T T G U : HE RINITARIAN IFT NFOLDED S , R , C ACRIFICE ESURRECTION OMMUNION JOHN MARK AINSLEY GRIFFITHS, BSC., MSC., MA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2015 Abstract Contentious unresolved philosophical and anthropological questions beset contemporary gift theories. What is the gift? Does it expect, or even preclude, some counter-gift? Should the gift ever be anticipated, celebrated or remembered? Can giver, gift and recipient appear concurrently? Must the gift involve some tangible ‘thing’, or is the best gift objectless? Is actual gift-giving so tainted that the pure gift vaporises into nothing more than a remote ontology, causing unbridgeable separation between the gift-as-practised and the gift-as-it-ought-to- be? In short, is the gift even possible? Such issues pervade scholarly treatments across a wide intellectual landscape, often generating fertile inter-disciplinary crossovers whilst remaining philosophically aporetic. Arguing largely against philosophers Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion and partially against the empirical gift observations of anthropologist Marcel Mauss, I contend in this thesis that only a theological – specifically trinitarian – reading liberates the gift from the stubborn impasses which non-theological approaches impose. That much has been argued eloquently by theologians already, most eminently John Milbank, yet largely with a philosophical slant. I develop the field by demonstrating that the Scriptures, in dialogue with the wider Christian dogmatic tradition, enrich discussions of the gift, showing how creation, which emerges ex nihilo in Christ, finds its completion in him as creatures observe and receive his own perfect, communicable gift alignment. In the ‘gift-object’ of human flesh, believers rejoicingly discern Christ receiving-in-order-to-give and giving-in- order-to-receive, the very reciprocal giftedness that Adamic humanity spurned. Moreover, the depths of Christ’s crucified self-giving and the heights of resurrectional glory, culminating in the Spirit’s eternal communion, convey sin- 1 bound creatures into the new creation, towards their deified end, through liturgical mediation which reveals true giftedness. The gift is thus no aporetic embarrassment but the means of entry into and – more significantly – the very texture of the new, eucharistic creation. 2 Acknowledgements This doctoral thesis on the divine gift was completed through the generous, sometimes sacrificial, gifts of numerous individuals. I am indebted to the trustees of the Isla Johnson Trusts of the Church in Wales for their confidence in the value of this theological research and their substantial financial support throughout the period of study. The Rt. Revd. Wyn Evans, Bishop of St. Davids, has provided consistent support to conclude the research amid the busyness and challenges of ministry. I can only hope that the academic endeavours enclosed herein prove to be of value to the Church in its mission and ministry. My doctoral supervisor, Dr. Simon Oliver, has offered scholarly insight, friendly encouragement and perspicuous criticism in equal measure from beginning to completion, with exceptional erudition and clarity. I am grateful to those scholars who have kindly shared preprints of forthcoming books, namely Professor John Barclay, the Revd. Dr. Mark Clavier and Professor Karen Kilby. Innumerable colleagues, past and present, from the Diocese of St. Davids and University of Wales: Trinity Saint David have, in various ways, sustained me spiritually and intellectually, alongside the students and staff associated with the university chaplaincy where I am privileged to minister, together with the faithful of Christ Church, Carmarthen. Behind all these current influences stand the many eucharistic communities I have served and within which I have worshipped, together with those theologians who have taught me and the host of scholars with whom I have engaged to formulate this thesis. Only now do I appreciate fully the encouragement to pursue doctoral study given to me many years ago by the late Revd. Canon Professor Donald Allchin and the late Revd. Dr. Peter Jagger. More recently, many friends have supported through their prayers, good wishes, humour and practical support, in particular my Cuddesdon cell group – the Reverends Peter Babington, Elaine Bielby, Gareth Evans, David Fisher and Liz Griffiths. 3 My family have offered ceaseless love and encouragement. My parents, Dewi and Eilonwy Griffiths, have sustained me in so many ways, not least in allowing me to pursue many years of study, whilst my brother Elystan Griffiths has offered his own incisive scholarly insight, albeit from an entirely different academic field. Saunders and Cynthia Davies, my parents-in-law, have been unfailingly supportive, whilst my occasional theological conversations with Saunders have always been illuminating and inspiring. Nevertheless, my most heartfelt thanks (humanly speaking) must go to those who have lived with the thesis for many years and reciprocated my absent-minded preoccupation and periods of solitary, concentrated study with the precious gifts of love, patience and understanding. So this thesis is dedicated with sincere love and gratitude to my wife, Angharad, and our children Tomos, Daniel, Gwenfair and Sara: gyda chariad a diolch diffuant i bob un ohonoch chi. Cyn llunio’r byd, cyn lledu’r nefoedd wen, cyn gosod haul na lloer na sêr uwchben, fe drefnwyd ffordd yng nghyngor Tri yn Un i achub gwael, golledig, euog ddyn. Trysorwyd gras, ryw annherfynol stôr, yn Iesu Grist cyn rhoddi deddf i’r môr; a rhedeg wnaeth bendithion arfaeth ddrud fel afon gref, lifeiriol dros y byd. Pedr Fardd (1775-1845) 4 Abbreviations Journals Communio Communio: International Catholic Review IJST International Journal of Systematic Theology JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament JTS The Journal of Theological Studies SJT Scottish Journal of Theology Ancient and medieval works Conf. Augustine, Confessions DCD Augustine, De Civitate Dei DDC Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana DDI Cusa, De Doctrina Ignorantia DDPL Cusa, De Dato Patris Luminem In Ioan Aquinas, Super Evangelium S. Joannis Lectura In LDC Aquinas, Super Librum de Causis Expositio In Sent. Aquinas, Scriptum super libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi SCG Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles ST Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Trin. Augustine, De Trinitate UEQN Cusa, Ubi est qui natus est Rex Iudaeorum? 5 6 Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................13 The gift’s theological location .......................................................................... 13 Crucial contentions ........................................................................................... 18 Reconstructing philosophy’s gift through theology .......................................... 21 Methodology and structure ............................................................................... 24 PART I Locating the Gift ..........................................................................................31 Chapter One The Contentious Gift ...................................................................................33 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 33 Giving to receive: Marcel Mauss’ observation of agonistic gift exchange....... 36 The embodied, reciprocal gift ................................................................................... 36 A partial fit? .............................................................................................................. 37 Jacques Derrida’s aneconomic amnesia ............................................................ 39 The gift unanticipated, unrecognised, unreturned, unremembered ........................... 39 Christianity’s gift: a tantalising mirage? ................................................................... 41 A new horizon? Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenological gift ............................. 44 Overcoming onto-theology ....................................................................................... 45 Givenness .................................................................................................................. 47 Bracketing the gift ..................................................................................................... 49 Overwhelming gift: the saturated phenomenon ........................................................ 50 Christianity’s response: three counterclaims ............................................................ 52 Love’s spiralling: John Milbank on gift-exchange ........................................... 57 God’s gift: radically unreturnable, asymmetrically reciprocal .................................. 57 Boundless trinitarian giving ...................................................................................... 60 Sacrifice subverted .................................................................................................... 62 7 Being, eternity and mercy: Antonio López on the positivity and permanence of the gift ............................................................................................................... 64 Originary experience ................................................................................................. 64 The positivity of being .............................................................................................. 66 Merciful self-giving .................................................................................................. 69 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 73 Chapter Two The Trinitarian Gift ....................................................................................77 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 77 God as being-itself: giving without receiving? ................................................. 79 Being-in-motion and being-as-such .......................................................................... 80 Perfection and participation ...................................................................................... 82 Separated and connected ........................................................................................... 85 Constituted through giving: creation’s participation in being .......................... 86 No pre-gift ................................................................................................................. 87 Creation’s gifted beginning ....................................................................................... 88 One giver ................................................................................................................... 89 Many recipients ......................................................................................................... 91 Preserving the gift ..................................................................................................... 93 Becoming givers ....................................................................................................... 94 Counter-gift? ............................................................................................................. 95 The gift’s trinitarian paradigm .......................................................................... 96 Processions ................................................................................................................ 97 Relations ................................................................................................................. 101 Persons .................................................................................................................... 102 Reciprocity .............................................................................................................. 103 From procession to mission ............................................................................ 106 Translating the processions ..................................................................................... 106 Balthasar and Urkenosis .......................................................................................... 108 Creation’s return ............................................................................................. 112 From procession to production ............................................................................... 112 8