Between Babel and Beast
(America and Empires in Biblical Perspective)

The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan

Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)

Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)

The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

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Theology - Ecclesiology Theology - Liturgical: Salvation and the Table

One of the respondents to my recent First Things piece on communion  acknowledged that the undivided table is intolerable, but qualified that with the statement, “If you assert that an undivided table is more important than defending the table’s main purpose, a means of salvation whereby we receive the true body and blood of our Savior, I would disagree.”

But I learned long ago from de Lubac’s Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man that one ought not put “salvation” and “church” in opposition to one another, and from de Lubac’s Corpus Mysticum: The Eucharist and the Church in the Middle Ages (ND Faith in Reason) that the Eucharist makes the church.  One of de Lubac’s central arguments is that salvation is not a private experience that expresses itself in public, corporate fashion.  Rather, salvation itself has a social form, which is the church, formed by common participation in the Eucharist.  Yes, the main purpose of the table is for Jesus to gives His body and blood to His people through His Spirit.  Its purpose is for us to receive the body and blood of our Savior together.

Put in Pauline terms, Jesus’ death, which is effectively represented at the table, is not only the source of my personal peace with God.  It’s the source of my peace with men, for in the cross Jesus breaks down the dividing wall and forms one new man (Ephesians 2:11-22).

Following de Lubac who follows Paul, I ask, How one can defend the table as a means of salvation without insisting that the table manifest the corporate reality of salvation, the unity of the new humanity in Christ?