Eucharistic Ecclesiology and Excommunication
A Critical Investigation of the Meaning and Praxis of Exclusion from the Sacrament of the Eucharist
In: EcclesiologySearch for other papers by David P. Long in
Current site
Google Scholar
The practice of excommunication is first described in the New Testament as the conscious decision by the faithful community to exclude one of its own from the celebration of the Eucharist. It is a decision rooted in medicinal hopefulness, where the community excludes an offender from active participation in its sacramental life while always maintaining the bonds of charity and fellowship. The understanding of excommunication now seems to be shifting away from its communitarian roots, as seen in the writings of Paul, Ignatius of Antioch, and Cyprian of Carthage, towards a post-Vatican II ecclesiology that appears to emphasize the individual’s judgment of their own worthiness to receive communion. By investigating the developments in the understanding of excommunication in three stages: the Patristic era, the Scholastic period and the contemporary Catholic Church, it can be illustrated that the concepts of internal worthiness of reception of communion and external excommunication are in fact not as disparate as originally believed.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
4
Adela Yarbro Collins, ‘The Function of “Excommunication” in Paul’, Harvard Theological Review, 73.1/2 (1980), pp. 251–263, at p. 259.
-
6
Ibid., p. 260.
-
9
Ibid., p. 417.
-
10
Rex Edwards, ‘Purpose of Excommunication’, Ministry: International Journal for Pastors, 49:8 (August 1976), pp. 19–21, at p. 21.
-
13
Ibid., pp. 260–261.
-
15
Ibid., p. 425. Emphasis appears in the original text.
-
21
McPartlan, ‘Eucharist and Church in the Thought of the Fathers of the Church’, p. 270.
-
23
Ibid., p. 441.
-
24
Jerome Hamer, The Church is a Communion (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1964), translation of L’Eglise est une communion (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1962), pp. 166–7.
-
26
Ibid., p. 430.
-
28
Joseph Ratzinger, ‘Communion: Eucharist-Fellowship-Mission’, in Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith: The Church as Communion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), p. 84.
-
30
Ibid, p. 85.
-
33
Ibid., p. 86.
-
34
Gilles Emery, ‘The Ecclesial Fruit of the Eucharist in St. Thomas Aquinas’, in Nova et Vetera, English Edition, 2.1 (2004), pp. 43–60, at p. 49.
-
35
Ibid., p. 54.
-
37
Emery, ‘The Ecclesial Fruit of the Eucharist in St. Thomas Aquinas’, p. 55.
-
38
Ibid., p. 56.
-
41
Joseph Ratzinger, ‘The Ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council’, L’ Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, January 23, 2002, p. 5, available online at http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFECCV2.HTM.
-
44
Massimo Faggioli, True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012), p. 67.
-
52
Canon 1331 §1, Code of Canon Law, Latin-English Edition: New English Translation (Washington, DC: Canon Law Society of America, 1998). All subsequent quotations of canons come from this translation, and will be referenced in the text.
-
56
Raymond L. Burke, On the Dignity of Human Life and Civic Responsibility: A Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin (La Crosse, Wisconsin: Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse, 2003).
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 717 | 121 | 37 |
| Full Text Views | 241 | 8 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 152 | 15 | 2 |
Eucharistic Ecclesiology and Excommunication
A Critical Investigation of the Meaning and Praxis of Exclusion from the Sacrament of the Eucharist
In: EcclesiologySearch for other papers by David P. Long in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The practice of excommunication is first described in the New Testament as the conscious decision by the faithful community to exclude one of its own from the celebration of the Eucharist. It is a decision rooted in medicinal hopefulness, where the community excludes an offender from active participation in its sacramental life while always maintaining the bonds of charity and fellowship. The understanding of excommunication now seems to be shifting away from its communitarian roots, as seen in the writings of Paul, Ignatius of Antioch, and Cyprian of Carthage, towards a post-Vatican II ecclesiology that appears to emphasize the individual’s judgment of their own worthiness to receive communion. By investigating the developments in the understanding of excommunication in three stages: the Patristic era, the Scholastic period and the contemporary Catholic Church, it can be illustrated that the concepts of internal worthiness of reception of communion and external excommunication are in fact not as disparate as originally believed.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 717 | 121 | 37 |
| Full Text Views | 241 | 8 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 152 | 15 | 2 |
