Sacrament

Sacrament. Any of certain solemn religious acts, usually associated with Christianity. The Lat., sacramentum (in secular usage, ‘oath’), acquired this technical sense by its use to translate the Gk., mystērion, in the Latin New Testament. The exact reference has varied. Augustine defined it as the ‘visible form of invisible grace’, picked up in the Anglican catechism as ‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace … ordained by Christ himself’. He applied it to formulae such as the creed and Lord's Prayer; and this wide application was maintained into the Middle Ages. However, by the time of Peter Lombard, seven particular sacraments have become traditional and are enumerated: baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and marriage; in E. Christianity, they retain their Gk. names, i.e. baptisma, chrism, koinōnia (as well as eucharistia), metanoia, euchelaion, hierosunē, gamos.

The traditional Catholic theology of the sacraments holds that they are channels of God's grace to the recipient. The right ‘matter’ (bread and wine for the eucharist, etc.), the right ‘form’, and the right intention are essential for the sacrament to be ‘valid’. In addition, the recipient must be in a proper state of faith and repentance for it to be ‘efficacious’.

In Anglican tradition (Art. 25 of the Thirty-Nine Articles) baptism and the eucharist are distinguished as having been ordained by Christ (i.e. Dominical sacraments), from the other five so-called sacraments. Protestant theology generally speaks of these two sacraments only.

‘Blessed Sacrament’ (or ‘Sacrament of the altar’) refers specifically to the eucharist, or the bread and wine consecrated at it.

The term ‘sacrament’ is then applied to actions and substances in other religions where fundamental meaning is expressed through non-verbal languages (even if accompanied by words). The term is thus commonly applied to the Hindu saṃskāras.