SACRAMENT

religious sign or symbol, especially associated with the Christian Church, in which a sacred or spiritual power is believed to be transmitted through material elements viewed as channels of divine grace. In ancient societies, unseen divine or sacred powers were generally regarded as responsible for both the maintenance and the disruption of order in everyday life. Among early agriculturalists and herders, the fertility of the soil, beneficence of the weather, and succession of the seasons became the focuses of sacramental practices designed to ensure their continuation, such as the rites of spring and feasts of harvest. Inasmuch as the cycle of the individual life was seen to reflect the natural order, sacramental ceremonies were conducted to promote successful passage from one status to another. Though the conception of the sacramental principle is ancient and widespread, 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. According to the New Testament, Jesus instituted and commanded various practices, among them baptism, a common meal, the washing of feet, anointing, and the casting out of demons. Some of these were continued by Christians; some were dropped; still others were adopted and attributed to the institution of Christ. Consideration of all these rites and ordinances led to the development of the concept sacrament, but both the definition and the exact number remained fluid well beyond the end of the 1st millennium of church history. As set forth by Peter Lombard, codified by Thomas Aquinas, and promulgated by the Council of Trent, the sacraments were said to be seven in number (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing or extreme unction, holy orders or ordination, and matrimony) and to be efficacious signs of the grace of God instituted by Christ for permanent observance by the church. The Reformation questioned both the definition and the number of sacraments in scholastic theology, as well as the use of sacraments in medieval piety, liturgy, and churchmanship. 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. Additional reading The standard pioneer work on the wider pre-Christian occurrence and interpretations is W.R. Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, 3rd ed. (1927), stressing sacramental communion with the deity. A. Gardner, History of Sacrament in Relation to Thought and Progress (1921), applied the sacramental principle to various aspects of life and belief; and R.R. Marett, Sacraments of Simple Folk (1933), wrote on sacraments in primitive culture. In his Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism (1961), R.C. Zaehner discussed the anticipation of the Christian eucharistic sacramental rite in the Yasna ceremony in the Avestan liturgy. The basic sacramental beliefs and cults throughout the ages are examined anthropologically in E.O. James, Sacrifice and Sacrament (1962).A good general study of the Christian doctrine of sacraments is P.T. Forsyth, Lectures on the Church and the Sacraments (1917). O.C. Quick, The Christian Sacraments (1927, reprinted continually to 1952), is one of the most comprehensive surveys. The positions of various religious bodies are presented in the following: A.J. Tait, Nature and Functions of the Sacraments (1917), the evangelical viewpoint; B. Leeming, The Principles of Sacramental Theology, new ed. (1960), the Roman Catholic viewpoint; D.M. Baillie, The Theology of the Sacraments and Other Papers (1957), the Protestant viewpoint; and A. Schmemann, Sacraments and Orthodoxy (1965), the Orthodox viewpoint. J.H. Srawley, Liturgical Movement: Its Origin and Growth (1954), examines the development of sacramental worship with special reference to lay participation. See also Joseph Martos, Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church (1981).