Do This in Remembrance of Me: A Ritual Approach to Reformed Eucharistic Theology

Team Members/Contributors

Martha L. Moore-Keish Emory University, Graduate Division of Religion Contact Me

About this dissertation fellowship

American Reformed theologians have often envisioned the eucharist as the enactment of carefully constructed doctrines. Right doctrine leads inexorably to right practice. But the eucharist is not simply an expression of preexisting doctrine; it is an event in which something happens which may diverge from and even contradict the prescribed text. In this dissertation I draw resources from the classical Reformed tradition (specifically, John Calvin) and contemporary ritual scholars to inform a new approach to the eucharist. Acknowledging Calvin’s ambivalence about “ceremonies”, I lift up his emphasis on the interdependence of Word and sacrament. I also highlight his view that the eucharist is a mysterious event in which faithful participants are united with one another and with the body of Christ. With certain ritual theorists I emphasize that ritual performance is more than the enactment of a cultural text; each ritual event shapes the actors and their world anew-- sometimes in unexpected ways. With the help of these anthropological resources, ironically, I will construct a more theocentric approach to the eucharist, honoring its mysterious power to effect change. Each celebration of the eucharist is a new performance and a new opportunity for the inbreaking of God’s grace.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
Do This in Remembrance of Me: A Ritual Approach to Reformed Eucharistic Theology 2000 Dissertation Martha L. Moore-Keish