Judith Vollbrecht, RSCJ

Church, Sacraments, and Liturgy

Blogpost,  Feb 3, 2015

Ecclesiology and Anthropology

I found the readings for this week fascinating.  I loved the way Thomas Rausch (87-130) explained the different currents that fed into Christian ecclesiology from the time of Jesus up to the present.  The constant tension that was noted between structure and community reminds me of a theme that interested me very much in graduate school.  I hope you don’t mind if I play with this a little!

Victor Turner, in The Ritual Process, (94-95) speaks of liminality as the transitional period in an initiation rite when one has  been separated from one’s previous status, but has not been integrated into a new one (Turner 94-5).   It is compared to death or being in the womb.  Liminal beings have no property or insignia of rank or role that would distinguish them from one another.  “It is as though they are being reduced to a uniform condition to be fashioned anew and endowed with additional powers to enable them to cope with their new station in life.” 

The three years the Twelve walked with Jesus were their initiation rite.  They were a relatively unstructured and undifferentiated group who had left everything behind, absorbing and living Jesus’ teaching, so that when they “left the womb” at Jesus’ death, they became a new creation (2Cor 5:17). 

After Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples “to enable them to cope with their new station in life.”  Having left their former lives behind, they joyfully continued living and sharing the News of God’s Reign.

A society of permanent liminality Turner calls “communitas.”   It is a community which is homogeneous, unstructured, and non-exclusive. (132)  It cannot be maintained indefinitely.  Why not?  Turner sees social life as successive experiences of “communitas and structure, homogeneity and differentiation, equality and inequality.”  These opposites need each other. (97) 

Predictably, as it grew larger and more diverse, the fledgling Jesus Movement developed structures.  To remain true to Jesus’ teachings, it needed leaders.  It looked to those whom Jesus had chosen and sent – Peter and the Twelve, and Paul. 

Through the centuries, Church structures became more rigid, and Spirit-led communitas more restricted.  There were reform movements, but increasing legalism made egalitarian community very difficult.  Animosity between Catholic and Protestant churches grew.

Vatican Council II opened the door by proclaiming the priesthood and equality of all the People of God, the servant role of the pope, bishops and clergy, and openness to other churches (LG 9,10,15,27,28,31). 

I believe that both communitas and structure, Scripture and Tradition, are needed in the Church.  The tension between them is healthy, and one cannot be allowed to quench the other.  Pope Francis is showing us how to hold them both at once, but not too tightly.

The women I meet each week in the prison are taking advantage of their liminal situation there to build communitas as an ecumenical group of Christ-seekers.  Alleluia!

 Abbott, Walter M., SJ, Ed.   Documents of Vatican II.  “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.”  America                 Press.  1966.  Print. 

Rausch, Thomas P.  Towards a Truly Catholic Church: An Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium.  Collegeville: Liturgical Press.  2005.  Print.

Turner, Victor W.  The Ritual Process:  Structure and Anti-Structure.  Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.  1969.                           Print.