The Encyclopedia of World Religions

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In addition to baptism and the Eucharist, the seven sacraments include: confirmation or chris mation, penance, marriage ( see MARRIAGE AND RELI GION ), holy orders ( see ORDINATION ), and anoint ing. Both the Catholic and the Orthodox churches baptize infants. The Catholic and Anglican Church recognize a sacrament of confirmation. In this ritual baptized persons reaffirm their acceptance of Christianity once they are old enough to speak for themselves. The Orthodox churches recognize instead a sacrament of chrismation. This ritual, which preserves the most ancient practice, occurs immediately after baptism. It is an anointing with oil and a laying on of hands. In penance Christians confess their SINS , either individually before a priest or as a group, and receive words of forgiveness. Marriage joins two people together as husband and wife. The sacra ment of anointing is a ritual performed for spiritual and physical healing. At various times it has been practiced as a ritual for the dying. Holy orders sets aside men for special offices within the church. The most prominent of these are the offices of bishop and priest. Both Catholic and Orthodox churches limit ordination to men. The Catholic Church ordains only unmarried men. The Ortho dox churches ordain married men as well, but they do not permit an unmarried man who is ordained to marry later. They also do not allow married priests to be bishops. Different churches emphasize different aspects when they talk about the sacraments. The Ortho dox churches have generally spoken of sacraments as providing a foretaste of HEAVEN on earth. The Catholic Church has traditionally emphasized the

Sabbath See J UDAISM .

sacraments The most important RITUALS for Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant Chris tians. Orthodox Christians also call sacraments “mysteries.” Not all Christians acknowledge sacraments. For example, Q UAKERS do not. But all of those who do, accept at least two sacraments. These two are BAPTISM and the E UCHARIST . Baptism—either immer sion in or sprinkling with water—is the ritual by which people enter the Christian church. The eucharist is the sharing of bread and wine that is somehow linked to the body and blood of J ESUS . Over the last 2,000 years Christians have disagreed strongly over the proper way to perform these rit uals as well as their proper meaning. These dis agreements played a large part in the splintering of C HRISTIANITY into many different groups. For the first thousand years of Christianity, the term “sacrament” was somewhat fluid. It desig nated other rituals besides baptism and the Eucha rist. In the Middle Ages, a Catholic thinker named Peter Lombard ( c. 1100–60) identified seven sac raments. The great medieval theologian, Thomas A QUINAS , followed him. This became the standard teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. In the 16th century the Protestant Reformers universally rejected the seven sacraments. They generally favored only two. In the 17th century, however, the Orthodox churches accepted the teaching of seven sacraments ( see E ASTERN O RTHODOX C HRISTIANITY ). They practice them somewhat differently than the Catholic Church does.

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