| Degree: | PH.D. |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Pages: | 00551 |
| Institution: | Duke University
|
| Advisor: | Geoffrey Wainwright |
| Source: | WorldCat; author |
Augustine inaugurated in the Western Church a rich tradition regarding signs. A central focus of this tradition has been worship, including sacramental theology and the interpretation and proclamation of scripture. The tradition has also included, however, a broader perspective under which all creatures are viewed as vestiges of the Trinity. There has been recent widespread interest, both religious and secular, in diverse notions of sign and symbol.
This dissertation applies the semiotic of American logician and philosopher of science Charles Sanders Peirce to an analysis of the ecumenical Lima Liturgy. The argument is that the notion of sign can prove both apt and fruitful as a detailed conceptual framework for Christian worship.
Chapter One indicates the tradition regarding signs and worship, focusing on Augustine and on ontological, epistemological, and axiological problems scholars have found with his project. Chapter Two develops a close reading of Peirce's semiotic, including his detailed categorial division of the sign. Chapter Three employs this reading for a semiotic analysis of the Lima Liturgy.
The final three chapters develop and interpret three motifs which emerge from this analysis: play, metaphor, and judgment. Chapter Four explores Peirce's notion of musement, relating this notion to the debate regarding ritual and play, a debate which has involved Johan Huizinga and Wolfhart Pannenberg, among others. Chapter Five argues for metaphor as a mediation of "ritual knowledge." The discussion engages Max Black and Janet Martin Soskice, as well as Peirce scholars who have applied Peirce to the study of metaphor. Chapter Six deals with Peirce's understanding of judgment, uncovering difficulties for a theology of worship which takes evil and sin seriously. These difficulties are clarified through Josiah Royce's appropriation of Peirce in The Problem of Christianity, and addressed through a Peircean transposition of Reinhold Niebuhr's The Nature and Destiny of Man.
The results of this study may be read as a prospectus for a semiotically oriented theology of worship. Or, since play, metaphor, and judgment run somewhat parallel to the Augustinian memory, understanding, and will, these results may also be interpreted as a sketch of a doxologically centered theological anthropology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements — vii
- Introduction — 1
- Chapter One: Sign as a Conceptual Framework for Christian Worship — 8
- Introduction: Christian Worship as Communion with God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit — 8
- Christian Worship as Sign — 12
- The Notion of Sign in the Bible — 12
- The Notion of Sign in the Early Church Fathers — 18
- Sign in Saint Augustine — 18
- General Introduction — 18
- Critical Problems with Augustine's Thinking on Signs — 31
- The Ontological Problematic: Signs, the vestigia trinitatis, and "universal symbolism" — 31
- The Epistemological Problematic: Signs and the illumination theory of knowledge — 41
- The Axiological Problematic: Intentionality, signa data, and usus and fruitio — 46
- A Summary Analysis of the Problem — 54
- Augustine on Signs and the Interpretation of Scripture — 61
- Augustine on Signs and Sacramental Theology — 67
- Signs and Worship in the Middle Ages — 73
- Signs and Worship in the Reformation — 84
- a) Ulrich Zwingli
- (1) Sacraments as "bare signs"
- b) The early Luther
- (1) The Babylonian Captivity
- (2) Baptism as sign
- (3) Eucharist as sign
- (4) Luther's later aversion to this motif
- c) John Calvin
- (1) Calvin's OT exegesis of "sign"
- (a) Sign as 'oth
- (b) Accomodation
- (2) Unity of the two covenants in Calvin
- (3) Sacraments as sign and seal
- Semiotics and Worship — 90
- Chapter Two: The Semiotic of Charles Sanders Peirce — 92
- Introduction and Brief Historical Contextualization — 92
- Peirce's Three Universal Categories — 98
- Firstness — 99
- Secondness — 101
- Thirdness — 103
- The Relation of the Three Categories — 117
- Vagueness and Precision — 118
- The Degenerate Categories — 121
- Degenerate Secondness — 122
- The First Degree of Degenerate Thirdness — 124
- The Second Degree of Degenerate Thirdness — 126
- Peirce's Division of Signs — 128
- Trichotomies of the Sign — 129
- Peirce's Ten Classes of Signs — 137
- Peirce's Semiotic Fallibilism and Teleology — 140
- The Growth or "Life" of Signs — 143
- Chapter Three: A Peircean Semiotic Analysis of a Eucharistic Liturgy — 151
- Choice of Liturgical Text for Analysis — 151
- Our Method of Semiotic Analysis — 154
- Analysis of a Eucharistic Service: The Lima Liturgy — 159
- Liturgy of Entrance — 159
- Entrance psalm — 160
- Greeting — 164
- Confession — 165
- Absolution — 171
- Kyrie litany — 171
- Gloria — 176
- Liturgy of the Word — 177
- Collect — 177
- First Lesson (Old Testament, Acts, or Revelation) — 179
- Psalm of Meditation — 179
- Epistle — 179
- Alleluia — 179
- Gospel — 179
- Homily — 181
- Silence — 181
- Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed — 194
- Intercession — 196
- Liturgy of the Eucharist — 198
- Preparation — 198
- Dialogue — 201
- Preface — 204
- Sanctus — 207
- Epiclesis I — 209
- Institution — 211
- Anamnesis — 218
- Epiclesis II — 222
- Commemorations — 233
- Conclusion — 234
- The Lord's Prayer — 234
- The Peace — 236
- The Breaking of the Bread — 236
- Lamb of God — 237
- Communion — 239
- Thanksgiving Prayer — 243
- Final Hymn — 243
- Word of Mission — 243
- Blessing — 243
- A Summary of Our Analysis — 244
- Chapter Four: Worship, Semiosis, and Play — 246
- Introduction — 246
- Peirce's "Neglected Argument for the Reality of God" — 249
- A Critical Analysis of the Argument — 249
- Peirce's Notion of Musement — 256
- Approaches to Play and Ritual — 262
- Humanity as Homo Ludens — 262
- Characteristics of Play — 263
- Ritual as Play — 266
- Implications for an Anthropology of Homo Ludens — 269
- A Theological Critique of Ritual as Play — 274
- Church Traditions on Ritual as Play — 274
- A Theological Anthropology of Homo Ludens? — 285
- Pannenberg's critique of Huizinga — 286
- Implications of ludic ritual as an element of human nature — 290
- Ritual as Play in the Light of the Cross — 292
- Ritual as Liminal Play — 295
- Conclusion — 302
- Chapter Five: Worship, Semiosis, and Metaphor — 304
- Introduction — 304
- A Brief History of Thinking on Metaphor — 309
- Classical Thinking on Metaphor — 309
- Analogy and Metaphor in Theological Tradition — 313
- Recent Thinking on Metaphor — 319
- A Peircean Semiotic Model of Metaphor — 337
- Introduction — 337
- The Representational Function in Metaphor — 344
- Icon in Metaphor: Creativity, Catachresis, and "Integration" — 344
- Symbol in Metaphor: Growth, Associative Networks, and Vague Paradox — 360
- Index in Metaphor: Metaphoric Reference and "Ritual Knowledge" — 370
- The Interpretive Function in Metaphor — 385
- Rheme in Metaphor: "Symbol" Commonly So Called — 385
- Dicisign in Metaphor: Metaphoric Tension and Metaphor as Personal Address — 388
- Argument in Metaphor: Representational-Interpretive Interchange in Metaphor, and "Live" and "Dead" Metaphor — 402
- Chapter Six: Worship, Semiosis, and Judgment in a World of Signs — 408
- Introduction — 408
- The Nature and End of Judgment in Peirce — 415
- The Nature of Judgment — 415
- The True, the Good, and the Beautiful — 434
- Axiological Implications of the Lima Liturgy — 437
- Prayer as Judgment — 438
- Proclamation of the Word as Judgment — 443
- Eucharist as Judgment — 456
- Problems in Applying Peirce's Project to an Axiology of Christian Worship — 459
- Peirce's Nineteenth-Century Optimism and the Notion of Sin — 459
- Royce's Appropriation of Peirce for a Philosophical Ecclesiology — 462
- The Universal Community — 464
- The Moral Burden of the Individual — 467
- The Atonement — 470
- A Semiotic and Theological Critique — 476
- A Semiotic Model of Human Nature and Destiny — 485
- The Structure of Pragmatic Paradox — 485
- A Peircean Intentional Model of Sin and Atonement Within a World of Signs — 490
- Right Relationship and Broken Relationship — 490
- The Paradox of Human Finiteness and Self-Transcendence — 492
- A Semiotic Transposition of an Existentialist Interpretation of the Fall — 501
- Atonement as God's Personal Address to Sinful Humanity through the Spirit in Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen — 510
- Jesus Christ as the Wisdom and Power, the Grace and Truth, of God — 516
- The Immanent and Transcendent End of Worship as Judgment in a World of Signs — 519
- Appendix: The Lima Liturgy — 525
- Selected Bibliography — 537