Sacrament
religion
Main
religious sign or symbol, especially associated with Christian churches,
in which a sacred or spiritual power is believed to be transmitted
through material elements viewed as channels of divine grace.
The Latin word sacramentum, which etymologically is an ambiguous
theological term, was used in Roman law to describe a legal sanction in
which a man placed his life or property in the hands of the supernatural
powers that upheld justice and honoured solemn contracts. It later
became an oath of allegiance taken by soldiers to their commander when
embarking on a new campaign, sworn in a sacred place and using a formula
having a religious connotation.
Nature and significance
When sacramentum was adopted as an ordinance by the early Christian
Church in the 3rd century, the Latin word sacer (“holy”) was brought
into conjunction with the Greek word mystērion (“secret rite”).
Sacramentum was thus given a sacred mysterious significance that
indicated a spiritual potency. The power was transmitted through
material instruments and vehicles viewed as channels of divine grace and
as benefits in ritual observances instituted by Christ. St. Augustine
defined sacrament as “the visible form of an invisible grace” or “a sign
of a sacred thing.” Similarly, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that anything
that is called sacred may be called sacramentum. It is made efficacious
by virtue of its divine institution by Christ in order to establish a
bond of union between God and man. In the Lutheran and Anglican
catechisms it is defined as “an outward and visible sign of an inward
and spiritual grace.”
The term sacrament has become a convenient expression for a sign or
symbol of a sacred thing, occasion, or event imparting spiritual
benefits to participants; and such signs or symbols have been associated
with eating, drinking, lustration (ceremonial purification), nuptial
intercourse, or ritual techniques regarded as “means of grace” and
pledges of a covenant relationship with the sacred order. In this way
the material aspects have become the forms of the embodied spiritual
reality.
Types and variations » Types
The several types of sacraments (i.e., initiatory, purificatory,
renewal, communion, healing, cultic elevation) are well exemplified in
Christianity, though they also may be found in other Western religions,
the Eastern religions, and preliterate religions.
The word sacrament, in its broadest sense as a sign or symbol
conveying something “hidden,” mysterious, and efficacious, has a wider
application and cosmic significance than that used in Christianity. For
example, the evolutionary process is viewed by some as a graded series
in which the lower stratum provides a basis for the one next above it.
The lower, indeed, seems to be necessary to the growth of the higher.
This view has introduced concepts of new powers and potentialities in
organic evolution culminating in the human synthesis of mind
transcending the process. The entire universe, therefore, can be said to
have a sacramental significance in which the “inward” (or spiritual) and
the “outward” (or material) elements meet in a higher unity that
guarantees for the latter its full validity. Thus, the sacred meal has
been at once a sacramental communion and a sacrificial offering (e.g.,
wine, bread, or animal as a sign or symbol of a divine death and
resurrection for the benefit of man) in which the two fundamental and
complementary rites have been closely combined throughout their long and
varied histories.
Types and variations » Variations » Sacramental ideas and practices in
preliterate societies
In preliterate society everyday events have been given sacramental
interpretations by being invested with supernatural meanings in relation
to their ultimate sources in the unseen divine or sacred powers. The
well-being of primitive society, in fact, demands the recognition of a
hierarchy of values in which the lower is always dependent on the higher
and in which the highest is regarded as the transcendental source of
values outside and above mankind and the natural order. To partake of
the flesh of a sacrificial victim or of the god himself or to consume
the cereal image of a vegetation deity (as was done among the Aztecs in
ancient Mexico), makes the eater a recipient of divine life and its
qualities. Similarly, portions of the dead may be imbibed in mortuary
sacramental rites to obtain the attributes of the deceased or to ensure
their reincarnation. To give the dead new life beyond the grave,
mourners may allow life-giving blood to fall upon the corpse
sacramentally. In this cycle of sacramental ideas and practices, the
giving, conservation, and promotion of life, together with the
establishment of a bond of union with the sacred order, are fundamental.
In Paleolithic hunting communities this sacramental idea appears to have
been manifested in the sacramental rites performed to control the
fortunes of the chase, to promote the propagation of the species on
which the food supply depended, and to maintain right relations with the
transcendental source of the means of subsistence, as exemplified in
paintings—discovered in the caves at Altamira, Lascaux, Les Trois
Frères, Font-de-Gaume and elsewhere in France and Spain—that show men
with animal masks (illustrating a ritual or mystical communion of men
and animals that were sources of food).
Types and variations » Variations » Sacramental ideas and practices in
the ancient Near East
When agriculture and herding became the basic type of food production,
sacramental concepts and techniques were centred mainly in the fertility
of the soil, its products, and in the succession of the seasons. This
centralization was most apparent in the ancient Near East in and after
the 4th millennium bc. A death and resurrection sacred drama arose
around the fertility motif, in which a perpetual dying and rebirth in
nature and humanity was enacted. In this sequence birth, maturity,
death, and rebirth were ritually repeated and renewed through
sacramental transitional acts, such as passage rites, ceremonies
ensuring passage from one status to another. In passage rites the king
often was the principal actor in the promotion of the growth of the
crops and the propagation of man and beast and in the promotion of the
reproductive forces in nature in general at the turn of the year.
Types and variations » Variations » Sacramental ideas and practices in
the Greco-Roman world
In the Greco-Oriental mystery cults the sacramental ritual based on the
fertility motif was less prominent than in the Egyptian and Mesopotamian
religions. It did, nevertheless, occur in the Eleusinia, a Greek
agricultural festival celebrated in honour of the goddess Demeter and
her daughter Kore. The things spoken and done in this great event have
remained undisclosed, though some light has been thrown upon them by the
contents of the museum at Eleusis, such as the vase paintings, and by
later untrustworthy references in the writings of the early Church
Fathers (e.g., Clement of Alexandria) and some Gnostics (early Christian
heretics who held that matter was evil and the spirit good). The
drinking of the kykeōn—a gruel of meal and water—can hardly be regarded
as a sacramental beverage since it was consumed during the preparation
for the initiation rather than at its climax. There is nothing to
suggest that a ritual rebirth was effected by a sacramental lustration,
or sacred meal, at any point in the Eleusinian ritual. What is indicated
is that the neophytes (mystae) emerged from their profound experience
with an assurance of having attained newness of life and the hope of a
blessed immortality. From the character of the ritual, the mystery would
seem to have been connected with the seasonal drama in which originally
a sacred marriage may have been an important feature, centred in
Demeter, the corn mother, and Kore (Persephone), the corn maiden.
In the 6th century bc, or perhaps very much earlier, the orgiastic
religion of the god Dionysus, probably originating in Thrace and
Phrygia, was established in Greece. In the Dionysiac rites the Maenads
(female attendents) became possessed by the spirit of Dionysus by means
of tumultuous music and dancing, the free use of wine, and an orgiastic
meal (the tearing to pieces and devouring of animals embodying Dionysus
Zagreus with their bare hands as the central act of the Bacchanalia).
Though not necessarily sacramental, these rites enabled the Maenads to
surmount the barrier that separated them from the supernatural world and
to surrender themselves unconditionally to the mighty powers that
transcended time and space, thus carrying them into the realm of the
eternal. Ecstatic rites of this nature did not commend themselves to the
Greeks of the unemotional nonsacramental Homeric tradition; such rites
did appeal, however, to many, some of whom had come under the influences
of the Orphic mysteries in which it was possible for them to rise to a
higher level in its thiasoi (brotherhoods). The purpose of the Orphic
ritual was to confer divine life sacramentally on its initiates so that
they might attain immortality through regeneration and reincarnation,
thereby freeing the soul from its fleshly bondage.
Types and variations » Variations » Sacramental ideas and practices in
the Indo-Iranian world
To what extent, if at all, metempsychosis (the passing of the soul at
death into another body) was introduced into Greece from India can be
only conjectural in the absence of conclusive evidence. Though belief in
rebirth and the transmigration of souls has been widespread, however,
especially in preliterate religions, it was in India and Greece that the
two concepts attained their highest development. In post-Vedic (the
period after the formulation of the Hindu sacred scriptures, the Veda)
India, belief in the transmigration of souls became a characteristic
doctrine in Hinduism, and the priestly caste (i.e., the Brahmiṇs)
reached their zenith as the sole immolators of the sacrificial
offerings; but sacramentalism was not a feature in the Brāhmaṇas, the
ritual texts complied by the Brahmiṇs. In the earlier Vedic conception
of soma, the personification of the fermented juice of a plant,
comparable to that of ambros in Greece, kava in Polynesia, and
especially haoma in Iran, the sacramental view is most apparent (see
Hinduism).
In Zoroastrianism haoma (Sanskrit soma, from the root su or bu, “to
squeeze” or “pound”) is the name given to the yellow plant, from which a
juice was extracted and consumed in the Yasna ceremony, the general
sacrifice in honour of all the deities. The liturgy of the Yasna was a
remarkable anticipation of the mass in Christianity. Haoma was regarded
by Zoroaster as the son of the Wise Lord and Creator (Ahura Mazdā) and
the chief priest of the Yasna cult. He was believed to be incarnate in
the sacred plant that was pounded to death in order to extract its
life-giving juice so that those who consumed it might be given
immortality. He was regarded as both victim and priest in a
sacrificial-sacramental offering in worship. As the intermediary between
God and man, Haoma acquired a place and sacramental significance in the
worship of Mithra (an Indo-Iranian god of light) in his capacity as the
immaculate priest of Ahura Mazdā with whom he was coequal. The Mithraic
sacramental banquet was derived from the Yasna ceremony, wine taking the
place of the haoma and Mithra that of Ahura Mazdā. In the Mithraic
initiation rites, it was not until one attained the status of the
initiatory degree known as “Lion” that the neophyte could partake of the
oblation of bread, wine, and water, which was the earthly counterpart of
the celestial mystical sacramental banquet. The sacred wine gave vigour
to the body, prosperity, wisdom, and the power to combat malignant
spirits and to obtain immortality (see Zoroastrianism).
The early Christian leaders noticed the resemblances between the
Mithraic meal, the Zoroastrian haoma ceremony, and the Christian
Eucharist; and between Mithraism and Christianity, to some extent, there
was mutual influence and borrowing of respective beliefs and practices.
But Mithraism’s antecedents were different, being Iranian and
Mesopotamian with a Vedic background before it become part of the
Hellenistic and Christian world (c. 67 bc to about ad 385).
Types and variations » Variations » Sacramental ideas and practices of
pre-Columbian America
The recurrent and widespread practice of holding sacred meals in the
sacramental system, in addition to being well documented in the
Greco-Roman world, also occurred in the pre-Columbian Mexican
calendrical ritual in association with human sacrifice on a grand scale.
In the May Festival in honour of the war god Huitzilopochtli, an image
of the deity was fashioned from a dough containing beet seed, maize, and
honey; then the image was covered with a rich garment, placed on a
litter; and carried in a procession to a pyramid-temple. There pieces of
paste similarly compounded and in the form of large bones were
tranformed by rites of consecration into Huitzilopochtli’s flesh and
bones. A number of human victims were then offered to him, and the image
was broken into small fragments and consumed sacramentally by the
worshippers with tears, fears, and reverence, a strict fast being
observed until the ceremonies were over and the sick had been given
their communion with the particles. This ceremony was repeated at the
winter solstice when the dough was fortified with the blood of children,
and similar images were venerated and eaten by families in their houses.
The main purpose of the sacrament was to secure a good maize harvest and
a renewal of the crops, as well as human health and strength. In Peru at
the Festival of the Sun, after three days of fasting, llamas, the sacred
animals, were sacrificed as a burnt offering, and the flesh was eaten
sacramentally at a banquet by the lord of the Incas and his nobles. It
was then distributed to the rest of the community with sacred maize
cakes. Dogs, regarded as divine incarnations, also were slain and parts
of their flesh solemnly eaten by the worshippers.
Similar rites were celebrated in North America by Indians at the
Feast of Grain among the Natchez of Mississippi and Louisiana and among
the Creeks in the Mississippi Valley when the corn was ripe. Among the
Plains Indians sacrificial blood was employed sacramentally to make the
earth fruitful by the fructifying power of the sun.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity
Though the widespread conception of the sacramental principle is an
ancient heritage, in all probability going back before the dawn of
civilization, it acquired in Christianity a unique significance. There
it became the fundamental system and institution for the perpetuation of
the union of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ through the
visible organization and constitution of the church, which was viewed as
the mystical body of Christ.
In the 12th century the number of sacraments of the Western Christian
church was narrowed by the theologian and bishop Peter Lombard to seven:
baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper), penance, holy
orders, matrimony, and extreme unction. This enumeration was accepted by
St. Thomas Aquinas, the Council of Florence (1439), and the Council of
Trent (1545–63). These rites were thus affirmed by the Roman Catholic
Church as sacraments that were instituted by Christ. Protestant
reformers of the 16th century accepted two or three sacraments as valid:
baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and, in some fashion, penance. Eastern
Orthodoxy also accepts the sevenfold enumeration. In addition to these,
any ceremonial actions and objects related to sacraments that endow a
person or thing with a sacred character have been designated
“sacramental”; unlike those of dominical (i.e., Christ’s) institution,
however, they are not thought to convey divine grace ex opere operato
(“it works by itself”) or to confer an indelible character on the
recipient. Sacramentals include the use of holy water, incense,
vestments, candles, exorcisms, anointing and making the sign of the
cross, fasting, abstinence, and almsgiving.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity » Baptism
Baptism, as the initial rite, took the place of circumcision in Judaism
in which this ancient and primitive custom was the covenant sign and a
legal injunction rather than a sacramental ordinance. Baptismal
immersion in water was practiced in Judaism for some time before the
fall of Jerusalem in ce 70, and it was adopted by John the Baptist (a
Jewish prophet and cousin of Jesus Christ) as the principal sacrament in
his messianic movement.
The purificatory lustration of John the Baptist, however, was
transformed into the prototype of the Christian sacrament by the baptism
of Jesus in the river Jordan and by the imagery of this event combined
with the imagery of his death and resurrection. A distinction was made,
however, between the water baptism of John and the Christian Spirit
Baptism in the apostolic church. Under the influence of St. Paul, the
Christian rite was given an interpretation in the terms of the mystery
religions, and the catechumen (initiate instructed in the secrets of the
faith) was identified with the death and Resurrection of Christ (Rom.
6:3–5; Gal. 3:12). The bestowal of the new life constituted a
sacramental rebirth in the church in union with the risen Lord as its
divine head.
Those who received baptism in early Christianity were adult converts.
There is no scholarly consensus as to whether children, including
infants, were baptized alongside their parents. By the 4th century the
practice of infant baptism was universal.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity » Confirmation
With the development of infant Baptism, the regenerative initial
sacrament was coupled with the charismatic apostolic laying on of hands
as the seal of the Spirit in the rite of confirmation (Acts 8:14–17). By
the 4th century, confirmation became a separate “unction” (rite using
oil) administered by a bishop or, earlier and in the Eastern Church, by
a priest to complete the sacramental baptismal grace already bestowed at
birth or on some other previous occasion. At first, especially in the
East, a threefold rite was performed consisting of Baptism,
confirmation, and first communion; but in the West, where the
consecration of the oil and the laying on of hands were confined to the
episcopate, confirmation tended to become a separate event with the
growth in the size of dioceses. It was not, however, until the 16th
century that Baptism and confirmation were permanently separated. In
England Queen Elizabeth I was confirmed when she was only three days
old; and infant confirmation is still sometimes practiced in Spain. But
the normal custom in Western Christendom has been for confirmation to be
administered at or after the age of reason and to be the occasion for
instruction in the faith, as in the case of the mystae in the Mysteries
of Eleusis. But whether or not confirmation conveys a new gift of the
Spirit or is the sealing of the same grace bestowed in Baptism, which is
still debated, it has come to be regarded in some churches as conferring
an indelible quality on the soul. Therefore, it cannot be repeated when
it has once been validly performed as a sacrament.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity » The Eucharist, or
Lord’s Supper
Together with Baptism the greatest importance has been given to the
Eucharist, both of which institutions are singled out in the Gospels as
dominical (instituted by Christ) in origin, with a special status and
rank. Under a variety of titles (Eucharist from the Greek eucharistia,
“thanksgiving”; the Latin mass; the Holy Communion; the Lord’s Supper;
and the breaking of the bread) it has been the central act of worship
ever since the night of the betrayal of Jesus on the Thursday preceding
his crucifixion. It was then that the elements of bread and wine were
identified with the body and blood of Jesus in his institution of the
Eucharist with his disciples and with the sacrifice he was about to
offer in order to establish and seal the new covenant. This “presence”
of Jesus has been variously interpreted in actual, figurative, or
symbolical senses; but the sacramental sense, as the anamnesis, or
memorial before God, of the sacrificial offering on the cross once and
for all, has always been accepted.
Along these lines a eucharistic theology gradually took shape in the
apostolic and early church without much controversy or formulation. In
the New Testament, in addition to the three accounts of the institution
of the Eucharist in the first three “books” of the New Testament known
as Synoptic Gospels because they have a common viewpoint and common
sources (Matt. 26:26ff.; Mark 14:22ff.; Luke 22:17–20), St. Paul’s
earliest record of the ordinance in I Cor. 11:17–29, written about ce
55, suggests that some abuses had arisen in conjunction with the common
meal, or agapē, with which it was combined. It had become an occasion of
drunkenness and gluttony. To rectify this, St. Paul recalled and
re-established the original institution and its purpose and
interpretation as a sacrificial-sacramental rite. Fellowship meals
continued in association with the postapostolic Eucharist, as is shown
in the Didachē (a Christian document concerned with worship and church
discipline written c. 100–c. 140) and in the doctrinal and liturgical
development described in the writings of the Early Church Fathers little
was changed. Not until the beginning of the Middle Ages did
controversial issues arise that found expression in the definition of
the doctrine of transubstantiation at the fourth Lateran Council in
1215. This definition opened the way for the scholastic interpretation
of the eucharistic Presence of Christ and of the sacramental principle,
in Aristotelian terms. Thus, St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that a
complete change occurred in the “substance” of each of the species,
while the “accidents,” or outward appearances, remained the same. During
the Reformation, though the medieval doctrine was denied in varying ways
by the Reformers, it was reaffirmed by the Council of Trent in 1551.
Holy Communion was retained as a sacrament by most of the Protestant
groups, except that those churches that see the supper solely as a
memorial prefer to speak not of a sacrament but of an ordinance. The
Society of Friends, the Salvation Army, and some of the Adventist groups
have abandoned the practice and concept of a sacrament.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity » Penance
In its formulation, the Christian doctrine of conciliation, which, as
St. Paul contended, required a change of status in the penitent, had to
be made sacramentally effective in the individual and in redeemed
humanity as a whole. In the Gospel According to Matthew (16:13–20,
18:18) the power to “bind and loose” was conferred on St. Peter and the
other Apostles. Lapses into paganism and infidelity in the Roman world
by the 3rd century had demanded penitential exercises. These included
fasting, wearing sackcloth, lying in ashes and other forms of
mortification, almsgiving, and the threat of temporary excommunication.
Details of the sins committed were confessed in secret to a priest, who
then pronounced absolution and imposed an appropriate penance. In 1215
the sacrament of penance received the authorization of the fourth
Lateran Council and was made obligatory at least once a year at Easter
on all mature Christians in Western Christendom. When pilgrimages to the
Holy Land, to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, or going on a Crusade
could be imposed as penitential exercises, commutation by means of
payment of money led to abuses and traffic in indulgences and the
treasury of merits, a superabundance of merits attributed to Christ and
his saints that could be transferred to sinful believers. The abuses
opened the way for the Reformation reaction against the penitential
system, before they were abolished by the Council of Trent. The power of
absolution was retained in the Anglican ordinal and conferred upon
priests at their ordination and in the Order of the Visitation of the
Sick. The sacrament of penance, however, ceased to be of obligation in
the Anglican Communion, though it was commended and practiced by John
Whitgift, Richard Hooker, and, after the Restoration in 1660 by the
Nonjurors (Anglican clergy who refused to take oaths of allegiance to
William III and Mary II in 1689) and revived by the Tractarians
(Anglo-Catholic advocates of High Church ideals) after 1833, who
encountered some Protestant opposition notwithstanding its entrenchment
in canon law and in The Book of Common Prayer.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity » Ordination
Most Christian theologians have claimed that the ministry of bishops,
priests, and deacons derives its authority and sacramental efficacy from
Christ through his Apostles. In the Roman Catholic Church it has been
maintained that a special charismatic sacramental endowment conveying an
indelible “character” has been conferred on those who receive valid
ordination by the laying on of hands on their heads by bishops (who thus
transfer to them the “power of orders”), prayer, and a right intention.
In Protestant churches the ministry is interpreted as a function rather
than as a status. Just as the sacramental power to ordain, confirm,
absolve, bless, and consecrate the Eucharist can be given, so also it
can be taken away or suspended for sufficient reason.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity » Marriage
In the Roman Catholic Church the institution of matrimony was raised to
the level of a sacrament because it was assigned a divine origin and
made an indissoluble union typifying the union of Christ with his church
as his mystical body (Matt. 5:27–32; Mark 10:2–12; Luke 16:18; I Cor.
7:2, 10; Eph. 5:23ff.). The adherence of Jesus to a rigorist position in
regard to divorce and remarriage (Matt. 19:9; i.e., adultery being the
only cause for divorce), similar to that adopted by the rabbinical
school headed by the conservative teacher Shammai in Judaism, was made
the basis of the nuptial union as taught by St. Paul, except in regard
to the dissolution of a marriage contracted between a Christian and a
pagan who refused to live with his or her partner (I Cor. 7:2ff.,
15ff.).
Apart from this deviation, known as the “Pauline Privilege,” which
was recognized in canon law in the 13th century, a marriage validly
contracted in the presence of a priest, blessed by him, and duly
consummated has been regarded as a sacramental ordinance by virtue of
the grace given to render the union indissoluble. However, canon law
allows for the “annulment” of marriages. In Protestant churches,
marriage is regarded as a rite, not a sacrament; views on divorce,
however, vary, and many traditional notions of marriage and divorce are
now being debated.
Theology and practice of sacraments in Christianity » Last unction
In Christianity anointing of the sick was widely practiced from
apostolic times as a sacramental rite in association with the ceremony
of the imposition of hands to convey a blessing, recovery from illness,
or with the last communion to fortify the believer safely on his new
career in the fuller life of the eternal world. Not until the 8th and
9th centuries, however, did extreme unction, another term for the final
anointing of the sick, become one of the seven sacraments. In Eastern
Christendom, it has never been confined to those in extremis (near
death) nor has the blessing of the oil by a bishop been required; the
administration of the sacrament by seven, five, or three priests was for
the recovery of health rather than administered exclusively as a
mortuary rite. Extreme unction is also coupled with exorcism for the
restraint of the powers of evil—a practice taken over from Judaism by
the early church and still retained by the Orthodox Eastern Church for
mental diseases.
Conclusion
The ecumenical movement in the 20th century initiated reforms in
liturgical worship and in private devotions within Christianity. Such
reforms, involving the celebration of sacraments (primarily the
Eucharist), did much to promote the recovery of a unity among Christians
that transcends differences in beliefs and ritual practices. The second
Vatican Council (1962–65) played a significant part in the process of
recovery of unity and of renewal. In Protestantism the liturgical
reforms and ecumenical dialogues of the 20th century likewise entailed a
preoccupation with the sacraments.
The Rev. Edwin Oliver James
