Abstract
The dissertation asks this question: how is the Eucharist formative as a practice, given that well-practised practitioners act non-eucharistically? The response is grounded in the theological conviction that theologies of the Eucharist must account for such non-eucharistic action because God gives the Eucharist to the Church in this eschatological age, where the church is and is not-yet the body of Christ. Methodologically, I bring into dialogue the disciplines of anthropology and theology by way of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice and Alexander Schmemann’s eucharistic theology. I argue that Bourdieu’s theory of practice illuminates the ways God, in an act of Divine accommodation, reveals God-self to the Church at the Eucharist and forms communicants into eucharistic beings. However, because God forms the Church for a world that is and is not yet the Kingdom of God, Bourdieu’s theory cannot be applied straightforwardly to God’s formative work at the Eucharist. That the Church fails to embody its eucharistic vocation in this world, sometimes atrociously, does not negate the Divine Actor’s presence at Eucharist. God’s agency to form communicants into eucharistic beings includes the possibility of the Church encountering Divine judgement at the Eucharist as well as the blessings associated with Divine forgiveness. The methodology is generative in framing the research question and constructing the response; however, this dissertation also engages with the limits of the dialogue between anthropology and theology, displaying the kind of critical reflection required for a constructive engagement between these disciplines.