Sacraments

Argues that Luther's concept of the salvific power of the Gospel promise is based on a medieval Catholic concept of sacramental efficacy, because the Gospel is an outward word that gives what it signifies. This must be received by faith alone, but unlike later Protestantism it does not require "reflective faith," the belief that "I believe." This paper gets at the heart of my own theological thinking.

"While secondary literature has stated that Cyril of Jerusalem’s theology contains evidence of theosis (making divine), demonstration of this concept within his catechetical
and mystagogical texts has not been explored in detail. By examining Cyril’s use of words within the semantic range of koinonia (communion, fellowship), his use of the verb theopoieo (to make divine, deifying), and how the individual is incorporated into
communion with both the divine Trinity and the church through the sacraments, I shall demonstrate that Cyril expressed a theology which is undergirded by a rich doctrine of theosis. Furthermore, this implicit doctrine of theosis is the hermeneutical key to
understanding the different rhetorical strategies that Cyril employed in his teachings on baptism and the Eucharist."

This paper argues that the origin of the Seven Sacraments in Orthodoxy has been incorrectly catalogued in the past.

Secondly, the real source for adoption of said sacraments derives from lesser known Greek sources and proto-Scholastic Peter Lombard. The Seven Sacraments -I argue- have been mistakenly said to derive from Latin influence of II Lyons (1274). Not only do I debunk this myth, but show the great individuality, really idiosyncrasy, even creativity, in each famous author's adoption of the 7 sacraments in Byzantium. Furthermore, I claim to discover both Nicholas Cabasilas and Symeon of Thessalonica citing from Peter Lombard's "Sentences." If my thesis proves acceptable, it should mean that the entire narrative of the adoption and origin of a sevenfold sacramental system in Byzantium will need to be greatly revised.

NB, subsequently a colleague of mine alerted me to one error in the paper. Wherever 1260 or 12 60 synod occurs please read "so-called" for it is more probable that the so-called synod was invented with a terminus ante quem 1283

The chapter offers a comparison of an Orthodox and a Roman Catholic approach to the foundations of sacramental theology. With each theologian the author analyses an underlying epistemology, a type of relational and symbolic understanding of God, and then asks how these influence preference either for the church or for the world as a starting point for sacramental theology. In her conclusion she suggests how both approaches could complement each other.

In his work, Hans Boersma attempts to reclaim the sacramental ontology developed by the Fathers' appropriation of Platonic thought for use in understanding and explaining the Christian faith. In this thesis, I attempt to show how St. Thoma Aquinas not only provides the necessary metaphysical framework to support such a sacramental ontology. I also attempt to show that a sacramental ontology is incomplete without a proper sacramental theology using Aquinas and a number of his modern interpreters.

New Blackfriars 97(2016)372-87
Pope Francis's request For many years now, certainly since the publication of One Bread, One Body issued in 1998 1 which was taken up by many episcopal conferences around the world, there has been noticeable silence on the issue of intercommunion from official quarters within the Catholic Church. Apparently most Catholic bishops – and many Catholic theologians – considered that the matter was closed: here was a conclusive and concluding argument. By contrast most theologians who were not Catholics, and indeed many who were, considered the issue anything but closed: the urgency of ecumenism 2 and indeed the very nature of the Eucharist 3 meant that One Bread, One Body could, at best, be seen as a status quaestionis from the Catholic side illustrating the need for urgent theological development. Moreover, at a pastoral level the questioning became ever more frantic among those in inter-church marriage (the majority situation in many parts of the world) and with increasing ecumenical contact at grass-root level which prompted questioning as to 'why can we not share' and 'why cannot we extend hospitality?' However, by and large, this questioning went unanswered except for the repetition of formula: 'eucharistic communion must follow full ecclesial communion' which seemed to most a statement that could only be interpreted as an eschatological condition rather than as a postulate in sacramental or pastoral theology.

This article gives an account of the reform of the sign of the cross and the imposition of hands over the gifts in the Roman Canon during the post-conciliar period. There follows a consideration of the significance of these gestures in the context of the reformed liturgical text.

ITALIANO

Il legame imprescindibile che intercorre tra i sacramenti e l’esistenza cristiana è espresso da un testo fondamentale del Vaticano II: «I sacramenti sono ordinati alla santificazione degli uomini, all’edificazione del corpo di Cristo e infine a rendere culto a Dio. In quanto segni hanno la funzione di istruire … Conferiscono la grazia, ma la loro stessa celebrazione dispone molto bene i fedeli a riceverla con frutto, ad onorare Dio in modo debito e ad esercitare la carità». Dobbiamo tenere presente che «… Il cammino della teologia in questi ultimi decenni ha condotto a un recupero della dimensione liturgica, e quindi anche della sua forma rituale, come tema proprio della teologia in genere e della teologia dei sacramenti in specie […] Tale cammino, che ha avuto il suo avvio con il movimento liturgico, è stato senz’altro incoraggiato da SC 48, dove, nel contesto della partecipazione all’eucaristia, s’invita ad aiutare i fedeli a “intus legere” il mistero della fede “per ritus et preces”…».
Quanto esposto qui sopra non riguarda, però, solo il capitolo dell’eucaristia, ma investe tutta la riflessione sui sacramenti: anche Sergio Ubbiali afferma che «… Per una lettura appropriata della realtà del sacramento occorre postulare il primato del ricorso alla pratica ecclesiale …». I sacramenti sono i gesti di Cristo con cui siamo incorporati alla comunità ecclesiale e, secondo i doni propri di ognuno di essi, partecipiamo alla sua costruzione nel mondo. I sacramenti non sono soltanto atti di santificazione, ma nello stesso tempo e con la stessa forza atti “ordinati all'edificazione del corpo di Cristo”. Non c'è sacramento che non sia atto ecclesiale e non abbia una dimensione di realizzazione ecclesiale. «Non siamo noi che glorifichiamo Dio, offrendogli qualcosa di presumibilmente nostro - quasi che non fosse già per principio suo! - bensì facendoci regalare qualcosa di suo e riconoscendolo così come l'unico Signore [...] Il sacrificio cristiano non consiste nel dare a Dio ciò che egli non avrebbe senza di noi, bensì nel nostro farci completamente ricettivi nei suoi confronti e nel lasciarsi integralmente assorbire da lui. Permettere a Dio di operare su di noi: ecco la quintessenza del sacrificio cristiano».

ENGLISH

The author takes up the issue presented in the title in order to show
the most important elements of the relationship between faith and Christian
(sacramental) life. One of these (here the author refers to the Vatican
II) is the sanctification of the people of God. The second: the source and
need for evangelization (realization of the commandment of the Lord). The
third: the response (or the need) of the contemporary (lost) human being.
As a result of the undertaken (in depth) text analysis (carried out in four
aspects-keys), the author notes that in the face of the challenges posed by
Vatican II to theology (and the entire Catholic Church), there has been a
certain return to sacramentology, on the level of rite (practice) also. All of
this in order to open oneself to the necessary increase of faith, possible via
its existential (community) experience, made in the most complete way
through the “rite”, ie. through celebration. In other words, the essential
content of the need for liturgical renewal has become the certainty that the
profession of faith can best be accomplished on the level of an increasingly
conscious participation in what we define „the sacramental life of the
Church”. This noticeable openness (which the Church of today experiences),
the author calls: back to the “rite”, that is back to the rite of the sacraments.
He sees here the merit of specific theologians (quoted by name),
that is a renewed sacramental theology (or: theology of the sacrament).
Thanks to them, “back to the rite” has become a determinant (horizon) of
sacramentology.

This paper analyzes Paul's Christian initiation as the Model for 4th century Christian rites and analyzes Paul's use of language and Luke's theology to understand technical terms such as "calling on the name of the Lord", "filled with the Spirit," and "seal (sphragis)."

This is compiled and published by the exarchate of st Ephrem, Khadki-Pune
With the influence of all the latest technologies and philosophies of life, it is practically impossible to hear and respond to the true calling of Jesus in this modern world. Also thinking in line with the needs of the Exarchate, where the harvest is plentiful in six states and waiting for the labourers to share the joy of the Gospel with them, we need local vocations to fulfil the mission of the Exarchate. Keeping these two motives, I believe Jeevan Darshan Camp will give the right orientation to our children to discern their vocation to priestly life or religious life and build up the Church.

Mark of Ephesus and his theology of Eucharistic consecration has been discovered, ironically, to be exactly reflected in the latest Roman Catholic edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1992). Essentially, Mark held an explicit doctrine that both the words of institution (dominical words at the last supper), the epiclesis, and the three accompanying signs of the cross are all together necessary for any valid transmutation of the elements of bread and wine. While his position was opposed at the Council of Florence by the Dominicans, it had strangely coincided with the Eucharistic theology of Bonaventure in his Commentary on Lombard's Sentences.

The entire debate at Florence actually marked a misrepresentation of Catholic dogma as it existed in the 14th century in favor of theologoumena or theological opinions that were predominant in the universities but that also enjoyed no dogmatic status. The Latin arguments on behalf of the Eucharistic transmutation or transubstantiation mark such a case. The Dominican that was entrusted with the debates attempted to require of Greeks Aquinas' "instrumental causality" of the priest as the real or a truly formal cause of changing bread and wine. Ironically, it was principally the Franciscans that reproved this doctrine as contradictory and simplistic. Furthermore, the Latin arguments against Mark of Ephesus required them to ignore and fail to address parts of both Aquinas' ST (affirming the authority and existence, for example, of the anaphora of James the apostle), and even Augustine. What is more one crux of the debate lie in the interpretation of the Roman canon by Nicholas Cabasilas, which subsequently proves to be correct by commentaries and comparison of Cabasilas' argument with Lombard's own tradition and sources.

Both Latin and Greek tradition knew of a consecratory epiclesis in their respective Latin and Greek liturgies until a gradual theological shift began in the thirteenth century in the West. Mark of Ephesus and Nicholas Cabasilas surprise us in their explanation of the epiclesis by coinciding with traditional Latin exegesis of St. Ambrose of Milan, through Medieval Latin authors, even until St. Bonaventure. The Dominican approach of John Torquemada has interesting holes and lacunae, some of which must be accredited to the patristic and historical deficits in Aquinas' own research.

The story of the "moment/s" of consecration has really never been told from the perspective of the sources and underlying controlling idea of the Theotokos at the Annunciation as the universal point of departure for theological reflection on the transmutation of the gifts. Perhaps an ancient, if forgotten, starting point may finally overcome thomistically inspired preoccupations by recourse to the Fathers and to the solutions lurking within the Franciscan tradition of the Eucharist?

Trotz der Wahl des "Hoffnungsträgers" liberal orientierter Iraner, Hassan Rohani, zum Präsidenten der Islamischen Republik im Juni 2013 hält der Druck auf christliche Gemeinden in Iran an. Mit zunehmender Tendenz werden persischsprachige Christen und Iraner muslimischer Herkunft u. a. am Besuch christlicher Gottesdienste und Zusammenkünfte gehindert. Neben evangelischen und freikirchlichen Gemeinden ist seit August desselben Jahres auch die katholische Kirche in Gestalt der Dominikanerpfarrei in Teheran von staatlichen Repressalien betroffen. (...)

An historical and canonical review argues the age at which Latin rite Catholics receive the Sacrament of Confirmation is not as important as the order in which the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist) are received.

Recension de :
1. Jean-Philippe REVEL, Traité des sacrements, VII, le mariage, Paris, Cerf, 2012, 709 p. –
2. Hélène BRICOUT, Le mariage entre consentement et bénédiction, Paris, Cerf, « Lex orandi, 4 », 2015, 432 p. –
3. Cardinal Marc OUELLET, Mystère et sacrement de l’amour, Paris, Cerf, 2014, 427 p.

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.

After holding the front of the media scene in the two years of the synod on the family, the delicate question of Eucharistic communion for divorced and remarried continues to feed most of the discussions on Pope Francis's post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Commentators, focussing on chapter 8 and in particular on the note 351, are very divided as to whether the note has changed or not the discipline established by Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio. The article seeks to promote the reception of the text by showing that it can and should be interpreted in accordance with the previous magisterium. A new light is given, which determines a real pastoral and disciplinary change, but under a homogeneous doctrinal progress. The distinction made in terms of moral theology between objective situation of sin and subjective liability depending on the circumstances is resituated in the traditional framework of the science of the confessional. But the sacramental regime can not depend only on the internal forum, because sacraments are also public acts. Thus Familiaris Consortio, reread in the light of Amoris Laetitia, enlightens it in return.

Résumé. – Après avoir occupé le devant de la scène médiatique durant les deux années du synode sur la famille, la question délicate de la communion eucharistique des divorcés remariés continue à nourrir la plupart des discussions sur l’exhortation apostolique post-synodale Amoris Laetitia du pape François, qui se concentrent sur le chapitre 8 et en particulier sur la note 351 ; les commentateurs étant très partagés sur le point de savoir si cette note a changé ou non la discipline établie par l’exhortation apostolique Familiaris consortio du pape Jean-Paul II. L’article cherche à favoriser la bonne réception du texte en montrant qu’il peut et doit être interprété conformément au magistère précédent. Une lumière nouvelle est donnée, qui détermine un réel changement pastoral et disciplinaire, mais au titre d’un progrès doctrinal homogène. La distinction qui est faite au plan de la théologie morale entre situation objective de péché et imputabilité subjective selon les circonstances est resituée dans le cadre traditionnel de la science du confessionnal. Mais le régime sacramentel ne saurait découler du seul for interne, s’agissant aussi d’actes publics. Familiaris consortio, relue à la lumière d’Amoris laetitia, vient alors éclairer celle-ci en retour.

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.

At a time when we are asked to investigate the origins of the diaconate, this paper argues that it is no easy task to recover its history nor relate that history to later questions on the nature of ordination. However, early canonical sources do throw important light on that history, and the case examined here is that of the Collectio canonum hibernensis and texts related to it. This later seventh-and early eighth-century material shows that while the diaconate was recognized as one of the sacred orders, it was, in effect, seen primarily as a function within the liturgy.

This essay focuses on the history of the theology of sacraments and
especially its development between the 12th and the 15th centuries.
The primary sources of the investigation include the conciliar deliberations on the sacraments of baptism and eucharist during these four centuries. It becomes clear in the analysis that social, anthropological and institutional elements are in play in the theological reflection, all interacting with the theological debate within the Church. Especially important for the understanding of the sacraments in the life of the Church is the idea of difference and otherness in the debates at the
councils celebrated between the 12th and the 15th centuries.

Quali sono le questioni teologiche dibattute al Sinodo riguardo all'Eucaristia? Perché tante difficoltà, tante accese discussioni e discordanze tra i Vescovi? Cosa possiamo realmente aspettarci da questo Sinodo? Questo semplice articolo [pubblicato nella fase inter-sinodale, a dibattito in corso] cerca di rispondere a tali domande, nella speranza d'aiutare i fedeli a fare ordine nei diversi piani delle questioni teologiche che un eventuale aggiornamento della dottrina – sulla recezione dell'Eucaristia da parte dei divorziati risposati – potrebbe comportare, e riuscire così a percepirne la profondità. Fare il punto, quindi, senza la pretesa di indicare delle facili soluzioni.

St Vitus' s Cathedral, founded in 1344, is a prime example of 14th-century cathedral Gothic, a product of the cooperation between the ingenious architect Peter Parler and his patron, Emperor Charles IV. The unusual layout consisted of a pair of choirs set side by side in the eastern section of the cathedral, an arrangement inspired by the earlier Romanesque double-choir basilica. One was dedicated to St Vitus and was used by the canons, the other to the Virgin Mary and operated by the mansionars. The royal and imperial necropolis was placed in the latter of the two choirs, with Charles IV's tomb-chest protected by a sculptured canopy and surrounded by the cenotaphs of deceased family members and later kings and queens. The form of two choirs is probably the result of an extensive rearrangement of the earlier project completed in the 1350s, when initial plans to locate the royal burial ground in the canons' choir were abandoned. The main choir contained a tabernacle of remarkable design, dating from c. 1365. There may originally have been plans for a third choir to be built around the tomb of St Adalbert located in the middle of the nave, the work on which was initiated in 1392.

An exegetical consideration of four passages from the book of Acts in light of their usage in debates between Credobaptists and Paedobaptists, and a rebuttal to arguments made by Dr. Gregg Strawbridge in defense of the latter view, based on the aforementioned passages, against the arguments of Dr. Fred Malone By J. Luis Dizon, almost M.T.S.

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.

The Council of Trent established the requirements that a marriage be celebrated by the parish priest and two or more witnesses be present at the marriage (1563), but neglected to specify who the parish priest was. The decrees provoked confusion among both laymen and churchmen. Traces thereof can be found in the hitherto essentially unexplored documentation of The Congregation of the Council. This institution was founded in 1564 specifically to resolve the questions that arose all over the catholic world by the application of the decrees promulgated at Trent. The related records are held in the Vatican Secret Archive. Through an examination of this documentation, complemented by files of the Holy Office the author analyzes how the new rules were understood, experienced, used, circumvented, and manipulated both by laymen and churchmen in order to end an unwanted marriage, to facilitate a union that was socially transgressive, opposed by family, or even heterodox, and to respond to pastoral concerns.

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.

This article compares two approaches to Christian existence, one protestant philosophical represented by Paul Ricoeur, the other catholic sacramental theological represented by Louis-Marie Chauvet. Their complementarity is pointed out In the conclusion. While Riroeur stresses a cultivation of an individual, Chauvet emphasizes the constitutive role of the church as a living body.

The sacred landscape combines the absoluteness of space, the relativeness of places and the comprehensiveness of landscape. Altogether, this constitutes a 'wholeness' that conveys the inherent and imposed spirit of 'holiness', which here we call 'sacredscapes'; these are regulated and reproduced by those of faith and in their sacred rituals. Accordingly, as adherents of faith within sacred space, we form a sense of ourselves and the sense of our-place at varying scales of space-time. We begin from the local scale, and here we may first experience the sacred message through the spirit of place, its genus loci, and the power of place: place speaks, place communicates. In Hindu cosmology, the Matsya Purāṇa (ca. CE 400) enumerates a large number of sacred places with descriptions of associated schedules, gestures, dreams, and auspicious signs and symbols. The seven sacred cities within this schema (Sapta-purīs) are Mathura, Dvaraka, Ayodhya, Haridvar, Varanasi, Ujjain and Kanchipuram. Rather differently, the twelve most important Shiva abodes are scattered all over India and are known as Jyotir lingas tīrthas, with the four abodes of Vishnu in the four corners of India serving as another group of popular pan-Indian pilgrimage places. This chapter will focus on particularly vivid examples, illustrating Hindu reciprocal relationships between sacred places and the faith system. These are illustrated within the taxonomic frame of sacred places, ritualscapes, festivities, sacred water and aspects of spatial transposition that link locality and universality.