Sacraments of the New Society

Much recent sacramental theology has emphasized the social, political, and communal dimensions of sacramental theology. They are, in Rowan Williams’s phrasing, “sacraments of the new society” or, in Hauerwas’s terms, the signs of Christian politics and polity.

This view is freshly stated, but in essence it goes back to Augustine, and it was part of the early Reformation understanding of sacraments. In the 1530 Tetrapolitan Confession, we read “it has pleased the Lord to teach, admonish and exhort it also by the outward Word; and that this might be donethe more conveniently he wished his people to maintain an external society among themselves. For this reason he has also given to them sacred symbols, which we call sacraments. Among these, Baptism andthe Lord’s Supper are the chief.”

And at this point we shake our world-weary heads in a knowing French way, and repeat “Plus ca change . . . .”