| In the past twenty-five years, emphasis on spiritual formation has entered the sphere of study in evangelical churches, colleges, and seminaries. However, in the many books about this subject that have appeared over the last twenty years, frequent celebration of the Eucharist is rarely mentioned as an integral component of spiritual formation. It is the purpose of this project to propose ways in which eucharistic celebration is central to our spiritual formation. In order to investigate why the Eucharist may be important to our sanctification, one must begin with the basic question: what takes place in the celebration of the Eucharist? Although this project delves into the disciplines of historical, liturgical, and Biblical theology, as well as philosophy of language, my goal is primarily theological. I believe that an explanation for the intimate divine/human communicative agency that takes place in the eucharistic celebration must exceed mere linguistic or social constructionism. Building upon Calvin's insights into the celebration of the Lord's Supper and our participation in Christ, I will explain how the celebration of the Eucharist brings the believer into the presence of Christ and the triune fellowship of love between Father, Son, and Spirit with a present assurance of the salvation that consists of union with Christ. The Eucharist is the self-presentation of Christ offering himself to his church. The communicant's anamnesis of the eternal sacrifice of Christ enables praise and self-offering. Therefore, in the Eucharist, communicants actualize the way they are to be in the world, in communion with their Lord, and offering up their lives in a sacrifice of praise to what God is doing in establishing his Kingdom on earth. I will provide an exposition of this theological account of the Eucharist, first as understood by John Calvin, and then followed by a constructive proposal which constitutes the Eucharist as divine/human communicative action, founded upon Kevin Vanhoozer's construal of divine communicative action as the formal and material principle of theology. |
