Abstract
As part of its endeavor to “return to the sources,” the Second Vatican Council spoke of the “Church as Sacrament” and provided a critical element of ecclesiology, offering great ecumenical promise. Lumen Gentium refers to the Church as “sacrament” at least three times (LG 1, 9, 48). This concept was repeated in Sacrosanctum Concilium (5, 26), Gaudium et Spes (42, 45), and Ad Gentes (1, 5). While the Church is understood as sacrament, Lumen Gentium states that the Church is centered in Christ. Christ, not the Church, is the light of the world. The Church is the body of Christ and Christ is the primordial Sacrament. The notion of the Church being a Sacrament is rooted in Augustine and his medieval interpreters. One modern interpreter, Hans Urs von Balthasar, similarly writes, “The sending (missio) has its roots in a primordial proceeding (processio) from God… This in turn presupposes that the Son was always, and has always been, ‘with’ God (Jn 1:1, 18).”1 While the documents of the Second Vatican Council do not specifically use the term primordial, clearly what is behind the use of the phrase “Church as Sacrament” is in the Son’s “primordial proceeding,” which Balthasar had understood in terms of Irenaeus’s theology of recapitulation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Theo-Drama: Theological Dramatic Theory, 5 vols. (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1992), iii, 154.
Walter Kasper, Harvesting the Fruits: Basic Aspects of Christian Faith in Ecumenical Dialogue (New York: Continuum, 2009), 70.
Ola Tjørhom, Visible Church—Visible Unity: Ecumenical Ecclesiology and “The Great Tradition of the Church” (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004), 50, esp. footnote 10.
Kenan B. Osborne OFM, The Christian Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1987), 228.
Michael Root, “The Implications of the Joint Declaration on Justification and Its Wider Impact for Lutheran Participation in the Ecumenical Movement,” in Justification and the Future of the Ecumenical Movement: The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ed. William G. Rusch (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), 47–60.
Michael Root, “The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: A Lutheran Systematic Theological Perspective,” in Rereading Paul Together; Protestant and Catholic Perspectives on Justification, ed. David E. Aune (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 60–76.
Root, “Implications of the Joint Declaration,” 63f; see also David S. Yeago, “Theological Impasse and Ecclesial Future,” Lutheran Forum 26, no. 4 (November 1992): 36–45.
see also Robert W. Jenson, Visible Words: The Interpretation and Practice of Christian Sacraments (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978).
T. Austin Murphy, Joseph A. Burgess, and George Anderson, eds., Justification by Faith: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue VII (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1985), 52.
A study of the history of Luther’s “Lectures on the Letter to the Romans” can be found in Gunther Wenz and Theodor Schneider, eds., Gerecht und Sünder zugleich? Ökumenische Klärungen. Dialog der Kirchen Band 11 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2001), 317.
Michael Root, “Continuing the Conversation: Justification as Criterion and on the Christianas Simmul Iustus Et Peccator,” in The Gospel Of Justification In Christ: Where Does The Church Stand Today?, ed. Wayne C. Stumme (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 42–61.
Martin Luther, “Lectures on Romans,” in Luther’s Works (hereafter LW), vol. 25, trans. Jacob A. O. Preus and Walter G. Tillmanns, ed. Hilton C. Oswald (St. Louis: Concordia, 1972), 259.
Vitalis Mshanga, “Simul Iustus et Peccaor: Ecumenical Reflections on the Lutheran—Roman Catholic Simul Controversy,” Australian Journal of Theology 14, no. 1 (2009): 14.
Martin Luther, “Against Latomus, 1521,” in LW, vol. 32, Career of the Reformer II, ed. J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, and H. T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958), 137–215.
Martin Luther, “The Large Catechism” (hereafter LC), in The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 377–480.
David S. Yeago, “Martin Luther on Renewal and Sanctification; Simul Iustus et Peccator Revisited,” in Theological Knowledge and Unity of the Faith Studies in Honor of Prof. Jared Wicks, ed. Carmen Aparicio Valls, Carmelo Dotolo and Gianluigi Pasquale (Rome: Gregorian Pontifical University, 2004), 655–74. (Published in Italian under the title: Sapere teologico e unita della fede Studi in onore del Prof. Jared Wicks.)
Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians,” in LW, vol. 26, ed. Jeroslav Pelikan and Walter A. Hansen (St. Louis: Concordia, 1963), 229–30.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2016 C. Pierson Shaw
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shaw, C.P. (2016). “Christ as Primary Sacrament”. In: Chapman, M.D., Haar, M. (eds) Pathways for Ecclesial Dialogue in the Twenty-First Century. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-57112-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-57112-0_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-88751-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-57112-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)