Protestants are people of the word; Catholics are people of the sacraments. That’s the way it’s usually divided up.
Sed contra, I say: Medieval Catholics frequently denied that there were sacraments in Eden; Protestants have just as frequently affirmed Edenic sacraments. The upshot: For Protestants, sacraments are inherent in human interaction with God; for Catholics (at least medieval ones), sacraments were a postlapsarian accommodation.
Sed contra, I say again: Medieval Catholics frequently said that the sacraments of the old law were mere signs; Protestants have just as frequently said that the sacraments of the Old Testament offered Christ and His benefits to Israel. The upshot: Protestants upgraded, not downgraded, sacramental efficacy.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Revival of Patristics
On May 25, 1990, the renowned patristics scholar Charles Kannengiesser, S.J., delivered a lecture at the annual…
The Enduring Legacy of the Spanish Mystics
Last autumn, I spent a few days at my family’s coastal country house in northwestern Spain. The…
The trouble with blogging …
The trouble with blogging, RJN, is narrative structure. Or maybe voice. Or maybe diction. Or maybe syntax.…
