Sacrament

I

Introduction

Sacrament, any of several liturgical actions of the Christian Church, believed to have been instituted by Christ and to communicate the grace or power of God through the use of material objects. In St Augustine of Hippo's definition, the sacraments are “outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace”.

II

Sacrament in the New Testament

The word sacrament does not appear in the Bible, although baptism, Eucharist, and perhaps other rites that fit the definition are reported there. The New Testament basis for sacraments is found in its teaching about mystery, which remains the Eastern Orthodox word for sacrament. In the New Testament, the word mystery refers to God's plan for the redemption of the world through Christ, a plan that is hidden from the understanding of unbelievers but revealed to those who have faith (see Ephresians 1:9-10).

In the Christian experience, the saving action of Christ is made known and accessible to the Church especially through certain liturgical actions such as baptism and the Eucharist. Therefore, these actions came to be known among the Greeks as mysteries, perhaps by analogy to mystery cults.

III

From Mystery to Sacrament

In the early 3rd century, Tertullian, the first Latin theologian, translated the Greek word musterion (“mystery”) by the Latin sacramentum, which in pre-Christian use denoted a pledge of future performance, as in the oath of loyalty taken by soldiers to their commander; emphasis fell on the thing that was given in pledge. In the Christian case, the word sacrament came to focus attention on the water of baptism and on the bread and wine of the Eucharist. These different nuances of mystery and sacrament account in part for the differing character of Eastern and Western sacramental theology.

IV

Sacraments and Signs

Sacraments are sometimes called signs. In Roman Catholic and much Protestant theology, sacraments are regarded as “communicating signs”. That is, the sign itself actually conveys the reality for which it stands. In some Protestant theology, however, sacraments are not thought to be the vehicles of divine reality; rather, they are “arbitrary signs” that simply call to the believer's mind the inner reality of grace.