Anamnesis: The Power of Memory in Herbert's Sacramental Vision

Anamnesis: The Power of Memory in Herbert's Sacramental Vision by William Bonnell In the continuing debate over Herbert's place within the spectrum of Reformation thought, Richard Strier defined the major question as "not Herbert's theological account of the Eucharist but his devotional relation to it."1 Clearly, given Herbert's own direct statements, especially in "The H. Communion" from the Williams manuscript2 and the range of Eucharistie interpretations, from receptionism to full consubstantiation, that his Eucharistie imagery admits of,3 Herbert is not concerned with a stria theological accounting of the Eucharist. Yet his concern is not so much with his devotional relationship to the Eucharist as it is with his active response to, in Hooker's words, "what wee have by the sacrament."4 And what we have by the sacrament, according to the Articles of Religion, are "sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace, and God's good will towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him" (Article XXV). Herbert's chief concern is with the grace offered by God in the two sacraments of the Gospel, Baptism and Eucharist; it is through grace that God invisibly works in us. For Herbert, in accord with the Prayer Book, Hooker, and Calvin, one participates in this grace through anamnesis, i.e. active, lively remembrance of our salvation as wrought by Christ on the cross and of our consequent relationship to God. By considering Baptism and Eucharist together and examining the effects of anamnesis in Herbert, we shall understand more clearly Herbert's vision of how the sacraments fortify the Christian in the struggle to lead a holy life. First, we need to consider the Anglican understanding of what a sacrament is, for it is within this framework that Herbert operated. The classical Anglican definition comes from the Catechism: a sacrament is "an Outward and visible signe, of an Inward and spirituali Grace."5 Calvin, likening the sacraments to the Word of God, says that the office of a sacrament is "to offer and present Christ to us"6 and Hooker goes further in saying that sacraments "doe serve to make us pertakers of Christ,"7 which cannot happen 34William Bonnell without grace, the sine qua non of a sacrament. According to Hooker, the first thing that makes up the substance of a sacrament is "the grace which is thereby offered," the second being "the element which shadoweth or signifieth grace" and the third, "the worde which expresseth what is don by the elemente."8 This "worde," therefore, expresses what the sacrament is to put us in remembrance of; in a way, the word spoken in the administration of a sacrament serves as the catalyst for anamnesis. In fact, despite his Reformation reliance on faith alone (solafides), Hooker insists on the sacraments as necessary for those "unto whome he [God] imparteth grace"9 for the sacrament is "as an instrument or meane whereby wee receive grace."10 Moreover, the sacraments, according to Calvin, are so helpful to us because in them God "testifies his benevolence and love towards us more expressly than he does by his word."11 The chief testimony of God's love towards us is Christ's Passion, from which both Baptism and the Eucharist proceed and in which both find their focus.12 In discussing these sacraments, Calvin states that the sublime mystery of our cleansing and redemption was "strikingly exhibited on the cross, when blood and water issued from Christ's sacred side"; quoting St. Augustine, Calvin refers to this event as "the fountain of our sacraments."13 And the BCP makes the same connection, for in the prayer just before the baptism of the child, the minister refers to Christ who "for the forgivenesse of our sinnes, did shed out of his most precious side both water and blood" (BCP, emphasis mine). Accordingly, Herbert connects Baptism to Christ's Passion when he locates in the font "A stream of bloud, which issu'd from the side / Of a great rock" ("Love unknown," 11. 14-15).14 And references to Christ's Passion run throughout...