The Bible and The Liturgy

·      Author: Jean Danielou SJ

·      Pages: 349 pages

·      Publisher:  University of Notre Dame Press; First edition (June 12, 1956)

·      Language: English

About the Author

Jean-Guenolé-Marie Daniélou, S.J. (14 May 1905 – 20 May 1974) was a French member of the Jesuit order and a Roman Catholic cardinal. He was also a theologian and historian and a member of the Académie Françoise.

Structure

Introduction

Part I

One                 The Preparation

Two                The Baptismal Rite

Three              The Sphragis

Four                The Types Of Baptism: Creation And The Deluge

Five                 Types Of Baptism: The Crossing Of The Red Sea

Six                   Types Of Baptism: Elias And The Jordan

Seven              Confirmation

Eight               The Eucharistic Rites

Nine                The Figures Of The Eucharist

Ten                  The Paschal Lamb

Eleven            Psalm Xxii

Twelve           The Canticle Of Canticles

Thirteen         New Testament Types

Part II

Fourteen        The Mystery Of The Sabbath

Fifteen            The Lord's Day

Sixteen            The Eighth Day

Seventeen      Easter

Eighteen         The Ascension

Nineteen        Pentecost

Twenty           The Feast Of Tabernacles

Index

Scope

The book “The Bible and the Liturgy” emerged from Danielou's recognition that only a few books give concern about the nature of the Sacraments as "signs." This subject has become crucial because we remember that the Sacraments are efficacious signs. Without the understanding of this symbolic aspect, Christian worship becomes less meaningful because people do not understand the symbols used in the celebration of the Sacrament.

Danielou is basing his study on the teaching of the first Christian centuries of the church. Therefore, many explanations about Christian symbols are taken from the perspective of the Early Church Fathers. In its French edition, this book has a subtitle that more precisely describes this book as "The biblical theology of the sacraments and feasts according to the Fathers of the Church." Taking the point of view of the church fathers, Danielou is not concerned with the personal theology of the Fathers; but rather the significance of their works. Danielou believed that we can discover with the apostolic tradition in their works since they have seen it directly (because they lived in the closer period to the apostles). Also, Danielou uses biblical symbolism to support his studies since it is the foundation for delivering the real meaning of the Sacraments in their original institution.

The aim of this study is to examine and interpret the symbolism of Christian worship according to the Fathers of the Church successively the symbolism of the three first sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist) and then that of the Christian week and the liturgical year.

THESIS

The unifying principle of the whole book is the paschal mystery of Christ dead and risen, which the Christian is called to share and celebrate in the sacraments and feasts of the ecclesiastical year.

The first thirteen chapters deal with the three sacraments of Christian initiation: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, their biblical figures, and foreshadowing. The author outlines his aim and method in the introduction. Much attention is given to the efficacy and effects of the sacraments in modern manuals, too little heed is paid to their signification, to their role as a sign, by means of which God's action is affected. This latter aspect is of fundamental importance for pastoral liturgy and catechesis since the sacramental symbolism is indicative of what is produced and hence from its full meaning we can gain an adequate understanding of the sanctifying effects to be conferred by the divine action.

The author seeks to fill this gap by a study of the symbolism of the sacraments and Christian worship in general, following the footsteps of the Fathers of the Church. The key to the interpretation of this Christian symbolism is found in the Old Testament in which the sacraments were prepared and prefigured. These references to the Bible give us the symbolism in which the sacraments were conceived, and they point out to us their various meanings, for the New Testament first defined them using categories borrowed from the Old." That is why for the Fathers sacramental symbolism is biblical. In this broad biblical perspective, the Christian sacraments appear as the continuation in the present time of the great saving work of God in the Old Testament and the New, as well as signs and prefiguration of the future consummation in heaven. One chapter is devoted to two episodes of the Gospel of St. John which reveal new aspects of sacramental symbolism, the pool of Bethesda and the wedding of Cana.

The remaining seven chapters study the liturgy of the Paschal feasts in the framework of the great Jewish feasts: the Christian weekly Sunday, the yearly Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, with a chapter on the feast of Tabernacles which has not become a Christian festival but was seen by some Fathers as a figure of Christian realities. Daniélou works out the correspondences between the Old and its fulfillment in the New in a manner that sheds much light upon our Christian feasts.

The author makes himself the fervent interpreter of the Fathers in this work on Christian symbolism, though he is at pains to distinguish their false and exaggerated allegory from their valid exegesis. His intention is to base his study on that part of patristic teaching which constitutes what he calls a universal tradition of the Church going back to the apostolic age. Here and there one can perhaps question an interpretation. Furthermore, it is still an unsolved and much-discussed issue in scriptural circles whether typological exegesis, which has experienced such a remarkable and fruitful revival and of which Daniélou is the leading exponent, is, together with the literal sense, sufficient to account for all valid New Testament and patristic exegesis. In his classification of the senses of Scripture, there is no room for the fuller sense, which some top-ranking scholars today consider necessary to explain all the interrelations existing between the two Testaments.

REFLECTION

There is no doubt that Daniélou offers us a rich synthesis of the profound meaning of the sacramental rites and feasts. The book is written most appropriately for a broad public; its contents are intended for the members of God's people who, whether in parishes or cloisters, celebrate the feasts of the Church and take part in her sacraments. It is of high importance for pastoral liturgy and catechetical instruction. The restored Holy Week liturgy has increased the need and desire for a fruitful explanation of the symbolism of the Church's sacramental rites of initiation and her cycle of Easter feasts, including the weekly Paschal Sunday. The topical index will be useful to pastors and instructors. It will be an enormous gain for sacramental theology if these patristic scriptural perspectives are incorporated into our classroom manuals. This can be done without compromising the scientific technique of scholastic theology, which would thus receive a refreshing complement. Far from being a detriment, this would convincingly demonstrate how sound Thomistic sacramental theology is, being a consistent development and clarification of biblical and traditional data.