Sacrificing the Church: Mass, Mission, and Ecumenism

In a context of scandal and decline, the Christian church cannot afford to do business as usual. It must regain its bearings and clarify its nature and purpose. Sacrificing the Church provides this clarity by returning to the church’s foundation: Jesus Christ and him crucified. It presents an ecclesiological vision in which every aspect of the church’s life flows from and expresses the one sacrifice of Christ. This sacrifice is the basis of every ecclesial experience, the form and content of the church’s life, a life which shares in the eternal Trinitarian life of God. By and as Christ’s sacrifice we are introduced into the divine life. This participation plays out in three key areas, which set the church’s agenda in the contemporary world: its worship of God (Mass), mission to the world (mission), and efforts toward the unity of all people, beginning with divided Christians (ecumenism).

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter One: Trinitarian Soteriology: Towards a Theology of the One Sacrifice of Christ Chapter Two: Augustine and the One Sacrifice of Christ Interlude: The Mass Preceded by Mission Chapter Three: The Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass Interlude: The Mass Flows into Mission (and Back) Chapter Four: The Sacrifice of Christ in Mission Interlude: Both Mission and Mass Depend upon Ecumenism Chapter Five: The Sacrifice of Christ in Ecumenism Conclusion: Sacrificing the Church as the Church’s Being

About the Author :
Eugene R. Schlesinger is lecturer in the department of religious studies at Santa Clara University.

Review :
Sacrificing the Church makes an important contribution to ecumenical theology, placing sacrifice at the center of ecumenism, and connecting this theme to the eucharist and to mission. Schlesinger seems to have read almost everything, and the footnotes provide an invaluable guide. Though his final section addresses ecumenical issues between churches, it is not too difficult to see it as having relevance for intra-Anglican disputes, especially the knotty issues of our own day, where the challenge of “communion across difference” and “good disagreement” confront us. This fine book moves sacrifice to the center of the search for unity, taking us a step beyond conversion, renewal, or even repentance, to the very foot of the cross. This is an exceptionally rich and stimulating study that takes us to the theological heart of the Church. . . . This is not a book to be skimmed or even dipped into, but rather to grapple with, to indwell and to be changed by. Scholars and theologians will need to reckon with it. And if serving clergy were to read a chapter each day prayerfully during Lent, or perhaps to take the book on retreat as their combined spiritual and theological reading, they would find themselves enriched and challenged. Schlesinger teaches us all to think somewhat differently about the Eucharist, mission and unity. In this richly orchestrated theology of sacrifice, Eugene Schlesinger demonstrates how this often neglected theme is what truly binds together the Paschal Mystery, the Trinity, and the Church's deepest being, as expressed in Liturgy, mission, and ecumenical endeavour. In so doing, he shows himself a worthy successor of the great Anglo-Catholic theologians of the past. The Church is liturgical self-giving, a theurgic performance. If we can see this, then worship, mission and ecumenism are one enterprise. This is the arrestingly direct thesis of this excellent book, diversely articulated and expanded. In measured and lucid prose, Schlesinger burrows into the depths of reality, that is, into God’s own life, and finds there a divine sacrifice for the sake of the world God has made. He finds there too the Church. It is this profound conjunction of divine sacrifice and Christian life that Schlesinger explores with faithful care and a wondering devotion. Books on liturgy, mission, and ecumenism are rarely beautiful; this one sings a hushed hymn of understanding and gracefully sober invitation, that presents a unified vision of the Church’s sacrificial life that is both challenging and extraordinarily satisfying. Sacrificing the Church is a needed and moving call to rethink the nature and form of our common life. Eugene Schlesinger explains in this impassioned and learned book just why ‘sacrifice’ – the costly gift that brings transformation – is not simply a passing means to an end in Christian understanding, but rather is the way in which God’s very life is imparted and shared for the life of creation. A superbly worked-through connection between Eucharist and Trinity leads into a deeply Eucharistic doctrine of the Church, and a searching, original perspective on ecumenism as a context where loving and costly gift should come most clearly into focus. A beautiful and demanding book, with profound implications for how we approach unity within and between Christian confessions. Following the logic of God’s self-giving love, Eugene Schlesinger weaves together strands of trinitarian, sacramental, and missional theology to produce a thoughtful mediation on the life of the church. Building on Augustine’s doctrine of “the whole Christ” (totus Christus), he develops a synthetic reflection on the ways that the body of Christ – head and members together – is called, through its corporate prayer and witness, to serve the world and become a living sign of humankind’s divine calling. This work is a welcome contribution to conversation on the doctrines of the eucharist and of the church, a passionate plea for a kenotic engagment in the quest for Christian unity. This is an exceptionally rich and stimulating study that takes us to the theological heart of the Church.