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The Agnus Dei: Towards a Missional Dimension
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2022
Abstract
As a devotional part of the eucharistic liturgy, the Agnus Dei also carries a missional aspect. Exegeting the verse Jn 1.29 (‘Behold the Lamb of God…’) two major theories of the atonement are seen to be involved and are applicable to the meaning of the Agnus Dei. These two theories of the atonement (ransom and substitutionary) in their relationship to each other are noted, and a primary emphasis on the ransom theory and its background of the Passover is argued for. The Passover Lamb focus is seen as liberative and missional. This leads to seeing the Agnus Dei in its referring to the redeeming death of Christ (‘Lamb of God’) as appropriately accompanied by the fraction of the bread. The history of the Agnus Dei and its Eastern Orthodox roots are brought to bear, as are our modern Anglican liturgical forms.
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- Research Article
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- © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust
Footnotes
1
Ron Browning is an Australian Anglican priest who taught sacraments at the United Faculty of Theology, Melbourne, in the 1990s.
References
2 C.K. Barrett, The Gospel according to St John (London: SPCK, 1958), p. 147.
3 N.T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’ Crucifixion (New York: Harper Collins, 2018), p. 64.
4 Daniel Stokl Ben Ezra, Impact of Yom Kippur on Early Christianity (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003).
5 ‘The fast’ referred to in this verse is understood as the Day of Atonement.
6 The third (major) theory of the unique demonstration of love on the cross, which has its roots in Peter Abelard’s thought, will not be discussed here.
7 Gustav Aulen, Christus Victor: A Historical Study of the Three Types of the Idea of the Atonement (London: SPCK, 1953).
8 ‘The Great Catechism’ in P. Schaff (ed.), The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers. V. Gregory of Nyssa (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1972), p. 493.
9 For a treatment of who or what the ransom is paid to in classical (ransom) theory, see Aulen, Christus Victor, pp. 167-69: according to the Church Fathers, as well as the tradition of tricking the Devil, God’s judgment is met with Christ’s self-giving love (as a focus of ransom). And for a further consideration of the history of redemption theory, see Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2011), ch. 13.
10 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 146.
11 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 69.
12 See Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, pp. 247-60, for what Paul more specifically refers to in each of these letters.
13 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 348.
14 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, pp. 102-103.
15 For more on this issue, see Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992).
16 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 348.
17 Hendrikus Berkhof, for example, in Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1979), p. 317: ‘In Isaiah 53.5 punishment is used incidentally. The NT does not make use of it although Rom. 8.3 and Gal. 3.13 come close to it. Jesus identifies himself with the estrangement from God. But the juridical interpretation of the concept of punishment, as found in the West since Anslem, is foreign to the NT.’
18 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 38.
19 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 155.
20 See Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, pp. 178-80 for more on this point.
21 Services and Prayers for the Church of England Common Worship (London: Church House Publishing), p. 511.
22 Textual examples are Heb. 10.10 and 10.12.
23 The Oxford Annotated Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) comments on these features within the Letter to the Heb. 5.2: regarding sin –‘The OT provides no atoning sacrifice for deliberate, defiant sins, but only unwitting offenses…’ (p. 320); 5.7-8: ‘Eternal salvation (comes about) not as temporary deliverance as the Levitical law provided’ (pp. 320-21); 9.9-10: regarding the conscience – ‘Levitical sacrifices cannot cleanse the inner guilt that results from sin’ (p. 324).
24 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 40.
25 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, pp. 46-47.
26 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 364.
27 S. Mainela, ‘The Atonement in the Context of Liberation Theology’, International Review of Mission 75.299 (1986), pp. 261-69.
28 McGrath, Christian Theology, p. 330.
29 The Anglican Church of Australia, A Prayer Book for Australia (APBA) (Mulgrave: Broughton Publishing, 1995), pp. 119-44.
30 The Sending Out is reinforced in APBA in the words of an alternative Post-Communion Prayer: ‘… send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory’ (p. 144).
31 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 363.
32 As examples, see APBA, 2nd order, p. 131; The Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Seabury Press, 1979), Holy Eucharist II, p. 368.
33 Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 364.
34 Brendan Byrne, Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2008), p. 222. See also on this theme, M. Thurian, ‘The Eucharistic Memorial, Sacrifice of Praise and Supplication’, in M. Thurian (ed.), Ecumenical Perspectives on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1983), pp. 90-103.
35 See Rom. 8.38, Eph. 1.21, Col. 1.16 as examples of the NT use of this phrase.
36 Cited in K. Stevenson, Eucharist and Offering (New York: Pueblo Publishing, 1986), p. 277. The italics is mine since the significance of this phrase is taken up below.
37 Regarding these points, see Stephen Valleskey, ‘Theology of the Ordinary’, a conference paper, 21–24 July 2002, available at: http://essays.wisluthsem.org:8080/bitstream/handle/123456789/4447/ValleskeyOrdinary.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (accessed 3 November 2021).
38 See M Shepherd, The Pascal Liturgy and the Apocalyse (Ecumenical Studies in Worship, 6; London: Lutterworth Press, 1960); A Farrer, A Rebirth of Images: The Making of St John’s Apocalyse (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1963).
39 For a fuller account of this integrative approach to Revelation, see my The Apocalyptic Heart: The Book of Revelation in an Unjust World (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015).
40 K. Stevenson, ‘Agnus Dei’, in J.G. Davies (ed.), A New Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship (London: SCM Press, 1986), pp. 2-3.
41 Cited in K. Stephenson, Eucharist and Offering (New York: Pueblo Publishing, 1986), p. 277: J. Jungmann, The Place of Christ in Liturgical Prayer (London: Chapman, 1965), p. 259, n. 2.
42 Stephenson, Eucharist and Offering, p. 277.
43 With regard to the Agnus Dei in classical musical settings, the music historian Harvey Sachs remarks that the Agnus Dei in Bach’s Mass in B Minor carries a sense of pain. While Sachs comments that such pain was experienced by the composer, this sensitive rendition also can represent the pain of Christ bearing the pain of the world; see H. Sachs, The Ninth Symphony: Beethoven and the World of 1824 (New York: Random House, 2010), p. 56.
44 See Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy (New York: St Vladimir’s Press, 1973), p. 45. Litanies of intercession occur in a few places in the Orthodox rites and notably in the lengthy Commemoration, ‘Remember, O Lord…’ immediately before communion.
45 This phrase has its scriptural root in Jn 6.51.
46 The ‘your’ has been inserted in Anglican versions; the original (from the Latin) maintained in the Roman Catholic Church, has the simple form, ‘grant us peace’.