Swear to God

Swear to God
Author: Scott Hahn
Publisher: Image
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2005-10-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0385516932

The most solemn, majestic, and beautiful gifts that Jesus Christ gave to the world are His sacraments. He endowed them with unprecedented and unparalleled power—power to change lives, save souls, and share God’s very life. The sacraments are the ordinary means by which God directs the course of each human life and all of world history. The Church celebrates seven sacraments: baptism, Eucharist, confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, confession, and anointing of the sick. Each was established by Jesus for the sake of salvation. When Jesus spoke of the sacraments, He made clear that they were essential: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (Jn 3:5) . . . unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you (Jn 6: 53). In Swear to God, Dr. Scott Hahn explores the richness of Christ’s sacraments—their doctrine, history, symbols, and rituals. Drawing upon the Bible and the Church’s tradition, he shows how God’s covenants—with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David—became the driving forces in history. When Jesus came to fulfill all these covenants, He established a new covenant, with greater power than ever before. Christians are God’s children now. Joined to Christ by baptism, we can already share in the eternal life of the Trinity, a life we hope to know fully in heaven. But heaven is with us, even now, in the sacraments.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church
Author: U.S. Catholic Church
Publisher: Image
Total Pages: 849
Release: 2012-11-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 030795370X

Over 3 million copies sold! Essential reading for Catholics of all walks of life. Here it is - the first new Catechism of the Catholic Church in more than 400 years, a complete summary of what Catholics around the world commonly believe. The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. The word catechism means "instruction" - this book will serve as the standard for all future catechisms. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.

Calvin's Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament

Calvin's Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament
Author: Ronald Wallace
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 267
Release: 1997-09-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1579100562

Charles Hodge viewed Calvin's doctrine of the union of believers with Christ's humanity in the Lord's Supper as an uncongenial foreign element in Calvin's thought, having no root in the system. Robert L. Dabney found Calvin's doctrine to be a strange opinion, which he had to reject because it is not only incomprehensible, but impossible. Were these eminent theologians correct, or did they miss the genius of Calvin's thinking at this point? Back in print at last, Ronald Wallace's classic study is a careful examination of Calvin's Commentaries, Institutes, Sermons, and Tracts, designed to clarify the teaching of the great Reformer. The following two sentences from the preface aptly sum up the author's intention: ÒWhat is most important in the study of Calvin today is to reveal what the Reformer himself actually said, in order that misconceptions about his teaching may be cleared away. Therefore this work is not a critical study of Calvin, but an attempt to express his teaching as copiously, fairly, and sympathetically as possible. Dr. Wallace's book is also valuable for the insight it gives into Calvin's method of interpreting Scripture, especially the Old Testament.

Introduction to Sacramental Theology

Introduction to Sacramental Theology
Author: Jose Granados
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2021-06-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0813233925

Introduction to Sacramental Theology presents a complete overview of sacramental theology from the viewpoint of the body. This viewpoint is supported, in the first place, by Revelation, for which the sacraments are the place where we enter into contact with the body of the risen Jesus. It is a viewpoint, secondly, which is firmly rooted in our concrete human bodily experience, thus allowing for a strong connection between faith and life, creation and redemption. From this point of view, the treatise on the sacraments occupies a strategic role. For the sacraments appear, not as the last of a series of topics (after dealing with Creation, Christ, the Church), but as the original place in which to stand in order to contemplate the entire Christian mystery. This point of view of the body, which resonates with contemporary philosophy, sheds fruitful light on classical themes, such as the relationship of the sacraments with creation, the composition of the sacramental sign, the efficacy of the sacraments, the sacramental character, the role of the minister, or the relationship of the sacrament with the Church as a sacrament. As a result of this approach, the Eucharist takes on a central role, since this is the sacrament where the body of Jesus is made present. The rest of the sacraments are seen as prolongations of the eucharistic body, so as to fill all the time and space of the faithful. This foundation of the theology of the sacraments in eucharistic theology is supported by an analysis of the patristic and medieval tradition. In order to support its conclusions, Introduction to Sacramental Theology examines the doctrine of Scripture (especially St. John and St. Paul), the main patristic and medieval authors (St. Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas), the response of Trent to the protestant challenges, up to modern authors such as Scheeben, Rahner, Ratzinger, or Chauvet, including the teaching of Vatican II about the Church as a kind of sacrament.

A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Our Savior Christ

A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Our Savior Christ
Author: Thomas Cranmer
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2004-08-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725211343

Thomas Cranmer was Archbishop of Canterbury (1533-1556) in the reign of Henry VIII and Edward VI. He was deposed under Mary Tudor and burned at Oxford as a heretic. The charges brought against him were based chiefly on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper expounded in this book. The core of Cranmer's teaching was that the sacrament was essentially spiritual in nature. The body of Christ was not present in a physical or carnal way, as the Church of Rome taught by its doctrine of transubstantiation. Cranmer based his position on Scripture, in particular St. John's Gospel, where, he showed, Christ meant eating and drinking His body and blood to be understood as receiving by faith the benefits of His death for sins. To think of eating and drinking Christ's actual body and blood with the mouth is, he argued, a gross misunderstanding; the purpose of the sacrament is to satisfy spiritual hunger. The Roman doctrine, he maintained, was also contrary to the true Catholic teaching of the two natures of Christ - His humanity and His divinity. In the creeds we confess that Christ has ascended bodily into heaven, not to return to earth in that manner until the last day. The true Catholic faith, therefore, requires us to believe that He is not present with us in the nature of His humanity but that He is present in the nature of His deity. To teach, as the Church of Rome does, that He is present bodily in the sacrament is to deny this teaching of the creeds, to assert a heretical doctrine of the one nature of Christ and to deny His real humanity. For this reason Cranmer called his book 'A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament'. The errors of Rome also extended to the notion that the sacrament was a sacrifice offered by the priest to take away sins. Cranmer refuted this from the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers.

Mass and the Sacraments

Mass and the Sacraments
Author: Rev. Fr. John Laux M.A.
Publisher: TAN Books
Total Pages: 176
Release: 1994-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1505103010

The doctrine and history of the 7 Sacraments. Also covers Indulgences and Sacramentals. Topics include the Scriptural background of the Sacraments, their institution by Christ, essential requirements for receving them, their effects in the soul, etc. Will deepen understanding of these 7 lifelines of grace and salvation.

How Marriage Became One of the Sacraments

How Marriage Became One of the Sacraments
Author: Philip L. Reynolds
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1083
Release: 2016-06-30
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1107146151

An indispensable guide to how marriage acquired the status of a sacrament. This book analyzes in detail how medieval theologians explained the place of matrimony in the church and her law, and how the bitter debates of the sixteenth century elevated the doctrine to a dogma of the Catholic faith.

Christian Theologies of the Sacraments

Christian Theologies of the Sacraments
Author: Justin S. Holcomb
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2017-07-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814724329

Delves into the ancient debate regarding the nature and purpose of the seven sacraments What are the sacraments? For centuries, this question has elicited a lively discussion and among theologians, and a variety of answers that do anything but outline a unified belief concerning these fundamental ritual structures. In this extremely cohesive and well-crafted volume, a group of renowned scholars map the theologies of sacraments offered by key Christian figures from the Early Church through the twenty-first century. Together, they provide a guide to the variety of views about sacraments found throughout Christianity, showcasing the variety of approaches to understanding the sacraments across the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox faith traditions. Chapters explore the theologies of thinkers from Basil to Aquinas, Martin Luther to Gustavo Gutiérrez. Rather than attempting to distill their voices into a single view, the book addresses many of the questions that theologians have tackled over the two thousand year history of Christianity. In doing so, it paves the way for developing theologies of sacraments for present and future contexts. The text places each theology of the sacraments into its proper sociohistorical context, illuminating how the church has used the sacraments to define itself and its congregations over time. The definitive resource on theologies of the sacraments, this volume is a must-read for students, theologians, and spiritually interested readers alike.

Why Sacraments?

Why Sacraments?
Author: Andrew Davison
Publisher: SPCK
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2013-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0281071349

The book provides a clear account of the sacraments of the Christian Church and of the general idea of sacramentality. It will reach out to a wide audience and present solid academic theology in an accessible and popular manner. The approach is distinctively Anglican, Thomist and on the conservative side of 'liberal catholic'.