Eucharistic Theology by Joseph M. Powers, S. J., New Approaches to the Eucharist by Colman O’Neill, O. P. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 1~9 Eucharistic Theology. By JosEPH M. PowERS, S. J. New York: Herder and Herder, 1967. Pp. 19~. $4.95. New Approaches to the Eucharist. By CoLMAN O'NEILL, 0. P. New York: Alba House, 1967. Pp. U6. $3.95. " To inform " is the principal aim set for himself by Father Joseph Powers. He informs us easily and with unostentatious scholarship of the Church's understanding of the Eucharistic mystery. His tools for this are survey and summary, and these are applied to the existing body of literature on his subject. His work is thus a handbook which correlates the conclusions of specialists in their own areas. After outlining the history of Eucharistic theology and ritual celebration, he summarizes the eucharistic faith recorded in Scripture; he analyzes a more refined theological reflection on the biblical data; and then he summarizes the contemporary theological approaches to reinterpreting the dogma of real presence and transubstantiation. He concludes his work by synthesizing the principal elements raised in his survey. The basic contrast which emerges from the preliminary historical survey is between the patristic view of the Eucharist as the image and source of the unity of the Christian community and the medieval view of the Eucharist as the property of priests and something to be gazed on rather than eaten. Our own times are recapturing the validity of the patristic concept. " The Biblical Faith " is the second chapter's burden and is presented with remarkable clarity and simplicity. In this chapter (and in the whole book) one wishes that the author had provided more documentation of his sources, but one suspects that the lack is due to financial considerations. Inclusion of sources and cross-references would have enhanced the value of the present study immensely. As it stands, the work is thoroughly sound and scholarly but is lacking in critical apparatus. The transformation of Israelite cult and history emerges clearly. Just as Jesus is the transformation in his own person of the total meaning and significance of Israel, so in his actions does he transform the meaning, power, and significance of the institutions of Israel, and, in our context, of the paschal celebration. This transformation is the biblical root of the contemporary explanation of the Eucharistic mystery in terms of transignification and transfinalization. Turning to theological elaborations of the Church's faith, the author informs us of the new concepts of grace and of sign. Grace is no longer viewed as the adornment of the soul, but as the whole history of God's action accomplished in Christ and continued in the sacramental action of the Church. Sign is no longer restricted to a gnoseological pointer. Rather, it is now seen as incarnating and, in a sense, being what it signifies. Human bodiliness is thus the sign of personal reality, and sacraments are 130 BOOK REVIEWS signs which embody the grace they signify. Meaning is not something "extrinsically assigned" to things and situations; rather, it is the basic mutual relationship between man and the world in which he exists. Things, or the world, apart from the human mind, have only a capacity for meaning. The capacity is actualized only when man or a person functions in the world. Consequently, the full "meaning" of the Eucharist will be seen to depend on the active response of the believer and on his openness to the communication of the person of God through the signs of bread and wine. It also depends on a total change of the " reality " of the bread and wine, so that their meaning is genuinely and radically affected (they are not simply affected by some " extrinsically assigned " new meaning) . In considering the one Body of Jesus which is involved in Eucharistic theology, the author is forced to review some developments in the theology of Christ. He contrasts the older conception of hypostatic union with the newer hypostatic unity. This is aimed at transcending the impression of duality in the personality of Christ and at stressing the one human subjectivity of Christ. He notes also the suggestions of Father Schoonenberg relative to the body of the Risen Jesus. These suggestions attempt a middle course between the mere psychological evoking of...