Adela Yarbro Collins
Sacramental Aspects of Paul's Thought Paul's discussion of baptism and the Lord's supper are the earliest Christian reflections on the experiences and ceremonies which the Church has come to call sacraments. Here the author explores Paul's understanding of the effect these rites have on human expenence. Since the Reformation, questions have heen raised repeatedly about the sort of reality the sacraments have. "High" sacramental traditions have taken the position that they are "real" and disagreed with the perceived opinion that they are "merely symbolic." Other traditions have held that the sacraments are "symbolic" words and actions rather than "magical" ones. This traditional debate is based on a false antithesis which arises out of a misunderstanding of the nature of symbols. This misunderstanding is revealed in expressions like "merely symbolic" or "only a symbol." Such expressions do not do justice to the fact that symbols have two levels of meaning and thus relate to reality on two levels. Recent studies of religious symbols have shown that they are images taken from ordinary experience which express a depth dimension of human experience by analogy (Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil [Boston: Beacon, 1967]). For example, on an everyday level we derive physical nourishment from bread. Bread has also heen used as a symbol of spiritual nourishment. In this symbolic use, the ordinary experience of the satiation of hunger points heyond itself to the satisfaction of another kind of hunger. The experience of 117