an unavoidable and fundamental human
reality. Consequently, the examination of religion and theology now stands
at the centre of any questioning of our western identity, including the
question of whether there is such a thing as “truth.”
ILLUMINATIONS aims both to reflect the diverse elements of these
developments and, from them, to produce creative new syntheses. It is
unique in exploring the new interaction between theology, philosophy,
religious studies, political theory and cultural studies. Despite the the-
oretical convergence of certain trends they often in practice do not come
together. The aim of ILLUMINATIONS is to make this happen, and
advance contemporary theoretical discussion.
Sacrifice and Community
Jewish Offering and Christian Eucharist
Matthew Levering
© 2005 by Matthew Levering
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
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9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
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The right of Matthew Levering to be identified as the Author of this Work has been
asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted
by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior
permission of the publisher.
First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2005
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levering, Matthew Webb, 1971–
Sacrifice and community : Jewish offering and Christian Eucharist / Matthew
Levering.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-3689-1 (hard cover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-3689-8 (hard cover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-3690-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-3690-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Lord’s Supper—Sacrifice.
2. Isaac (Biblical patriarch)—Sacrifice. 3. Catholic Church—Relations—Judaism.
4. Judaism—Relations—Catholic Church. I. Title.
BX2218.L48 2005
234′.163—dc22
2005003347
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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TO JOY LEVERING

Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction: Beyond Eucharistic Idealism 1
1 The Desire of Israel 29
2 The Eucharist and Expiatory Sacrifice 50
3 The Eucharist and the Communion of Charity 95
4 Transubstantiation 115
5 The Liturgy of the Eucharist 168
6 Conclusion: Cruciform Communion 193
Name Index 203
Subject Index 206
Acknowledgments
The Dominican theologian Servais Pinckaers has enjoined theologians
to penetrate Aquinas’s insights by attending more deeply to Aquinas’s
biblical, patristic, and metaphysical sources. Through this labor, in dia-
logue with contemporary thought, a distinctive style of contemporary
theology, participating in the newness of the gospel from within the
Church’s tradition of theological reflection, is emerging. This theology
has value in illumining the realities of Catholic faith that inspire, in par-
ticipatory contemplation, our active and radical love. Therefore my first
thanks goes to John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock for including this
work in their Illuminations series. Gilles Emery, O.P. and Fergus Kerr,
O.P. assisted in the book’s progress toward publication: I owe an ever-
increasing debt to them. Ed Houser and Neil Roy kindly invited me to
give lectures that later, in different form, found inclusion in the book.
I am grateful too for the encouragement and help during the past years
given to me by many others including Lewis Ayres, Stephen Brown, David
Burrell, Diane Eriksen, Paul Gondreau, Stanley Hauerwas, Thomas
Hibbs, Russell Hittinger, Reinhard Hütter, Daniel Keating, Peter
Kwasniewski, Benoît-Dominique de La Soujeole, O.P., Steven Long,
Bruce Marshall, Francis Martin, Robert Miner, Charles Morerod, O.P.,
Francesca Murphy, Roger Nutt, Lauren Pristas, Richard Schenk,
O.P., Michael Sherwin, O.P., Gregory Vall, and Thomas Weinandy,
O.F.M. Cap. The book could not have been written without the good-
spirited assistance in locating and xeroxing secondary sources rendered by
Peggy Mary Brooks and Paula Storm. My colleagues Michael Dauphinais,
Matthew Lamb, and William Riordan have offered the deep friendship,
wisdom, and devotion to Jesus Christ that constitute a true theological
community; my appreciation for them runs especially deep. Bernard
Blankenhorn, O.P. and Jörgen Vijgen heroically read the entire manuscript
more than once during its early and particularly awkward stages.
Without their criticisms and keen insights, the book would never have
reached a publishable state. Andrew Hofer, O.P. and Guy Mansini, O.S.B.
painstakingly critiqued later drafts, and greatly improved the arguments