Sacraments

This thesis explores a theology of a three-fold form of proclamation of the Word of God, in which "proclamation" is both direct (i.e., sermon and sacraments) and indirect (i.e., witness in acts of love and mission), and seeks to identify whether the life of the Church, thanks to its communicative union with Christ, is a true form of proclamation. Simply stated, communicative union is the shorthand term for the Church's and the individual believer's participation in the proclamation of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  This project reclaims Calvin as a resource for establishing a fitting and appropriate ecclesiology that naturally participates in proclamation through union with Christ, moving from worship to the missio Dei.

Here's my chapter contribution entitled "Is Virtual Baptism a 'Real' Baptism?" in Technology and Theology ed. William Anderson (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2020), 149-167. (for educational purposes e-copy email: jparceno@gmail.com)
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Virtual baptism is a new mode of baptism that is both immersive and interactive. This chapter will present the essence and relevance of technology, virtual reality, and digital culture in Christianity and its ordinance of baptism. In the first part, I will trace the historical roots of the meaning of believer’s baptism, its mode, and the development of its theological meaning. The second part will describe the church in the virtual world, techno-culture society, and virtual reality. The third part will discuss the integration of virtual reality as immersion applied to believer’s baptism. I will argue that virtual baptism is a viable, valid mode of baptism both theologically sound and culturally relevant.

--- Link: https://vernonpress.com/book/1154 ---
VR Baptism Youtube link: https://youtu.be/wJhOSzH4NaM

Este artículo se propone analizar las diferentes aristas de la actual paradoja eclesial en Perú. Según los parámetros escogidos, existen indicios que confirman un alejamiento entre la jerarquía y la feligresía y otros que por el contrario, demuestran una presencia social persistente y hasta renovada de la Iglesia. Investigamos la compleja relación entre clero y laicos a partir de la práctica sacramentaria, la piedad popular y el rol e influencia social de la Iglesia. Se nota una creciente desarticulación entre las normas de la institución y la práctica sacramentaria de los católicos quienes por falta de oferta clerical (problema endémico en Perú) y por falta creciente de interés, acuden cada vez menos a ellos. La piedad popular mantiene un aparente dinamismo pero hay signos de debilitamiento en el cotidiano de los fieles y se nota una creciente transformación de las grandes manifestaciones, fiestas y procesiones, en festival. Sin embargo, la Iglesia mantiene como institución un prestigio excepcional, muy superior a todas las demás instituciones. Juega un papel social importante, supliendo a menudo la falta de las demás instituciones y sus principios siguen influenciado la opinión pública aunque, por lo general, esto no implique un cambio de actuar.

Deel 4 van de hertaalde uitgave van Petrus van Mastricht Theoretisch-Praktische Godgeleerdheid. In dit deel gaat het over de verlossing zoals die toegepast wordt aan de zondaar en over de kerk. De volgende onderdelen van de heilsorde worden behandeld: roeping, wedergeboorte, bekering, vereniging met Christus, rechtvaardiging, aanneming tot kinderen, heiligmaking en heerlijkmaking. In het boek over de kerk gaat het ondermeer over de dienaren van de kerk, de sacramenten, tucht en kerkregering.

First of all, the author distinguishes between four types of sacra-mentality-the universal sacramentality (appropriate to Christ), the extensive sacramentality (appropriate to the Church), the organic sacramentality (appropri-ate to the seven sacraments) and the concentrated sacramentality (appropriate to the Eucharist). Then, he recapitulates the doctrine as being part of the Church tradition and discerns three types of sacraments-sacraments of the natural order,First of all, the author distinguishes between four types of sacramentality – the universal sacramentality (appropriate to Christ), the extensive sacramentality (appropriate to the Church), the organic sacramentality (appropriate to the seven sacraments) and the concentrated sacramentality (appropriate to the Eucharist). Then, he recapitulates the doctrine as being part of the Church tradition and discerns three types of sacraments – sacraments of the natural order, sacraments of Moses’ Law and sacraments of the New Testament. The following part is dedicated to the concept of salvation history describing its various phases as coexisting layers, so people living in one historical era can belong to various stages of the salvation economy related to the particular types of sacraments. The last part includes a hypothesis that sacramental action of the Church should not be reduced to a celebration of the seven New Testament sacraments but she is called upon to operate with the sacraments prior to the New Testament (or pre-New Testament sacraments) as well. The fullness of revelation enables the Church to recognise their authentic aspects. The author finds support for his hypothesis in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and proposes to call these sacraments prior to the New Testament, the sacraments of hope or the sacraments of humanity.

"Our words indicate our thoughts, but our thoughts don't make anything happen…. It's not the same with God." In Speaking the Love of God: An Introduction to the Sacraments, Dr. Jacob W. Wood shows how Christ gives his Church the power to speak with God's voice in the seven sacraments. In this foundational guide to the sacraments, discover the power of the signs and words that transform us by grace and prepare us for glory.

[Электронный ресурс] // Офіційний веб-сайт Київської духовної академії і семінарії. — URL: http://kdais.kiev.ua/event/Апробаційна-стаття-Определения-таин/ (дата посещения: 16.03.2020).

Definition of the Sacrament in the Literary and Theological Legacy of St Peter Mogila
Hieromonk Mitrophan (Bozhko), postgraduate of the Kyiv Theological Academy
In this article the author examines definition of the sacrament given by St Peter Mogila, the Metropolitan of Kyiv in his literary and theological legacy. In four writings, namely The Orthodox Confession, The Little Catechism, Preface to Marriage in Trebnik and Preface to the Ordained Clergy in Sluzhebnik 1639, he briefly articulates what the sacrament is, making various accents. An analysis of these definitions brought the author to the following conclusions. St Peter Mogila fully adopted scholastic terminology in the field of sacramentology. At the same time, he did not prefer any particular formulation, trying to combine different approaches to and views on the sacrament, such as God’s institution and God’s action; a “thing,” which possesses dual nature; a sign, cause and instrument of receiving grace. Besides, St Peter did not consider the sacrament exclusively as a “thing in itself” but also as a “thing for us,” pointing to the purpose of the sacrament and the conditions for its gracious effect. In many aspects the theologian tried to base his position on the teaching of the Church Fathers, such as St John Chrysostom, St Augustine and St John Damascene.
Considering different perspectives, the author of the article pays attention to the polemical context of the given definitions, since the hierarch had to answer the challenges of the Protestant Reformation and prevent its influence on Orthodox believers. In this case, there have been identified some notions, which are opposite to the Protestant ones and correspond to some canons of the Council of Trent.
The general conclusion might be that to teach in the spirit of scholastic theology was peculiar for the Metropolitan of Kyiv as well as diligently defend Orthodoxy. This was not easy, especially in the field of Orthodox sacramentology, which had not had developed theological apparatus.

Catholicism Today: An Introduction to the Contemporary Catholic Church aims to familiarize its readers with contemporary Catholicism. The book is designed to address common misconceptions and frequently asked questions regarding the Church, its teachings, and the lived experience of Catholics in modern societies worldwide. Opening with a concise historical overview of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, the text explores the core beliefs and rituals that define Catholicism in practice, the organization of the Church and the Catholic calendar, as well as the broad question of what it means to be Catholic in a variety of cultural contexts. The book ends with a discussion of the challenges facing the Church both now and in the coming decades. Also included are two short appendices on Eastern Catholicism and Catholicism in the United States.

Dr. Evyatar Marienberg is an Associate Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This article analyses the debates about mixed marriages held within the Roman Curia (and especially the Roman Inquisition) between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, integrating these debates with the normative and prescriptive literature. These authorities generally considered mixed marriages between Protestants and Catholics valid and even sacramental in virtue of the shared sacrament of the baptism, but at the same time constructed such unions as ‘carnal crimes’ to ‘abhor’. They believed that the most harmful effect of these polluting unions was that the Catholic partner might become tolerant of Protestantism, rendering the ‘heretic’ dangerously, contagiously familiar and abandoning future generations to heresy. Women were a particular concern for these authorities. Drawing upon traditional and somewhat contradictory ideas about women, they saw the wives in these marriages on one hand as particularly likely to be seduced by the ‘false faith’ because of their presumed weakness, but on the other hand they recognised women as a group with a special talent for beguiling men and so entrusted them with a missionary function towards their ‘heretical’ husbands. The role women could assume in mixed marriages therefore dynamised gender relations, but also caused social tension because of the challenge to patriarchal society, especially if they continued to practice their own faith and were entrusted with the religious education of the children.

For centuries, Christian theology has understood the Eucharist in terms of metaphysics or in protest against it. Today an opening has been made to imagine the sacrament through the method of phenomenology, bringing about new theological life and meaning. In Dialectical Anatomy of the Eucharist, Donald Wallenfang conducts a sustained analysis of the Eucharist through the aperture of phenomenology, yet concludes the study with poetic and metaphysical twists. Engaging the work of Jean-Luc Marion, Paul Ricoeur, and Emmanuel Levinas, Wallenfang proposes pioneering ideas for contemporary sacramental theology that have vast implications for interfaith and interreligious dialogue. By tapping into the various currents within the Judeo-Christian tradition--Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant--a radical argument is developed that leverages the tension among them all. Several new frontiers are explored: dialectical theology, a fourth phenomenological reduction, the phenomenology of human personhood, the poetics of the Eucharist, and a reinterpretation of the concept of gift as conversation. On the whole, Wallenfang advances recent debates surrounding the relationship between phenomenology and theology by claiming an uncanny way out of emerging dead ends in philosophical theology: return to the fray.

All'inizio c'erano i riti: prima ancora di scrivere le pagine del Nuovo Testamento, i cristiani han-no vissuto la presenza del Signore attorno al pane e al vino eucaristici. Poi sono nate delle questio-ni attorno i riti, e i cristiani hanno offerto le loro risposte, spiegando tutto ciò che ruota attorno ai sacramenti (materia, forma, ministro, effetti…). Da qualche secolo in qua, però, noi occidentali ab-biamo grossi problemi con i riti, e solo da pochi decenni la teologia ha iniziato a occuparsi seria-mente della questione. Il risultato è una situazione complessa: prassi secolari, defi nizioni consolidate, pensieri nuovi e sfi de pastorali inedite si incontra-no e, non raramente, si scontrano. I sacramenti cristiani talvolta ci propongono pic-coli-grandi rompicapi: teologie, defi nizioni e so-luzioni pratiche-che, prese singolarmente, hanno buone ragioni-, una volta inserite in un quadro unitario evidenziano clamorose incongruenze. Il libro, nato dall'insegnamento e in dialogo co-stante con gli operatori pastorali, tenta allora di mettere a nudo alcuni paradossi del celebrare cri-stiano, aprendo qualche cantiere per approdare a conclusioni sempre più accettabili. Manuel Belli, giovane sacerdote della diocesi di Ber-gamo, ha conseguito il dottorato in teologia sistematica presso il Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo di Roma e inse-gna teologia dei sacramenti presso il Seminario di Berga-mo. Nei suoi interessi di ricerca rientrano le connessioni tra la sacramentaria e gli studi filosofici sulla questione dei rito, nonché i rapporti tra liturgia, sacramentaria e catechetica. Con Queriniana ha pubblicato La trama del-la fede. Piccola introduzione alla fede cristiana (2015).

This study is intended to assess the traditional Salvation Army understanding of its own sacramental theology and then to show that this can be deepened and better explained using a theological framework developed from N. T. Wright. I will be showing that for The Salvation Army the essential concept regarding its own sacramental theology is holiness, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer. I will show that the theology of N. T. Wright, especially his eschatological and pneumatological emphasis, provides an excellent source of expression for Salvationist sacramental theology. I have shown that a clear point of intersection between N. T. Wright and Salvationist theology is the incarnational element of the Holy Spirit, especially in temple theology and God’s people as the new eschatological temple.  This then provides a point of development for Salvationist sacramental theology, positioning the individual believer as being a conduit through which the grace of God may be mediated, which ultimately leads to the suggestion that the sanctified believer is a sacrament. This then becomes the main foundation of Salvationist sacramental theology, that the believer is the true sacrament. This then provides the source from which Salvationist sacramental theology, it is my hope that the findings from this study can serve as a stepping stone for The Salvation Army to continue to think about and develop its sacramental theology in a truly distinctive way without the need to return to the traditional sacraments. I think that Orthodox theology would offer a particularly fruitful avenue of investigation in the development of sanctification as The Salvation Army’s sacramental theology.

There is no dispute that Jesus' command to baptize is sufficient for his church to obey. But when it comes to explaining the meaning of baptism, the fact of Jesus' command is insufficient. Since sacraments and covenants go together, an inferential case can be made that sees baptism as the sacrament of initiation into the New Covenant.

Four Claretian Missionaries, ministering at the Spanish Mission located at Rue de la Pompe street, a short walk from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, forged baptismal and marriage documents for 155 Jews, to help them pass off as Christians and thus evade being captured and sent to concentration camps by the Nazis, during Hitler's occupation of France between 1940-1944. The act remained a secret for 80 years until, this year, it came tumbling down.

Il 27 novembre 1969, tre giorni prima dellʼentrata in vigore del Novus Ordo Missae, il domenicano p. Calmel (1914-1975) manifestò il fermo suo rifiuto. Basta leggere questo testo per indovinare da quale sguardo di fede, da quale sicurezza teologica, da quale amore di Dio, da quale profondità proviene. Lo scrisse di getto senza neanche tenersene una copia prima di inviarlo allʼamico Jean Madiran per la pubblicazione sulla rivista Itinéraires (n° 139, gennaio 1970). Padre Calmel è forse stato il primo sacerdote-se si eccettuano i Cardd. Bacci e Ottaviani-ad aver manifestato in pubblico un netto rifiuto, non soltanto dottrinale, ma anche pratico della nuova messa. La sua storica reazione illuminò ed incoraggiò molti sacerdoti e fedeli suoi contemporanei. A quasi cinquantʼanni dalla sua pubblicazione, questo scritto lungimirante e di grande attualità possa confortare ancora tante anime sacerdotali e tanti fedeli cattolici.

Il sacramento dell'altare rappresenta il tema su cui Martin Lutero più ha scritto nel corso della sua vita. Impegnato polemicamente a difendere il senso evangelico e scritturistico della santa cena dapprima contro i papisti e poi contro l'ala radicale della riforma, Lutero nella Confessione sulla cena di Cristo del 1528 scrive una parola conclusiva sul punto più dibattuto della controversia sorta all'interno del movimento dei riformatori: il realismo del-la presenza nel pane e nel vino della cena del corpo e sangue di Cristo in forma fisica, la negazione della quale compromette il senso e il valore della Scrittura e della fede. L'opera è articolata in tre parti. Nella prima Lutero discute l'interpretazione allegorica e simbolica delle parole di Cristo nella cena presente in Zwingli, contestando vigorosamente l'interpretazione del riformatore svizzero circa il senso da attribuire all'espressione destra di Dio e all'affermazione giovannea della carne che non giova a nulla, e confutando la possibilità che l'est delle parole dell'istituzione sia da intendere come significat. Segue quindi l'analisi e il rifiuto della posizione di Ecolampadio e della sua visione dei tropi. Nella seconda parte Lutero esamina con attenzione i quattro testi biblici relativi alla cena del Signore. La terza parte, infine, è una confessione di fede, una sorta di testamento spirituale e sintesi di tutta la teologia di Lutero che ha svolto un ruolo importante nel processo di formazione dei testi confessionali luterani.

The sacrament of the altar is the issue on which Martin Luther wrote most throughout his life. Polemically engaged in defending the evangelical and scriptural sense of the holy supper first against the papists and then against the radical wing of the reform, Luther in his 1528 Confession on the supper of Christ writes a concluding word on the most debated point of the controversy that arose within the movement of the reformers: the realism of the presence in the bread and wine of the supper of the body and blood of Christ in physical form, the denial of which compromises the meaning and value of Scripture and faith.
The work is divided into three parts. In the first part Luther discusses the allegorical and symbolic interpretation of the words of Christ in the dinner present in Zwingli, vigorously challenging the Swiss Reformer's interpretation of the meaning to be attributed to the expression “the right hand of God” and to the Johannine affirmation of the flesh that has not avail, and disproving the possibility that the “est” of the words of the institution is to be understood as “significant”. This is followed by the analysis and rejection of Ecolampadio's position and his vision of the tropes. In the second part Luther carefully examines the four biblical texts relating to the Lord's Supper. The third part, finally, is a confession of faith, a sort of spiritual testament and synthesis of all of Luther's theology that played an important role in the process of forming the Lutheran confessional texts.

A philosopher, a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew walk into a ….

… [correction] write in a book.



Question: What would:



          Huston Smith, internationally renowned philosopher of religion 

          Brother David Steindl-Rast, Order of St. Benedict

          Rev. Mike Young, Unitarian-Universalist Minister

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., President of the Multidisciplinary Association for

Psychedelic Studies



and 22 other clergy, scientists, and mental health professionals ALL agree on?





Answer: the importance of entheogens for religion and spiritual growth 



Where can you find out what they all have to say?





Spiritual Growth with Entheogens:
Psychoactive Sacramentals and Human Transformation

Psychoactive Sacramentals and Human Transformation

The Sacraments and their liturgy are of particular importance for the construction of the Church, and reflecting on them can be a fascinating adventure for any man who seeks not only the truth of faith but also the truth of the meaning of existence.  (Excerpt from the introduction)

This monograph is the most complete Polish study on sacramentology. It is the first time that this field has been looked at so broadly, dealing with both fundamental and detailed sacramentology within one work.

Despite the multitude of issues discussed, the book is characterized by internal coherence. Essential elements of Christianity, such as dogma, liturgy and life, are treated in it inseparably.

The renewal of sacramentology proposed in this book does not follow the line of one school's preference to reflect on another, to show its weaknesses and advantages, but aims at a symphonic approach. This means that the authors have been able to combine the requirement of systematics with the detail of the analyses, taking care - thanks to the editors - that the image of the analyzed subject does not have any exaggerations. In this way we get an ambitious publication that combines nova et vetera - essential for the renewal of the theological life, which in the liturgy reaches its full expression.  (Excerpt from a review by Fr. Dr. Piotr Roszak, Prof. UMK)

16 articles on sacramentology, divided into two sections (fundamental sacramentology and detailed sacramentology).

The history of Christian marriage is as complex and myriad as any other history in the world, with the meaning of the word " marriage " having altered and morphed as generations of faithful Christians have wondered to define for themselves the nature of a holy life lived out in the midst of pitfalls of their daily life. All Orthodox teachings and texts define marriage as a sacrament or a "mystery" of the Holy Church. At first glance, this definition may appear strange; marriage is practiced by all the Christians and non-Christians alike, by atheists, by generations of human beings who never heard what the word "sacrament" means. Birth, growth, marriage, begetting children, growing old and dying are the laws of nature which God established and blessed; but marriage particularly is singled out by the Church. The very special blessing which it bestows upon the man and the woman who gets married is called a "sacrament,". Our understandings of Christian marriage over the course of the last two millennia have been interfaced by the varied different contexts of the societal and cultural interactions of the act of marriage. Looking into the historical development of marriage over the centuries will help us to better understand our own contemporary understandings of Christian marriage.

The article shows Luther's position on ordained ministry, analyzing different texts in which the Reformer dealt with the topic, starting with An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, to On the Councils and the Church. From this reconstruction the importance of ministry in his theology can be seen, due to the fact that it comes from God and without it there can be no Church. Yet the centrality of ordination in his thought concerns its " function " , not its " dignity " , because ministry is where the community delegates the orderly exercise of common priesthood which has its source in baptism and faith. The great importance of ministerium Verbi as proper duty of ministry and the necessity of vocation and ordination are also clearly seen.

The debate over infant baptism in the apostolic church was classically captured in the exchanges between Joachim Jeremias and Kurt Aland. Most debates have focussed on 'reading between the lines' of first-century Christian texts, and have yielded little resolution of the New Testament's silence. Such studies often fail to address the significance of the silence itself, within its original context. In this paper I examine the practices of first-century Judaism and Graeco-Roman religions regarding infant initiation and participation in their parents' religion, including the Graeco-Roman practice of the dies lustricus and the involvement of children in Graeco-Roman worship. Using Theo Vennemann's concept of presupposition pools, I will ask how the early church's silence should be interpreted in light of the original audiences' presuppositions. I will argue that since the New Testament and other surviving works of the early church do not address their audiences' presupposition that their infants would be initiated into their religion, it indicates that they shared rather than challenged this widely held assumption. The New Testament's silence is therefore best interpreted as indicating the practice of infant baptism.

St. Thomas Aquinas' theology shows a deep connection between the Eucharist and the Church. This connection appears at all levels of the analysis of the sacrament: its meaning (signum), its first effect (res et sacramentum) and its final effect (res tantum: the unity of the Church).

The idea of church is misunderstood by most, abused by some, and usually somewhat imbalanced by the rest. What we believe and confess about Theology Proper, as well as other doctrines, informs and shapes our ecclesiology, not merely in theory but also in practice. This paper seeks to defend a particularly baptist  (as opposed to paedobaptist, as well as presbyterian, catholic, or orthodox) ecclesiology stemming from a Trinitarian view of Theology Proper.

Wenn von der konkreten Gestalt des Gottesdienstes gesprochen wird, kann man zur Rechtfertigung von Unachtsamkeit – etwa bei der Nachbesprechung problematischer Feiern oder in für die Vorbereitung zuständigen Gremien – nicht selten das Argument hören, es komme ja nicht darauf an, wie gefeiert werde. Dahinter steht mehr oder weniger ausdrücklich, mitunter auch unbewusst, die seit der Spätantike entwickelte und von der Katholischen Kirche in der Neuzeit auch aus kontroverstheologischen Gründen hochgehaltene Überzeugung, Sakramente wirkten unabhängig von den menschlichen Bedingungen ihrer Feier ex opere operato. Die folgende Skizze versucht zu erläutern, warum die konkrete Gestalt des Gottesdienstes gerade auch aufgrund der lehramtlichen Vorgaben katholischer Sakramententheologie nicht belanglos ist und warum es eben doch darauf ankommt, wie Liturgie gefeiert wird. Dabei wird zunächst von zentralen Texten der Lehrtradition ausgegangen und anschließend gefragt, welche Voraussetzungen und Konsequenzen sich daraus für die Würde und den Ernst der konkreten Feiergestalt ergeben.

This is an in-depth analysis of the first part of the book of C. Theobald, Pastoral Urgencies in order to reflect on the missionary conversion of the pastoral life of the Church. In this first section Theobald presents some contextual elements of analysis of the present moment, elements that are discussed and partly integrated.

Questa è un’analisi approfondita della prima parte del volume di C. Theobald, Urgenze pastorali allo scopo di riflettere sulla conversione missionaria della vita pastorale della Chiesa. In questa prima sezione Theobald presenta alcuni elementi contestuali di analisi del momento presente, elementi che vengono discussi e in parte integrati