The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology
Edited by Hans Boersma and Matthew Levering
Abstract
As a multi-faceted introduction to sacramental theology, the purposes of this Handbook are threefold: historical, ecumenical, and missional. By devoting 28 of the 44 essays in this book to historical surveys, we are able to introduce readers to the historical roots and development of Christian sacramental worship. The contributors to this Handbook explain the diverse ways that believers have construed the sacraments, both in inspired Scripture and in the history of the Church’s practice. In Scripture and the early Church, Orthodox, Protestants, and Catholics all find evidence that the first Christian communities celebrated and taught about the sacraments in a manner that Orthodox, Protestants, and Catholics today affirm as the foundation of their own faith and practice. Thus, for those who want to understand what has been taught about the sacraments in Scripture and across the generations by the major thinkers of the various Christian traditions, this Handbook provides an introduction. While the divisions in Christian sacramental understanding and practice are certainly evident in this Handbook, the Handbook is not thereby without ecumenical and missional value. This book evidences that the story of the Christian sacraments is, despite divisions in interpretation and practice, one of tremendous hope.
Keywords:
sacraments,
sacramental,
baptism,
Eucharist,
confirmation,
marriage,
reconciliation,
penance,
orders,
anointing of the sick
Bibliographic Information
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Print Publication Date:
- Aug 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199659067
- Published online:
- Mar 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199659067.001.0001
Editors
Hans Boersma,
editor
Hans Boersma holds the J. I. Packer Chair in Theology at Regent College, Vancouver. He has authored several books, including Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa (2013); Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (2011); and Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (2009). Together with Matthew Levering, he edited Heaven on Earth? Theological Interpretation in Ecumenical Dialogue (2013).
Matthew Levering,
editor
Matthew Levering, is Perry Family Foundation Professor of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. He serves as co-editor of two theological quarterlies, Nova et Vetera and the International Journal of Systematic Theology. He has authored numerous books, including Sacrifice and Community: Jewish Offering and Christian Eucharist (2005) and Christ and the Catholic Priesthood (2010). With Hans Boersma, he edited Heaven on Earth? Theological Interpretation in Ecumenical Dialogue (2013). He and Gilles Emery co-edited The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity.
