| This dissertation puts forth a proposal of pansacramentality as a mediator between the fields of theology and the contemporary study of spirituality. It poses the problematic of the two as potentially independent and divorced from another, and argues for their mutual benefit to be interdependent via a philosophy of sacramental mediation and pansacramentality.;Chapter one examines the posed problem and its history. Chapter two traces the foundations of sacramentality in the West paying particular attention to Augustine, Isidore of Seville, Hugh of St. Victor, Peter Lombard, and Thomas Aquinas. It also addresses Protestant concerns via Martin Luther and Paul Tillich. Chapter three examines Karl Rahner's symbolic reality as well as Louis Marie Chauvet's theology of sacramental mediation. Chapter four examines the Ignatian Principle of "finding God in all things" and offers two case studies in the particular sacramental spirituality of two individuals. The first case study explores Thomas Merton and place, and the second case study explores Nicholas Black Elk, comparative theology, and multiple religious belonging. Chapter five draws on Hegel, Paul Ricoeur, Sandra Schneiders and Søren Kierkgaard to put forth a constructive and robust philosophy of sacramental mediation. In particular it examines how sacraments, as symbols of God, concretize, invite transformative participation, and abolish dichotomies. Drawing on Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Jürgen Moltmann, chapter six takes seriously the possibility that suffering might serve as sacramental experience and (re)present God in the world. It also enters into a conversation with classical and contemporary panentheists (Thomas Aquinas, Friedrich Schelling, Karl Rahner, Arthur Peacocke, John Polkinghorne, Gregory Palamas, and Matther Fox) while putting forth a constructive sacramental model for the God-world relationship based on the artist-art relationship. Finally, chapter seven looks ahead towards the possibility of a pansacramental theology of religious pluralism that is conducive to both comparative theology and interfaith learning.;Above all, this dissertation strives to retain the importance of sacramental language and sacramental philosophical functionality in the doing of theology in tandem with the study of spirituality. Such a study on sacramentality in the doing of theology and the study of spirituality posits a broad understanding of sacramentality to potentially include all things, and is inherently open to diverse expressions of faith and religious traditions. |
