Narrativity, the analogy of being and eucharistic discourse in the work of Ghislain Lafont: A contribution to sacramental theology (Louis-Marie Chauvet)

Among theologians working out a response to concerns about the failure of modernity and about postmodern responses to this is the French Benedictine, Ghislain Lafont (b.1928). Lafont believes that it is necessary to retain ontological discourse in theology in the face of the problems derived from modernity and its Heideggerian critique. To locate this within an account of divine revelation, Lafont links narrativity and the analogy of being. He finds the ground for their conjunction in the references of eucharistic discourse to time, being and transcendence. For this reason, while sacramental theology is not his primary interest, Lafont's work does in fact make a contribution to this field.; Among other sacramental theologians who proffer an alternative discourse to that of sacramental causality are Louis-Marie Chauvet of the Institut Catholique in Paris, who proposes a sacramental heuristic of symbolic exchange, and David Power of The Catholic University of America in Washington, who proposes a heuristic of language-event and gift. When seen in conjunction with these theologies, Lafont's positioning of the metaphysical element in contemporary sacramental theology becomes clearer.; To present the contribution made by Lafont, the dissertation begins with Lafont's account of reactions to the modern and especially with his assessment of the post-Heideggerian critiques of onto-theology. Lafont's position is clarified by a comparison with Louis-Marie Chauvet's reaction to postmodern critiques and to Heidegger in particular. This is followed by a presentation of how Lafont discusses causality in the treatise on sacraments in the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas.; The central part of the dissertation is a presentation of how Lafont conjoins narrativity, the analogy of being and eucharistic discourse in response to contemporary questions. This presentation is followed by a critical appraisal of Lafont's use of ontological discourse in narrativity and his account of the retrieval of the analogy of being, with reference to the work of Chauvet and Power. The dissertation ends by showing how Lafont's argument for the retention of the analogy of being and metaphysical discourse in sacramental theology can be beneficial to contemporary sacramental theology.