The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology (Oxford Handbooks) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198816618 ISBN 13: 9780198816614

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2018

Synopsis

As a multi-faceted introduction to sacramental theology, the purposes of this Handbook are threefold: historical, ecumenical, and missional. The forty-four chapters are organized into the following parts five parts: Sacramental Roots in Scripture, Patristic Sacramental Theology, Medieval Sacramental Theology, From the Reformation through Today, and Philosophical and Theological Issues in Sacramental Doctrine.

Contributors to this Handbook explain the diverse ways that believers have construed the sacraments, both in inspired Scripture and in the history of the Church's practice. In Scripture and the early Church, Orthodox, Protestants, and Catholics all find evidence that the first Christian communities celebrated and taught about the sacraments in a manner that Orthodox, Protestants, and Catholics today affirm as the foundation of their own faith and practice. Thus, for those who want to understand what has been taught about the sacraments in Scripture and across the generations by the major thinkers of the various Christian traditions, this Handbook provides an introduction. As the divisions in Christian sacramental understanding and practice are certainly evident in this Handbook, it is not thereby without ecumenical and missional value. This book evidences that the story of the Christian sacraments is, despite divisions in interpretation and practice, one of tremendous hope.

About this title

About the Author:

Hans Boersma is the J. I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. Before coming to Regent College in 2005, Boersma taught for six years at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. He also served several years as a Pastor. Boersma has written of a number of books, most recently Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach. He is also the author of Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry; of Nouvelle Theologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery; and of Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition.

Matthew Levering is Perry Family Foundation Professor of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. He serves as co-editor of two theological quarterlies, Nova et Vetera and The International Journal of Systematic Theology. He has authored numerous books, including Predestination, Biblical Natural Law, and (with David Novak and Anver Emon) Natural Law: A Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Trialogue. With Matthew L. Lamb, he edited Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition. His works in sacramental theology include Sacrifice and Communion: Jewish Offering and Christian Eucharist and Christ and the Catholic Priesthood. Since 2007 he has been Chair of the Board of the Academy of Catholic Theology.

Review:

"Theology is not intended to be only a conversation for specialists. If it is, as The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology reveals, meant to help interpret, illuminate, and guide the church's life together. May preachers of every theological stripe embrace this way of thinking about how theology works in the church..." -- Theology Forum

"...a good launch pad from which mature students of theology can grow in their understanding of the church's reflection on sacramental theology... -- Ryan M. McGraw, PRJ

"This volume is a magnificent achievement, unrivaled in both its breadth and its brevity. The fifty contributors, all experts in their fields, cover a huge expanse of history and scholarship, while still managing to make this knowledge accessible to the interested and motivated reader."--Gregory Soderberg, Journal of Reformed Theology

"This text will prove to be a standard resource for sacramental theologians, and perhaps the first place to turn for those who want to ask-even if for the first time-why and how Christians have always believed that God works in and through matter." -- Reading Religion

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0198816618
• ISBN 13: 9780198816614
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 736
• Editor: Boersma Hans, Levering Matthew