why is institution narrative "better" than didache 9-10? on cognitive attraction of authorized...

Why is institution narrative better than Didache 9-10? On cognitive attraction of authorized eucharist

Vojtch Kae (Masaryk University, Brno)[email protected]

Theoretical Framework

Background: scientific, explanatory approach to history (...Is Hempel really dead?...)

Explanandum: the development of Christian meal practice from initial diversity to final authorized unifictation on the level of transmission of mental representation

Explanans: cognitive and social mechanisms as the explanatory causesPremise: cognitive mechanisms of human mind are important for the historical processes in macroscopic perspective

Specific concern: conceptualization of mental reprezentation of bread as the element in ritual

Hypothesis: The authorized form of eucharist is more cognitevely attractive (i.e. has better potential to cultural transmission) than the form of this ritual prescribed in the Didache.

Theoretical framework

Cognitive historiography of religion

History of distribution of mental representations

Epidemiology of beliefs

Meals in the Greco-Roman World
(A seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature)

Project of Redescribing Christian Origins

Social functionalism

Social experimentation by creating early Christian identities

(1999) (2003) (2009)


Andrew McGowan, Seven Theses on Eucharistic Origins (2007):FORM: Drinking accompanied or preceded (rather than following) some early Christian meals, apparently following some versions of Jewish custom.

FOOD AND DRINK: Food and drink in early Christian meals varied beyond the familiar bread and wine, largely in relation to ascetic and sacrificial concerns.NOMENCLATURE: Lords Supper was not a name for early Christian banquets.

DISCOURSE: The institution narratives (stories of the Last Supper, used as prayer texts) were not the original forms of Eucharistic prayer but were interpolated in the 3rd century or after.

MEAL TYPES: Agape (Love-feast) was not a distinct meal separate from the Eucharist, but a term applied to Christian banquets in some communities.

SUBSTANCE: The Eucharist remained a substantial meal into the third century.

DIVERSITY: Diversity of early Christian meal practice was real but limited, its variety largely determined by ascetic concerns.


Andrew McGowan, Seven Theses on Eucharistic Origins (2007):FORM: Drinking accompanied or preceded (rather than following) some early Christian meals, apparently following some versions of Jewish custom.

FOOD AND DRINK: Food and drink in early Christian meals varied beyond the familiar bread and wine, largely in relation to ascetic and sacrificial concerns.NOMENCLATURE: Lords Supper was not a name for early Christian banquets.

DISCOURSE: The institution narratives (stories of the Last Supper, used as prayer texts) were not the original forms of Eucharistic prayer but were interpolated in the 3rd century or after.

MEAL TYPES: Agape (Love-feast) was not a distinct meal separate from the Eucharist, but a term applied to Christian banquets in some communities.

SUBSTANCE: The Eucharist remained a substantial meal into the third century.

DIVERSITY: Diversity of early Christian meal practice was real but limited, its variety largely determined by ascetic concerns.

Sources

First Epistle to the Corinthians 11:17-29 (50-60)

Didache 9-10 (60-150)

Apostolic Tradition, ch. 4, 36, and 37

(other sources: Ignatios, Justin...)

Church orders living literature
text fluidity, improvenment in oral performance

Bradshaw 2002: 76

First Epistle to the Corinthians

(11:23) For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: (24) And when he had given thanks (), he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body ( ), which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. (25) After the same manner also he took the cup... (26) For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he comes. (27) Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. (28) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. (29) For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

First Epistle to the Corinthians

(11:23) For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: (24) And when he had given thanks (), he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body ( ), which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. (25) After the same manner also he took the cup... (26) For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he comes. (27) Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. (28) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. (29) For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

What is really prescribed?

Agent: ordained person?

Action: prescribed prayer?

Participants: baptism as the enabling ritual for participants?

Frequency?

Bread as metaphor for Jesus

Institution narrative as etiological myth

Didache 9-10

(9:1) As for thanksgiving ( ), give thanks this way. (9:2) First, with regard to the cup...(9:3) And with regard to the fragment ( ): We thank you, our Father, for the life and knowledge which you made known to us through Jesus your servant ( )). To you be glory forever. (9:4) As this fragment () lay scattered upon the mountains and became a single [fragment] when it had been gathered, may your Church ( ) be gathered into your kingdom from the ends of the earth. For glory and power are yours, through Jesus Christ, forever.(9:5) But no one eat or drink of your thanksgiving ( ), unless have been baptized into the name of the Lord (' ); since the Lord has said, "Do not give to dogs what is holy to dogs ( )."(10:1) When you have had your fill, give thanks this way:(10:2) We thank you, holy Father, for your holy name...(10:3b); But you graced us with spiritual food and drink ( ) and eternal life through your servant... (10:6) If anyone is holy, let him come ( , ); if anyone is not, let him repent. Maranatha. Amen.

Didache 9-10

(9:1) As for thanksgiving ( ), give thanks this way. (9:2) First, with regard to the cup...(9:3) And with regard to the fragment ( ): We thank you, our Father, for the life and knowledge which you made known to us through Jesus your servant ( )). To you be glory forever. (9:4) As this fragment () lay scattered upon the mountains and became a single [fragment] when it had been gathered, may your Church ( ) be gathered into your kingdom from the ends of the earth. For glory and power are yours, through Jesus Christ, forever.(9:5) But no one eat or drink of your thanksgiving ( ), unless have been baptized into the name of the Lord (' ); since the Lord has said, "Do not give what is holy to dogs ( )."(10:1) When you have had your fill, give thanks this way:(10:2) We thank you, holy Father, for your holy name...(10:3b); But you graced us with spiritual food and drink ( ) and eternal life through your servant... (10:6) If anyone is holy, let him come ( , ); if anyone is not, let him repent. Maranatha. Amen.


Agent: ordained person?

Action: text of prayer

Patient: baptism as the enabling ritual for participants

Frequency: Didache 14...

Bread as a metaphor for the Church

No etiological myth

Exclusivism of community and special quality of blessed bread!

The Apostolic tradition

(4:2) Then the deacons shall present the oblation to him [new bishop], and he shall lay his hand upon it, and give thanks (gratias agens), with the entire council of elders, saying: (4:3) The Lord be with you. And all reply: And with your spirit. ()(4:9) [Jesus] taking the bread, and giving thanks to you, said, "Take, eat, for this is my body which is broken for you (Accipite, manducate, hoc est corpus meum quod pro vobis confringetur)." Likewise the chalice, saying, This is my blood which is shed for you. (4:10) Whenever you do this, do this (in) memory of me.

(ch. 36) The faithful shall be careful to partake of the eucharist before eating anything else. For if they eat with faith, even though some deadly poison is given to them, after this it will not be able to harm them. (ch. 37) All shall be careful so that no unbeliever tastes of the eucharist (ut non infidelis gustet de eucharistia), nor a mouse or other animal, nor that any of it falls and is lost. For it is the Body of Christ, to be eaten by those who believe, and not to be scorned (Corpus enim est Chr(ist)i edendum credentibus et non contemnendum).

The Apostolic tradition

(4:2) Then the deacons shall present the oblation to him [new bishop], and he shall lay his hand upon it, and give thanks (gratias agens), with the entire council of elders, saying: (4:3) The Lord be with you. And all reply: And with your spirit. ()(4:9) [Jesus] taking the bread, and giving thanks to you, said, "Take, eat, for this is my body which is broken for you (Accipite, manducate, hoc est corpus meum quod pro vobis confringetur)." Likewise the chalice, saying, This is my blood which is shed for you. (4:10) Whenever you do this, do this (in) memory of me.

(ch. 36) The faithful shall be careful to partake of the eucharist before eating anything else. For if they eat with faith, even though some deadly poison is given to them, after this it will not be able to harm them. (ch. 37) All shall be careful so that no unbeliever tastes of the eucharist (ut non infidelis gustet de eucharistia), nor a mouse or other animal, nor that any of it falls and is lost. For it is the Body of Christ, to be eaten by those who believe, and not to be scorned (Corpus enim est Chr(ist)i edendum credentibus et non contemnendum).


Agent: ordained bishop (ch. 3-4)

Action: prayer using institution narrative

Elements: magical transformed

Participants: magical transformed by consumation of these elements

Problems with socio-functionalistic approach

Matthias Klinghardt, The So-Called 'Eucharistic Words' in the Context of Greco-Roman Meals... (2010)Institution narrative: communal sense

Rather ecclesiology than Christology

This is my body' does not reflexively refer to Jesus' own body (physical or other), but to the of his disciples (Klinghardt 2010: 5).

Hal Taussig, In the Beginnings was the Meal... (2009)The conventional idea of ritual as esoteric gesture (in this case, a mediavel eucharist) remained intact and unconnected to social structures and experimentation (Taussig 2009: 56).

Words of prayer

Social level:actions

Words of prayer

Social level:Social actions

Cultural level:transmission

Ecological constraints(cultural context,authority...)

Potential effect

Cognitive level:representations

Words of prayer


Reference to supernatural agents

Mental representationof action 1Mental representationof action 2


Cognitive constraints

Ecological constraints(cultural context,Authority...)

Potential effect

Mental representationsexpressed in prayer

Religiousconceptuall scheme

Cognitive level:representations

Words of prayer


Reference to supernatural agents

Mental representationof action 1Mental representationof action 2


Cognitive constraints

Ecological constraints(cultural context,Authority...)

Potential effect

Enabling ritual: ordinationEnabling ritual: baptism

Mental representationsexpressed in prayer

Religiousconceptuall scheme

Eucharist as the transformative magical action

Jesper Srensen, A Cognitive Theory of MagicMagic:

is about changing the state or essence of persons, objects, acts and events through certain special and non-trivial kinds of actions with opaque causal mediation.

plays a pivotal role in the development of all religious institutions and traditions

ritual in general and magical rituals in particular involve conceptual blending

Transformative Ritual: essential qualities are transferred by means of such actions as touching and eating

Important concepts 1

Basic-level categorization Intuitive ontologies...

Domain-general aspects of human categorization

Conceptual blending (Fauconnier - Turner):

The way of thinking, not language

Heuristic cognitive devise

elements and structures from two or more mental spaces are projected into a new space, a blended space, in which a new emergent structure can arise

Important concepts 2

Artefacts: predominantly judged on external qualities, such as function and look, with only a very weak essence ascribed.

Symbol/icon/index triad of sign (Peirce)Index: refers to an Object that it denotes by virtue of being really affected by that Object (e.g.: national flag: manifestation of inner essence of nation) (comp. Peirce)

Jesus = Bread

Symbolic interpretation

Jesus as the bread (many cases in early Christian literature, e.g. Gospel of John 6)

Iconic interpretation

Institution narrative as the explanation of action (1st Corinthians 11)

Index interpretation

The Apostolic Tradition

Words of prayer

Social level:actions

Concepts of supernatural agents

(Srensen 2007: 99) (Srensen 2007: 104)

Didache 9-10?

Transformative magical action?

(9:5) But no one eat or drink of your thanksgiving, unless have been baptized into the name of the Lord; since the Lord has said, "Do not give what is holy to dogs."

(10:3b) But you graced us with spiritual food and drink...

Didache 9-10?

No reference to Jesus = Bread

Church = Bread

(9:4) As this fragment () lay scattered upon the mountains and became a single [fragment] when it had been gathered, may your Church ( ) be gathered into your kingdom from the ends of the earth.

The Invarience Principle (Lakoff 1993: 215): the structure of the source domain is in a way consistent with the inherent structure of the target domain (Consuming bread [source domain] = gaining specific quality [target domain]

Why should the people consume themselves???

Hypothesis: The Church = Bread metaphor in this form is good for speculations of millers and bakers, but with little cognitive attraction for the early Christians

Didache 9-10

Later texts based on Didache 9-10 involved institution narrative!

Epidemiological models and attraction in cultural evolution (Sperber)

Question: Why are some representations more successful than others in a given human population.

Ecological vs. psychological (cognitive) factors

Hypothesis: The authorized form of eucharist is more cognitevely attractive (i.e. has better potential to cultural transmission) than the form of this ritual prescribed in the Didache.

Authorized form
( from a cognitive point of view)

(1) Direct involving of supernatural agent(2) Conceptual fixation of this involving in ritual interpretation (3) Narrative expression of this conceptual fixation(4) Using this narrative expression as necessary part of ritual performance(5) System of enabling rituals

Ecological aspects(cultural context,authority...)

Cognitiveaspects

Thank you for your attention!

Vojtch [email protected]

Click to edit the title text format



why is institution narrative "better" than didache 9-10? on cognitive attraction of authorized...

Documents