The Sacrament of Affectivity

Part 2, You Gotta Feel It

The point I made in Part 1 is that robust sacramental theologies create an objective, material encounter with grace. Sacraments visibly and materially mediate grace, bring us into physical contact with God. Consequently, I need to physically "meet" the sacrament, at a specific time and location, in the world. Again, this isn't to say that grace and divine encounter are restricted or constricted to the sacraments, just that there is a sacramental "thereness" to grace.

Given this, when low-church Protestants turned away from sacramental "thereness" they removed all visible, material, and physical encounters with grace. For example, when the Swiss Reformers, in the sacramentarian controversies in the early years of the Protestant Reformation, turned away from the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist the material "thereness" of grace in the Lord's Supper was lost. Consequently, grace became mediated subjectively and psychologically via the faith of the believer as they approached the bread and wine. The sacrament here shifts from an objective, material encounter to an internalized psychological state. Thrown out of the material world and into our minds, grace becomes private, invisible, and subjective.

In such a situation grace is now mediated, not materially, but subjectively, and mainly affectively. We encounter grace through our emotions. This is what I mean by the "sacrament of affectivity." Divine encounter is now a feeling. You encounter God when you "feel it." 

The sacrament of affectivity explains much of what we find in evangelicalism. 

For example, why are evangelicals so addicted to electrifying, dynamic preachers? The homilies in sacramental traditions, by contrast, are pretty boring and bland. Why? Because grace isn't mediated through the sermon. Grace is encountered in the Eucharist, and I've come to church for that material encounter. Consequently, the homilies in sacramental traditions don't have to make you feel anything because grace isn't mediated affectively, grace is mediated materially at the Table.

In evangelical spaces, by contrast, where grace is mediated affectively, the preacher has to make you "feel it," has to emotionally move you. Most Sundays in evangelical spaces there isn't going to be a celebration of the Eucharist. There will be no material encounter with grace. You go to church, therefore, not to meet something but to feel something. And it's the preacher's job to make you feel it. Consequently, the sacrament of affectivity drives demand in evangelical churches for charismatic communicators, speakers who make you "feel something."

The sacrament of affectivity is also behind the big praise bands and production values characteristic of evangelical worship. Again, the goal is to "feel it." Music, lights, and production design help to conjure up these feelings. The goal is to be emotionally moved. That is how you know you've encountered God in worship, through your feelings.

In short, the sacrament of affectivity describes how in low-church Protestant spaces our encounter with God has shifted from material encounter to subjective experience. You don't physically meet grace in the world, you gotta feel it.