Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Cosmos The In Lost

Home
Catholic
The Sacramental Imagination: Why Emily Edmondson Remains Catholic

The Sacramental Imagination: Why Emily Edmondson Remains Catholic

Last updated on: June 5, 2015 at 2:19 pm by Artur Rosman

The Sacramental Imagination: Why Emily Edmondson Remains Catholic 2015-06-05T14:19:18-07:00 Artur Rosman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I suppose, then, that what I have been saying is that I remain Catholic not because of any contemporary benefit that I perceive or opportunity to work justice but because I have faith. Faith is a very uncomfortable claim to make by a mind that operates almost exclusively in discourse about testable and demonstrable data. Yet, why else remain Catholic than faith that the Church is the locus of encountering Christ sacramentally, as the apostles encountered Him incarnationally? Otherwise put, why else remain Catholic than faith that the Church is the primary places where we are fouled with the blood of redemption?

Writing a #whyremainCatholic around this time period in my life is poignant for me because I have had the dreary experience of recently hearing the tales of friends who either do not remain Catholic or do so only barely. Most cite some of the major objections you might expect to hear from those focused on the institutional aspects of the Church rather than the sacramental. There are, of course, those who gripe about gay marriage, women’s ordination, etc. Conflated with those gripes, however, is usually a desire to see genuine justice, but a desire that has shifted its gaze away from Christ.

I do not think that the desire to participate in some of the non-kerygmatic aspects of the Church’s ministry and mission are bad things, or things that distract from true worship. I would be mistaken to claim anything such as that. Forgetting, however, that what justice truly means is to be properly and humanly related to God through the faith is an all too easy act to do, even for those (such as myself) who try so hard to remain Catholic. Aidan Kavanagh, though describing the academy, succinctly summarizes this situation in his introduction to On Liturgical Theology:

They remain in academe and are worn down by it. Being worn down is often imperceptible in its slowness; it usually involves a transmutation of faith into one of more surrogates such as scholarship for its own sake, ideological distractions, or some form of involvement in activist causes of a political nature…One often encounters students who came to a seminary seeking less ordination than faith, only to discover counseling or social action as faith surrogates (Kavanagh, 12-13).

Hearing the stories of my friends who do not remain Catholic or do so only barely is why I began with the anecdote from Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood. I find that they often describe these types of surrogates as expressions of their faith. But as Hazel Motes morbidly reminds us: remaining in the Church means being fouled with the blood of redemption. The Church-Without-Christ will do for any other pursuit.

My own reflection on why I remain Catholic can be found here.

You might also like the Cosmos the in Lost posts on the difference between the Catholic sacramental and Protestant dialectical imaginations.

You might also want to take a look at the latest research in Catholic Studies.

sacramental imagination

sacraments

wise blood

Previous Post

June 4, 2015

Get 2 Know a Catholic Publisher: TOP10 Angelico Press Titles

Next Post

June 5, 2015 Zizek: Straight Marriage is Daring When Ordained Transgression is the Norm!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #WhyRemainCatholic Abortion Advent Anti-Catholicism Arts Atheism Beauty Benedict XVI Bible Book Review Catholic Cinema Comedy Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey Czesław Miłosz Dariusz Karłowicz Devil Easter Eastern Orthodoxy Economics Environment Family Famous Atheists Who Weren't Atheists Guest Post Hans Urs von Balthasar HHS Mandate History Imagination Interview Islam Jean-Luc Marion John Paul II Judaism Just War Lent Literature Little Sisters of the Poor Liturgy Martyrdom Music News Paganism Patristics Phenomenology Philosophy Pierre Hadot Poetry Poland Pop Culture Pope Francis Poverty Prayer Protestantism Rabelais Race Remi Brague Rene Girard Russia Sam Rocha Science & Religion SCOTUS Secularization Sexual Abuse Sexuality Silence Solidarity Stratford Caldecott Synod14 Terrorism Top 10 Uncategorized Walker Percy War Weakened Edition World War II World Youth Day WYD Krakow

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who wrote many of the Psalms?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Peter Solomon Paul