Sacred Actions In Modern Catholicism

This article traces the development of a Catholic view of the sacraments since the medieval period. This development shows a great respect for the tradition which has shaped it, but also shows new emphases offered in response to the Reformation and later theological thought. In the later Middle Ages (from the twelfth century onward) Aristotelian philosophy provided the foundation for scholastic theology as it sought to express in logical terms how divine initiative and human response come together in the sacraments. Although both Catholic and Protestant Reformers sought in different ways to reformulate answers to this problem, their method remained, by and large, scholastic and logical. In some aspects, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1963) returned to the New Testament and patristic understanding of the mystery of Christ's sacred action that had characterized medieval theology up to the rise of scholasticism. In making an account of sacramental action, that is, the rela…