Understanding the Diaconate: Historical, Theological, and Sociological Foundati

329 Pages·2018·1.628 MB·English

by  W. Shawn McKnight, David W. Fagerberg (Foreword)

UNDERSTANDING
THE DIACONATE

UNDERSTANDING
THE DIACONATE
Historical, Theological, and
Sociological Foundations
W. SHAWN MCKNIGHT
Foreword by David W. Fagerberg
The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2018
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standards for Information Science—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
∞
Design and composition by Kachergis Book Design
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
from the Library of Congress
isbn 978-0-8132-3035-1
In gratitude to God the Father,
who sent his Son to redeem us
and pours out his Spirit
to strengthen us

Contents
Foreword by David W. Fagerberg, ix
Acknowledgments, xv
List of Abbreviations, xvii
Part 1. Theological Foundations of the Diaconate
1. Biblical Diakonia 3
2. The Theology of the Deacon in Lumen Gentium 29
Part 2. The Diaconate as medius ordo
3. Social Mediation 67
4. Social Mediation and the People of God 87
Part 3. The Witness of History
5. Precedents for the Deacon as Social Intermediary 109
6. The Transformation and Decline of the Diaconate 145
Part 4. The Deacon Today
7. The Deacon in the Liturgy: An Epiphany of Service 175
8. Evaluating the Structure of Diaconal Ministry 203
Today
9. Restructuring the Diaconate as an Intermediate 235
Institution
Conclusion 253
Bibliography, 273
Index, 303

Foreword
Foreword
Foreword
David W. Fagerberg
One can find histories of the diaconate. One can find theologies of the di-
aconate. One can find pastoral treatments of diaconal ministry. But one very
rarely finds these all within the same covers, and one never finds them inte-
grated by an insightful hermeneutic stemming from the social sciences. The
combination of these four dimensions—history, theology, pastoral practice,
and an approach that sees the deacon as social intermediary and symbol of
communitas—makes this an extraordinary book that will advance the objec-
tives of Vatican Council II when it called for the restoration of the permanent
diaconate. Lumen Gentium, no. 29, refers to deacons as those “upon whom
hands are imposed ‘not unto the priesthood, but unto a ministry of service.’
For strengthened by sacramental grace, in communion with the bishop and his
group of priests they serve in the diaconate of the liturgy, of the word, and of
charity to the people of God.”1 Or, as Pope Paul VI says in Ad Pascendum, “The
permanent diaconate should be restored as an intermediate order between the
higher ranks of the Church’s hierarchy and the rest of the people of God . . . as
a driving force for the Church’s diaconia towards the local Christian commu-
nities, and as a sign or sacrament of the Lord Christ himself, who ‘came not to
be served but to serve.’”2 Have we even begun to fully understand the ministry
of this restored, permanent order in the Latin rite?
Fr. Shawn and I were co-participants in a conference on the diaconate
where I heard him present a paper titled “The Uniqueness of the Deacon.” It
seemed to me then, as it still does now, the appropriate place to begin. The
1. Here the Dogmatic Constitution cites: “Constitutiones Ecclesiac aegyptiacae, III, 2: ed. Funk,
Didascalia, II, 103; Statuta Eccl. Ant. 371: 3, 954.”
2. The Apostolic Letter cites Mt 20:28.
ix