The Importance of the Sacraments to the Reformers |
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the point of view of the Catholic Church, one of the most
significant heresies of the reformers was a depreciation
of the importance of the sacraments; for this reason the
Council of Trent re-stated their position on the
sacraments and anathematized those who disagreed with
their conviction. While one can support this position
with some evidence (the reformers did eliminate five of
the seven sacraments), it is inaccurate to assume that
the reformers did not consider the sacraments important.
In fact one of the primary Church abuses which the early
reformers condemned, as John Hus had, was the withholding
of the cup from the laity; if these reformers had not
considered the sacraments important, then they would not
have been concerned with whether the laity partook of the
cup. Each sect of reform did value the sacrament, though
for varying reasons. In the medieval view the primary
importance of the sacraments was soteriological. The
sacraments were a means of infusing grace to the
recipient who was then called to cooperate with that
grace in order to be saved. The sacraments were seen as
the very incarnation of grace, a profound mystery that
had objective power over the subject and could create a
synergy of the divine and human wills. Particular
emphasis was placed on the Eucharist and it was believed
that just as sin had entered through Adam eating the
forbidden fruit, so the antidote to sin was offered by
the eating of the Eucharist. As a result of this theology
the description of transubstantiation emerged, the host
was revered and the cup was withheld from the laity. The
reformers in general separated the sacraments from
salvation, calling into question the soteriological
importance of the sacraments . By doing this they tended
to individualize and subjectivize the religious
experience and make the significance of the sacraments
not their objective power but their psychological,
ethical and symbolic importance. Luther saw the primary
importance of the sacraments in terms of their connection
with the word. Since the word of Christ had preceded the
sacraments, so the word is superior to the sacraments and
must precede them. The problem with the Catholic Church
was that its primary concern was with the sacrament and
not the word, and since salvation is dependent on the
word and not the sacrament, the laity were not getting
what they needed to be saved. Still Luther did not
depreciate the sacrament, he only sought to re-emphasize
the word which the sacrament accompanies. It is
significant that Luther saw the mark of the true Church
not solely as the preaching of the word, but as the word
coupled with the right administration of the sacraments. For
Calvin, the sacraments have significance as the external
sign of the promises of God. Like the seal on a letter,
the sacraments are symbols of the word which is internal;
they signify the communication of Christ by the Holy
Spirit in a secret and hidden way. The bread and wine are
signs of Christ's forgiveness and symbols of spiritual
food which apart from the word of God are useless; they
have no power alone, and are not to be revered since
Christ's presence in them is simply a spiritual presence.
Zwingli considered baptism and the Lord's Supper
primarily as ordinances, but this does not mean that he
questioned their importance; though he did not regard
them as mysteries, he did see them as a memorial and a
pledge. Since a symbol cannot be the thing symbolized,
the bread and wine can be nothing more than their
physical elements and since "eating and faith"
are unconnected, the elements cannot affect one's faith
supernaturally. Instead the ordinances are important as a
memorial and pledge when the faithful offer themselves to
Christ, are unified in the Church, and thankfully
remember God and his grace. The
Anabaptists' denial of the efficacy of infant baptism and
their casual practice of the Lord's Supper was regarded
by many as an insult to the sacraments, but in fact the
radical reformers were seriously devoted to the
importance of the ordinances. After all countless of them
were martyred for their conviction that the ordinance of
baptism must be done in accordance with Christ's commands.
Since they read in the Scriptures that baptism followed
profession of faith, their primitivism led them to
denounce infant baptism and to practice believer's
baptism. Their view of the Lord's Supper as a mere
remembrance and a communion of the faithful was the most
rational and least theologically complex view of the
reformers, but their emphasis on baptism was so great
that their supper was the most exclusive by including
only those who were baptized as believers. Therefore, it can be seen that the primary distinction between the sacramental theologies of the sixteenth century is not the importance of the sacraments but the particular aspect of the sacraments' importance that was emphasized. |
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| © 2001 Aaron Tate | |