Publications
Publication details [#1855]
Anderson, Judith H. 2001. Language and history in the Reformation: Cranmer, Gardiner, and the words of institution. Letrônica 54 (1) : 20–51. 32 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Abstract
Over centuries, the fortunes of the verb 'to be' illustrate the involvement of language in history and history in language, and the particular role of figurative language in the early reforms of the established church in Tudor England significantly reflects this involvement. Explanations and controversies regarding eucharistic belief during the archbishopric of Thomas Cranmer, which often draw on Continental sources, show that language and rhetoric were at the heart of Cranmer's basic problem, namely, how effectively to convey a metaphorical conception of presence. These arguments variously parallel contemporary ones concerning meaning and the nature of metaphor, as evident in writings of Benveniste, Derrida, and especially Ricoeur.
Linguistic history is the larger backdrop against which the theological reformation of the sixteenth century acquires a meaning that appears at moments prophetic. From a modern perspective, Reformation debates about tropology that center on the sacrament, the defining issue of the Reformation itself, at once mask and express the older linguistic displacements that underwrite their inevitability. These displacements - actually, translations - involve the verb 'is' in the words of institution, "This is my body," and they are basically metaphoric. They transfer meaning from one language to another and from one mode of conception to another. Instead of being transparent or truly equivalent, they involve shifting registers of meaning.
(From the Introduction)