Dialectical Anatomy of the Eucharist

For centuries, Christian theology has understood the Eucharist in terms of metaphysics or in protest against it. Today an opening has been made to imagine the sacrament through the method of phenomenology, bringing about new theological life and meaning. In Dialectical Anatomy of the Eucharist, Donald Wallenfang conducts a sustained analysis of the Eucharist through the aperture of phenomenology, yet concludes the study with poetic and metaphysical twists. Engaging the work of Jean-Luc Marion, Paul Ricoeur, and Emmanuel Levinas, Wallenfang proposes pioneering ideas for contemporary sacramental theology that have vast implications for interfaith and interreligious dialogue. By tapping into the various currents within the Judeo-Christian tradition--Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant--a radical argument is developed that leverages the tension among them all. Several new frontiers are explored: dialectical theology, a fourth phenomenological reduction, the phenomenology of human personhood, the poetics of the Eucharist, and a reinterpretation of the concept of gift as conversation. On the whole, Wallenfang advances recent debates surrounding the relationship between phenomenology and theology by claiming an uncanny way out of emerging dead ends in philosophical theology: return to the fray.

""In this bold and provocative book, Wallenfang reengages the thought of three contemporary philosophical giants--Marion, Ricoeur, and Levinas--in the work of revivifying Catholic doctrines of the Eucharist. With its innovative approach to thinking the Eucharist as both manifestation and proclamation, and its refashioning of a dialectical process without Aufhebung, readers will ultimately find Dialectical Anatomy of the Eucharist challenging in its use of an erotic eucharistic phenomenology and claim for absolute truth.""
--Robyn Horner, Associate Professor, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Theological Foundations for Enhancing Catholic Schools Identity Project, Australian Catholic University

""This book offers a fresh approach to our theological understanding of the Eucharist by providing a new philosophical underpinning. It really is a breathtaking approach that is sure to increase the profundity of our appreciation of the Eucharist, useful for theologians, philosophers, and other interested readers alike."" 
--John C. Cavadini, McGrath-Cavadini Director, McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame

Donald Wallenfang, Emmanuel Mary of the Cross, is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and Associate Professor of Theology at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. He is the author of Human and Divine Being: A Study on the Theological Anthropology of Edith Stein (Cascade, 2017).