Communion in Hope

Abstract

This dissertation offers a constructive contribution to the field of liturgy and ethics by proposing a fundamental eucharistic ethics, articulated in the key of virtue. It envisions a new theological approach to examining the relationship between worship and morality, which proceeds on the basis of Eucharistic theology, eschatology, and theories of virtue. The project begins with a critical reading of modern sacramental theology and the field of liturgy and ethics. It draws attention to the problematic prioritization of universal sacramentality over the ecclesial sacraments themselves, and on this basis, it calls for renewed attention to the Eucharist. In addition, it offers a methodological assessment of the field in terms of two models for linking liturgy and ethics: the correlational and pedagogical models. The dissertation attempts, on that basis, to stress the eschatological setting of the relationship between liturgy and ethics. It argues that virtue ethics provides the appropriate theoretical resources for understanding the connection between liturgy and ethics on an eschatological horizon, and it gives an account of liturgical virtue. The limits of this approach are discussed relative to the partial and fragmentary nature of virtue in light of eternal life and in terms of liturgical vice. The project ends with a study and defense of the virtue of hope as the first virtue of a fundamental eucharistic ethics.