Sean the Baptist

In the light of my earlier paean of praise for John Colwell's new book, Promise and Presence: An Exploration of Sacramental Theology, I am planning to offer my own chapter by chapter summary of the books central arguments and ideas. Each chapter will receive a brief summary and a sample quotation.

Chapter 1: Sacramentality and the Doctrine of God

Summary

An understanding of sacraments must derive from a truly theological understanding of God as Trinity. This requires attention to two key ideas: 1. With Barth we must preserve the notion that God is both the one who reveals himself as Lord (and thus utterly and necessarily God and entirely undependent upon the world) and the one who loves in freedom (and thus utterly gracious in his love for that which is other than himself). This is the only basis on which to truly understand the notion of sacraments as a "means of grace" (Thomas and Calvin). 2. Contra Barth (and Augustine before him) we must resist any attempt to relegate the role of the Spirit within the trinitarian life of God (through de-personalization). The Spirit is the personal mediator of the love of the Father and Son and thus God must be said to mediate his love in freedom. This mediated immediate is central to a true understanding of the sacraments.

Quotation

"That which is mediated sacramentally is the presence and action of this one who loves in freedom; it is gratuitous; it is grace. It is not a 'something' at our disposal; it is not a 'something' we can manipulate - such notions do not merely misunderstand sacramentality, they misunderstand and offend a doctrine of God. It is God's presence and action that is communicated sacramentally and God cannot be manipulated; he is never at our disposal; he is not capricious, but neither is he subject to necessity; a sacrament may be the means of his presence, but it is never his prison; he is freely and graciously here, but he is not confined or controllable here or anywhere else." (p.29)

Incidentally, to me at least, the rhetoric of John's writing speaks openly of the fact that he is a preacher first and foremost - none the worse for that though.