William T. Cavanaugh’s Eucharistic “Reimagination” of Space and Time

Abstract

Asian churches, indebted to fervent and faithful missionaries, have long understood that the church is called to challenge the culture around us, including the world’s concept of the sacred-secular divide. Still, we, as part of the Protestant Church, have unknowingly adopted this worldly imagination in subtle ways, especially with regard to the church’s understanding of space and time. Using the works of William Cavanaugh, this article seeks an understanding of space and time that primarily grounds itself in the Eucharist and, therefore, in the church’s identity as the Body of Christ, radically different from how the world defines it. It then explores some practical implications in discipleship and missions.