Friedrich Schleiermacher

This chapter recounts the theology of the sacraments of the post-Enlightenment Reformed theologian, philosopher, and pastor Friedrich Schleiermacher, who is often considered the father of modern liberal theology. He was unique in that rather than rooting his theologies of the sacraments in a “magical” or “empirical” approach, Schleiermacher advocated a “mystical” approach, grounded in “the religious affections of the Christian community” united in its redemption through Jesus Christ. Baptism and Eucharist are therefore “actions which establish and preserve communion of life with Christ in the present day.” His approach to the theology of the sacraments was quite ecumenical, for while disagreeing with Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli he accepted their views as equally valid, rather than reasons for division in the church.

Theologies of Sacraments in the Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation

This overview chapter for the second part of the book contrasts the theologies of the sacraments in the Reformation era with those of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Salvation in the Protestant view meant believers are “justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.” This differed significantly from the Roman Catholic position in which “‘created’ grace is a substance infused into the sinner to bring spiritual and moral healing.” For the Reformers grace was not a created substance but God’s attitude or disposition of favor toward sinners. This dependency on grace alone involved both preaching “as a means of grace in its own right” and the sacraments as involving “the divine activity that gives efficacy to Baptism and Communion.” While they differed somewhat in their theologies of the sacraments, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer, and other Reformers were in agreement in that the grace of God in Jesus Christ is presented in the Word preached and the Sacrament administered.

Feminism and Womanism

This chapter investigates feminist and womanist approaches to theologies of the sacraments in which sacraments are “events in the church in which God’s grace is made present to the community.” Citing the work of Susan Ross, Elizabeth Johnson, and others, the author posits the need for theologies of the sacraments to be reworked in light of the experience of women, particularly regarding the sacraments of Ordination and Eucharist. Ordained clergy should relate the Eucharist to ministry to the poor and hungry. In addition, the patriarchal framework that undergirds male privilege in the Catholic Church has resulted in misunderstanding both the maleness of Jesus and the possible role of women to serve as ordained clergy. Ultimately reevaluating theologies of the sacraments from a feminist and womanist perspective is for the sake of empowering worship and furthering mission in the world.

Menno Simons

This chapter addresses the Anabaptist theology of the sacraments of Menno Simons. The way the Anabaptists viewed the sacraments took considerable courage because it could be life-threatening and lead to their martyrdom. Nevertheless, Simons advocated personal conversion and regeneration versus simply participating in the institutional church, believers’ baptism versus infant baptism, and all believers receiving both the bread and wine at Eucharist versus only clergy receiving the wine. Moreover, he maintained that baptism “accomplished nothing in sacramental terms” but was rather an act of obedience to Jesus’s command and example. Eucharist in his view did not involve any “re-sacrificing” of Christ, nor did the bread and wine undergo transubstantiation into the Body and Blood of Christ—rather, it was an expression of the love of God for the church. Thus the sacramental theology of Menno Simons and the Anabaptists could essentially be deemed non-sacramental.

Huldrych Zwingli

This chapter covers the sacramental theology of the Swiss Reformer Huldrych Zwingli. Zwingli viewed spirit and material as being utterly separate and therefore deemed it impossible for material objects to be conduits of spiritual blessing. He defined a sacrament as “a sign of a sacred thing—that is, of grace that has been given.” Sacraments are thus signs of the work of grace done by God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, not the means of that work of grace. Baptism is a sign of the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit and Eucharist a sign memorializing the redemptive death of Jesus Christ. While Zwingli and Luther agreed in their opposition to transubstantiation, they could not agree on the nature of Christ’s presence in the sacraments, and this chapter recounts the specifics of their disagreements.

Martin Luther

This chapter examines Martin Luther’s theology of the sacraments. Luther maintained that sacraments were a form of the Word instituted by Christ that conveyed the forgiveness of sins, and were connected with an external sign—and as such were a powerful way for believers, many of whom were illiterate, to experience firsthand and personally the grace of God. He identified Baptism and Eucharist as sacraments, and occasionally Confession (Penance) as well, though not as a separate sacrament but as an extension of the sacrament of Baptism. Baptism marked not only the establishment of one’s relationship with God, but also identification as part of the church community, and was therefore a sign of oneness in God. Regarding Eucharist, Luther rejected transubstantiation and the idea of Christ being “re-sacrificed” at the Mass, and yet he took Christ’s words of institution literally in identifying the bread and wine as the Body and Blood of Christ, and thus, “food of the soul.” As connected to Luther’s “theology of the cross,” by which believers are utterly dependent upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ, sacraments are a means by which believers can receive and be nourished by that grace.

Peter Lombard

This chapter covers the sacramental theology of the scholastic theologian and bishop of Paris, Peter Lombard. Lombard’s Book of Sentences of the mid-twelfth century defined a sacrament as “a sign of God’s grace and the form of invisible grace, in such a way as to carry its image and be its cause.” Moreover, Lombard identified seven sacraments: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination, Confession (Penance), and Extreme Unction. This chapter also addresses how two sacraments in particular reveal unique aspects of Lombard’s sacramental theology: Marriage—an expression of Christ’s union with the church—and Confession (Penance)—contrition caused by grace being poured into the hearts of believers that leads to penance.

Edward Schillebeeckx and Louis-Marie Chauvet

This chapter argues that Edward Schillebeeckx and Louis-Marie Chauvet formulate their theologies of sacraments to intentionally counter the negative influences of Neo-Scholasticism, which created too much separation between the natural and supernatural, between theology and life. Schillebeeckx, building on his interpretation of Thomas Aquinas, emphasized that sacraments are instances of personal encounter grounded in the saving work of God in the incarnation and therefore proper to a distinctly human world. Throughout his work on the topic, Schillebeeckx reorients sacramental theology in order to take the human world of history and subjectivity seriously. Chauvet describes this theology as “objectivist.” It was a theology concerned with the objective effects of sacraments in terms of the production of grace in the individual recipient. He proposes a sacramental theology grounded in contemporary explorations into the nature of language and culture. Schillebeeckx and Chauvet are two of the most innovative, and controversial, voices in Catholic sacramental theology in the past fifty years. They share a common concern that contemporary sacramental theologies take the concrete historicity of human subjects seriously rather than rely on abstract philosophical categories.

St. Augustine of Hippo

This chapter examines the sacramental theology of Augustine of Hippo, the great Western Church Father who emphasized the mystery of God and the fruit of love, and identified sacraments as “visible sign that connect us to the mystery of our saving God.” Baptism was to occur only once in a believer’s life and marked not only the entrance of the believer into the Church but also the believer’s identity with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Augustine encouraged infant baptism and considered marriage and ordination to be sacraments as well. In addition, for Augustine, “the Eucharist is the summit of sacramental theology because it is so obviously and closely connected to the Incarnate Christ himself and because it is a visible sign that connects us to the mystery of salvation in Christ which is fulfilled in love.” Augustine’s work on the sacraments was in many ways seminal and has continued to influence Christian sacramental theology ever since.

Patristic and Medieval Theologies of Sacraments

Part I, on patristic and medieval theologies of sacraments, covers Basil, Augustine, Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. This chapter begins Part I and addresses the sacraments in patristic and medieval theology, how the “mysteries” of the Christian faith were understood and incorporated into the life of the early and medieval Christians with emphasis on “the unity of the church in the life of the Eucharist, as it was the definitive mark of grace upon a church that had been graced with the presence of the Spirit.” This chapter also describes Augustine’s focus on sacraments as expressions of the grace of God, the importance of sourcebooks compiled in the Early Middle Ages by the likes of Isidore of Seville, the impact of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) on sacramental theology, and Thomas Aquinas’s scholastic approach to the sacraments. Finally, this chapter addresses how John Wycliffe and Jan Hus responded, and how their response set the stage for the Reformation.