Sacraments of Initiation, Second Edition: A Theology of Life, Word, and Rite

Liam G. Walsh OP

ene 2022 · LiturgyTrainingPublications

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The original edition of this book presented a theology of sacraments that emerged out of a Church stirred into new life by the Second Vatican Council. It is a theology that can claim to have been continuously received in the Catholic Church since then. It is the theology that has been widely practiced and preached in pastoral life, has been given catechetical shape in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. However, during the past 23 years, some trends developed in pastoral theology and practice that were taking directions that seemed hard to reconcile with the decisions of the Council. This new edition examines the way some theological counter-currents have developed over those years, both in theory and in practice. The sacramental theology contained in this study maintains the broad on-going agreement between what it proposes and mainstream Church teaching and practice. The book examines the tradition of sacramental practice and teaching. Biblical and historical studies continue to uncover new riches of the tradition, and recent findings are discussed. A careful listening to the tradition of rite and word is truly indispensable for sacramental theology. It was out of such listening that Vatican II teaching on sacraments emerged and provision was made for recovering the full richness of the tradition. Not all of the recent theological speculations and pastoral strategies given an equally serious acknowledgement to the tradition. The liturgies that are studied in this book have been given to the Church in the wake of Vatican II. The historical chapters will show the liturgies to be a contemporary expression of fidelity to core values of the Apostolic Tradition. The chapters on the rite of each sacrament are mainly descriptive and historical, but also include anthropological reflections that unveil the human significances of the various rites. The chapters on the word examine the biblical and traditional word spoken in the churches about each sacrament, and conclude with what is called a 'systematic essay'. The bibiography has updated to reflect the development in the field.

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Liam G. Walsh, OP, is a member of the Irish Dominican Province. He holds degrees in theology from St. Tallaght (Ireland), Le Saulchoir (France) and from the Angelicum (Rome). He has taught in Rome at Santa Sabina and the Angelicum, and was a professor of theology in Switzerland at the University of Fribourg. Much of his work has been in the area of liturgy and the theology of sacraments. He served for nine years as an Assistant to the Master of the Dominican Order. He has worked in the area of ecumenism, is a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and has been a member of ARCIC since 1991. He presently serves as Regent of Studies in his Dominican Province.