Rating: 
Summary: Radical Ecclesial Politics
Review: This book is nothing short of groundbreaking. William T. Cavanaugh offers a lucid and provactive study of the social practice of torture and shows masterfully how the church's practice of the Eucharist forms the church into a counter-politics capable of resisting the totalizing aims of the state.The first section of the book deals with an analysis of the practice of torture itself. Cavanaugh shows how torture is not simply (or even primarilty) an attack on individuals or a form of interrogation, but an attack on bodies, social bodies. The state, through utilizing torture as a means to atomize and isolate individuals, fragments all other social bodies so as to prevent any serious resistance to the regime. Torture, then is primarily social in nature, that is designed to counter all forms of social grouping that the state percieves as a danger. In the second section, Cavanaugh discusses the situation of the church in Chile under General Pinochet to show how these practices of torture were put into place and how the new-Christendom ecclesiology of French catholic thinkers, parituclarly Maritian set the stage for the church to be ill-prepared for this crisis. The dominant ecclesiology of the time was a dualism in which the church was the "soul" of society and the state the "body." Therefore, the church could not be seen as a social body that could ever stand against the state in any significant way. Cavanaugh shows how toward the last years of the Pinochet regime, the church began to shed this ecclesiology and move toward one more capable of resistance to the regime which resulted in movements like teh Vicarate of Solidarity. In the final section of the book, Cavanaugh moves into a discussion of the eucharist as a means of the church to sustaian a counter-imagination and a counter-politics to that of the toatlaizing state. Through the celebration of th Eucharaist, Christ's body and blood, tortured to death for us bind us together as a social body - the body of Christ - and redefine the bonds of loyalty that person adheres to. The church, rather than the tribalistic state becomes the dominant social body. Through the eucharist we are fellow-citizens, not with other Chileans (or Americans), but with other members of the church. This provided the framework for the church to be a social body capable of offering an alternative to the violence of the state, who seeks to atomize and dissect all other social groups. Through the eucharist, the church "re-members" itself as the body of Christ and ignites the eschatological imagination that allows them to ressit the false notions of truth that are forced upon them by the dominant regime. One of the most insightful elements in this book is Cavanaugh's discussion of time. So often in Chrisian treatments of church and state issues, we are accustomed to speaking in terms of spheres. The sphere of the church as distinct from the sphere of the state. However, Cavanaugh resituates the discussion in terms of temporality rather than spaciality. This puts a whole new perspective on how we as Christians should view our participation in the state system. The tension is not between two spheres of creation, but between the old age and the new age brought about in Christ. This speaks against the Lutheran two kingdoms model or even the Barthian one kingdom, two spheres model. The issue is not what sphere we are in, but what timeframe we live in light of. The implications of this are many and I can't wait to read Cavanaugh's new book "Theopolitical Imagination" which I think will touch on this theme further. The only area of criticism that I have on this book is that I find the practices discussed therein (torture and eucharist) to be a bit narrow. What I mean is that torture is but a subset of the wider forms of violence that the state utilizes to atomize and fragment social groups. Likewise, the Eucharist is but one of the forms of resistance that the church has against such efforts on the part of the state (formost among the others would be the interpretation and performance of Scripture). Thus, while Cavanaugh's discussion is extremely lucid and cogent, I find that this work only looks at two foci within a larger context of issues at hand. The posture of the state's domination system is multivalent and so also are the church's forms of resistance. Explorations in this area would be fascinating and I hope others pick up on this idea. But, in the final analysis, this is a groundbreaking and amazing book that wil doubtless become a household name in contemporary contributions to ecclesiology and liberation theology.
Rating:
Summary: A Chilean Case Study
Review: This is a book with a narrow focus taht has far-reaching implications. Cavanaugh examines Chile under the Pinochet regime. This regime used torture as a tool of the state. In essence, torture became a "liturgy" of the state. Unfortunately, the church was not prepared to deal with such a turn of events. That is because the ecclesiology of the church at the time held that the state was to care for the body while the church cared for the soul. This dualism created problems for the church resisting the torture of the state.
It is at this point that Eucharist is suggested as a counter liturgy. Where torture individualizes, the Eucharist creates a social body. Eucharist helps others while the torture only harms. In short, Eucharist provides the means for the church to engage meaninfully the wayward state.
This book says wonderful things about the situation in Chile. It could also have implications in other contexts. What does it mean for the Eucharist to act as a counter liturgy to the litugy of capitalism? How does the building up of a social body in Eucharist allow Christians to deal with the fragmentation of war? There is much more that could be said based on what Cavanaugh does in this wonderful book.
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