Who am I? A theology of personal identity and an answer to that question should be integral to any theological anthropology. For some, the answer is found in what many have called “expressive individualism,” an inward turn toward the self and who and what I feel is most authentic to that self. Christians respond that we are no longer that person, we are “in Christ.” But do either of these answers truly respond to the realities of both storied and embodied persons living out a life over time and change or the demand for an answer of stability throughout that endless change? Sacramental Identity seeks to answer these questions by grounding personal identity in Scripture, history, and a rich theology of the sacraments of the church. In a time where many are skeptical of the church’s care for the embodied and storied realities of human life, the sacraments invite us into the story of Christ and the church to discover who we are.

Christians tend to divide into three camps: evangelical, sacramental, and pentecostal. But must we choose between them? Drawing on the New Testament, Christian history, and years of experience in Christian ministry, Gordon T. Smith argues that the church not only can be all three, but in fact must be all three in order to truly be the church.

Deepening the Christian identity celebrated in worship-- "Tim Sedgwick's Sacramental Ethics was a groundbreaking book that awaked us to the significance of religious practices for the moral like. We are, therefore, indebted to Augsburg Fortress for their willingness to make this work available for a new generation who has much to learn from this book." Stanley Hauerwas Duke Divinity School "This remarkable little book remains a classic, a wise and concrete reflection on the life of faith as a real way of life, grounded in the communal encounter with the grace of God in public worship. Look here to see again what word and sacrament have to do with daily life. Read here to think again how the paschal movement of Christ from death to life can pull us along, converting us to the care and embrace of the world." Gordon W. Lathrop Charles A. Schieren Professor of Liturgy Emeritus Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia "Timothy Sedgwick is the most imaginative and provocative moralist now writing in the American Anglican tradition. He's grounded and always has a fresh take on things. If Christian ethics in the United States is finally learning something about the importance of ritual and worship we largely have Tim to thank." David H. Smith Director, Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Center "Sacramental Ethics sets Christian understanding and behavior where it belongs, in the Passover of Christ and of those whose faith lies in him from death to life." Aidan Kavanagh, O.S.B. Timothy F. Sedgwick is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Vice President, and the Clinton S. Quin Professor of Christian Ethics at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.

What does consumerism have to do with the sacraments? We live in cultures where our senses of meaning, identity, and purpose are often found in what we purchase. Apart from the question of hedonism, there is the question of how we orient ourselves in an environment in which we end up marketing our very selves. In this book, Timothy Brunk examines how this consumer culture has had a corrosive effect on the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. He also assesses how sacramental worship can provide resources for responsible Christian discipleship in today's consumer culture.

Cooke reflects on the sacramental liturgies and their relation to love and freedom, reconciliation and concerned service to one another. Includes discussion questions, a bibliography, and an index.

The sacramental economy was instituted by Christ and entrusted to His Church in order to build up the Body of Christ in a twofold communion: binding the members together with God and one another. Touched by Christ: The Sacramental Economy is an introductory course on Sacramental Theology suitable for all who seek a deeper understanding of how the Church’s sacraments constitute channels of grace, nurture supernatural life, and heal us from our sins. Lawrence Feingold expertly describes the nature of the sacraments; their purpose, fittingness, and relationship with Christ and the New Covenant; their relationship with the Old Covenant rites that prefigured them; the character and grace that they communicate; and the nature of their causality. Touched by Christ shows that the sacraments of the New Covenant should be understood as instruments of Christ’s humanity that are used as words of power to communicate the sanctification that they signify, infuse grace, communicate the Holy Spirit, and build up ecclesial communion in those who receive them with the right dispositions.

In the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council, the movement of nouvelle théologie caused great controversy in the Catholic Church and remains a subject of vigorous scholarly debate today. In Nouvelle théologie and Sacramental Ontology Hans Boersma argues that a return to mystery was the movement's deepest motivation. Countering the modern intellectualism of the neo-Thomist establishment, the nouvelle theologians were convinced that a ressourcement of the Church Fathers and of medieval theology would point the way to a sacramental reintegration of nature and the supernatural. In the context of the loss suffered by both Catholics and Protestants in the de-sacramentalizing of modernity, Boersma shows how the sacramental ontology of nouvelle théologie offers a solid entry-point into ecumenical dialogue. The volume begins by setting the historical context for nouvelle théologie with discussions of the influence of significant theologians and philosophers like Möhler, Blondel, Maréchal, and Rousselot. The exposition then moves to the writings of key thinkers of the ressourcement movement including de Lubac, Bouillard, Balthasar, Chenu, Daniélou, Charlier, and Congar. Boersma analyses the most characteristic elements of the movement: its reintegration of nature and the supernatural, its reintroduction of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, its approach to Tradition as organically developing in history, and its communion ecclesiology that regarded the Church as sacrament of Christ. In each of these areas, Boersma demonstrates how the nouvelle theologians advocated a return to mystery by means of a sacramental ontology.