The Magic of the Sacraments: Another Look at Leadbeater

Bishops James Wedgwood and C.W. Leadbeater have given the Liberal Catholic Church its beautiful, truly inspiring Liturgy; their insights at the beginning of the twentieth century anticipated many of the changes which would become commonplace decades later in the liturgical renewal that swept through Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism, e.g. the vernacular, dialogue mass, restoration of the Kiss of Peace, and a sense of the Eucharist as a participatory reality rather than as a mere sacerdotal show, to name but a few. And I am honored to be on the path leading to the priesthood in the Liberal Catholic Church International; however, since I am not clairvoyant nor a card-carrying member of the Theosophical Society, I am especially pleased that the LCCI does not insist upon enforcing all of Leadbeater's insights as revealed in his magnum opus, The Science of the Sacraments, for if it did, I fear I would be at a loss to engage myself fully or to pledge canonical obedience in good faith. I do not doubt the veracity of Leadbeater's visions nor do I deny some gifted individuals can see astral atoms or leave their bodies while asleep, but I would not want to be forced to teach others that what is really going on during the mass is the panoply of ether and colours and columns and bubbles as Leadbeater envisions.

Nonetheless, much good theology exists in The Science of the Sacraments, and taken as an historical account of the genesis of the Liberal Catholic Liturgy from its roots in the Anglican and Roman missals extant at the time, the text is an invaluable resource. However, to call it the science of the sacraments is, perhaps, misleading if by science we mean the systematic study of reality as it may be measured and quantified by verifiable hypotheses. A more accurate term might well be the magic of the sacraments, for what Leadbeater describes, more often than not, is more akin to white magic than true science, and I do not mean that as a negative judgment so much as an attempt to use words more precisely. Perhaps Leadbeater wished to legitimize the sacraments by calling his method scientific or perhaps my own misunderstanding of Theosophy is operant here, but it strikes me that liturgy is closer to aesthetics than to science. Good liturgy lifts the soul into communion with God--similar to the way good music and good art and good literature raise us from the mundane to the sublime; and, indeed, it is no accident that good liturgy is comprised of these three elements.

In the section on "The Holy Eucharist," the dominant theme is to preserve the sense of God's love for us. As a case in point, Leadbeater offers useful insight into the real nature of sin:

Satan does not make us do it, nor may we consistently blame society or alcoholism or not having been breast fed or whatever. Ignorance is the reason, and ignorance is dispelled by wisdom, and wisdom, personified by Christ, is available to all as a token of the Father's love for His children. Responsibility for reparation remains, of course--the thief must return the goods, the abuser must recognize and acknowledge the pain he has caused--but the bondage to that sin has been loosed, and the power that comes from wisdom moves one closer to becoming the person "created to be an image of [God's] own eternity." Here and throughout this section, Leadbeater's desire to restore the centrality of God's love remains an endearing quality.

Leadbeater's interpretations in "Baptism and Confirmation" are quite interesting (interesting, say, in the sense one means when commenting on a friend's unusual attire or a film's bizarre conclusion). Surely nearly anything is preferable to the barbaric doctrine of Original Sin as formulated in the Medieval Roman Church or as adapted in Puritanical Calvinism, so perhaps Leadbeater's esoteric views might be indulged here. Clearly sensible is his insistence that a child's surroundings govern his or her future potential for success, so to baptize an infant, to infuse the child with Christ, as it were, cannot but help to aid that child's development. Furthermore, Leadbeater accurately assesses the wise ordering of the three sacraments one might argue are essential to our continued growth in Christ:

The section on "Holy Orders" is informative from a historical perspective and firmly grounded in Catholic doctrine. Leadbeater rightly reminds all of us in Holy Orders:

One wonders if a stronger grasp of this truth might not heal some of the sad wounds which mar the Body of Christ, pitting Pope against Protestants, Oecumenical Patriarch against Pope, Missouri Synod Lutherans against Evangelical Lutherans, "Theosophical" Liberal Catholics against "Catholic" Liberal Catholics, ad infinitum.

The remainder of the tome is devoted to chapters on "The Church Building," "The Altar," "The Vestments ," and "Other Services of the Church" plus an appendix one might rightly call Theosophy 101, "The Soul and its Vestures." In these, Leadbeater follows good Anglo-Catholic thinking peppered with his unique take on the teachings of Madame Blavatsky and Mrs. Besant. Someone unfamiliar with the symbolism of Catholic ritual and vestments would learn here something to address that lack--and then some, as we say. For instance, in describing the flow of energy in and through the gothic chasuable worn during the mass, Leadbeater is quite specific as to direction and force and intensity; similarly, he is cognizant of the fact that what he is saying will strike some readers as suspect:

One cannot help but admire Leadbeater's seriousness and scholarship even if one cannot fully endorse his thesis. I have no doubt that my own deficiencies in Theosophy mark me as a poor candidate to offer even this sketchy critique of his book, and in all fairness, reading Leadbeater has encouraged me to delve further in the field of Theosophy. As a reference text, The Science of the Sacraments belongs on the shelf of every Liberal Catholic at whatever stage of his evolution, but to truly appreciate the contribution Leadbeater and Wedgwood have made to liturgics specifically and to ecclesiology in general, one need go no further than the Book of the Liturgy itself and to worship from it with all the attention and dedication to Christ one can muster, for the founding bishops of the Liberal Catholic Church have done for us what Thomas Cranmer did for Anglicans: made worship awesome and edifying.