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Course 11 · Lesson 5.2

Augustine and the definition of a sacrament

12 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 11 outline

Module 1: What the Church Is

  1. Biblical images of the church: body, people, temple and bride
  2. One, holy, catholic and apostolic: the four marks
  3. The mission of the church
  4. The visible and invisible church in Augustine, the Reformers and the East

Module 2: Ministry and Apostolic Succession

  1. Ministry in the New Testament: apostles, elders, overseers and deacons
  2. The bishop in the early church: Clement, Ignatius and Irenaeus
  3. Apostolic succession: three meanings (a line of bishops, the teaching, the mission)
  4. Ordination in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions

Module 3: Scripture, Tradition and Church Authority

  1. Scripture and tradition in the early church
  2. The Catholic account: Scripture, tradition and the magisterium
  3. The Orthodox account: the living tradition of the church
  4. The Reformation and the question of sola scriptura

Module 4: Three Systems of Authority

  1. The bishop of Rome in early history
  2. Papal primacy and infallibility in Catholic teaching
  3. Orthodox conciliarity and the role of the patriarchs
  4. Protestant principles of authority: Scripture, confessions and the priesthood of believers
  5. The strongest objections each tradition raises against the others

Module 5: Sacramental Theology

  1. Mystery and sacrament: the words and their history
  2. Augustine and the definition of a sacrament
  3. How many sacraments? Seven, two, or none
  4. Validity, efficacy and the role of faith

Module 6: Baptism and the Eucharist

  1. Baptism in Scripture and the early church
  2. Infant baptism and believers baptism
  3. The Eucharist in the early church
  4. Real presence: transubstantiation, the Orthodox mystery, Lutheran, Reformed and memorial views

Module 7: Reconciliation and Liturgical Worship

  1. The forgiveness of sins in Scripture
  2. Confession and penance in the history of the church
  3. Confession across the traditions: Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed practice
  4. Liturgy, word and table, and the church year
  5. Worship without a fixed liturgy and its principles

Module 8: Schism and Christian Unity

  1. Early schisms: the Donatists and the churches after Chalcedon
  2. East and West: the long division and the events of 1054
  3. The Reformation divisions
  4. Ecumenism and the prospects for unity

All courses

Program / Course 11: Church, Sacraments, and Authority / Lesson 5.2

What you will learn

  • Explain Augustine’s account of a sacrament as a sacred sign and a visible word.
  • Describe how Augustine used these ideas in the Donatist controversy.
  • Trace how medieval theologians and the Reformers built on his account.
  • Compare the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant uses of the definition.

The big idea

Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa (354 to 430), shaped the Western idea of a sacrament more than any other writer. He taught that a sacrament is a sacred sign, a visible form of something invisible, and that the Word joined to the element makes the sacrament. In the Donatist controversy he held that a sacrament belongs to Christ and does not depend on the worth of the minister. Medieval and Reformation writers drew on him in different ways. The Orthodox do not use his framework as such, though many respect his teaching.

Key terms

Sign
In Augustine’s thought, a thing that points beyond itself to something else.
Res
A Latin word for thing. In Augustine’s sacramental thought, the reality signified by the sign, such as unity in Christ.
Visible word
Augustine’s phrase for a sacrament: God’s word of promise made visible in an action with a material element.
Donatists
A North African Christian movement that held that the church must be pure and that sacraments given by sinful or lapsed ministers were invalid.
Ex opere operato
A Latin phrase meaning by the work done. A later medieval term for the teaching that a sacrament gives grace by Christ’s action, not by the minister’s holiness.
Character
Augustine compared baptism and ordination to a soldier’s mark, a lasting sign that cannot be lost or repeated.

Background

Augustine became a Christian in 386 and bishop of Hippo in 395 or 396. In his time the church in North Africa was divided between Catholics and Donatists. The Donatists arose after the great persecution under Diocletian in 303 to 305. They refused to accept bishops ordained by men who had handed over Scripture during the persecution, and they rebaptized Catholics who joined them. Augustine wrote against them for many years and gave sacramental theology a lasting form.

He did not write a single treatise defining sacraments. His teaching is found in sermons, letters and works such as Against the Letters of Petilian and On Baptism. Later writers drew a short definition from his scattered remarks. A careful reader should know which statements are Augustine’s own and which are summaries made afterward.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Signs

In his work On Christian Teaching, Augustine explained that a sign is a thing that makes another thing come to mind. Words are signs, and so are certain actions and objects. He wrote in the City of God (10.5) that the visible sacrifice is the sacrament, that is, the sacred sign, of the invisible sacrifice. This is the basis of the later short definition, often repeated, that a sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace. The short form is a later summary, and Augustine did not use those exact words as a formal definition.

The idea has an important feature. A sign is not the same thing as what it signifies, and it is also not an empty symbol. In Augustine’s thought, God uses these signs to give what they point to. The church’s rites are signs that Christ uses, not mere reminders.

Step 2: The visible word

In his commentary on John (Tractate 80.3), Augustine asked how water can cleanse the body and the heart, and answered that it is by the word. He wrote that the word comes to the element and so it becomes a sacrament, as if it were itself a visible word. Luther, Calvin and other Reformers made much of this formula. They saw in it support for the idea that a sacrament consists of God’s promise joined to a sign.

Catholic theology also uses the passage. It stresses that the word is spoken by the church in the sacramental formula, for example the words of baptism, and that Christ acts through them. Both traditions read the same sentence and use it to express what they hold about the Word and the sign.

Step 3: The Donatist controversy

The Donatists held that a sinful minister cannot give a valid sacrament. Augustine replied that baptism belongs to Christ, who is the true baptizer, and so it does not depend on the minister’s merit. He argued that otherwise no one could be sure of the sacrament, since no one can see another’s heart. The sacrament remains valid when given by unworthy hands, though it may not profit the one who receives it without faith and love.

He also taught that baptism leaves a permanent mark, like a soldier’s brand, so that it cannot be repeated even when a person returns to the church from schism. The same applies to ordination. The later Catholic doctrine of the character of baptism, confirmation and orders developed from this teaching. The medieval phrase ex opere operato was used to express that sacraments act by Christ’s work and not by the minister’s holiness.

Step 4: Sign and thing

Augustine distinguished the sacrament (the outward sign) from the res, the reality of unity and grace that it points to. He held that one could receive the sign without the reality, as a person baptized in schism, or a hypocrite who receives the Eucharist, receives the sign but not its fruit. He also thought that a person might receive the reality without the visible sign in exceptional cases, as in a martyr who dies before being baptized.

This distinction is the root of a long debate. Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants all accept that the faith of the recipient matters for the benefit. They differ on what the sign gives by itself and on what the sign can be said to contain. Some later writers have said that Augustine speaks sometimes as if the signs only point and sometimes as if they truly give. Scholars still debate how best to read him.

Step 5: After Augustine

Medieval writers developed his ideas. Peter Lombard defined a sacrament as the sign of a sacred thing and as the form of an invisible grace in such a way that it bears its image and is its cause. Aquinas taught that sacraments are instrumental causes of grace, used by God as a tool is used by a craftsman, and that they sanctify human beings.

The Reformers returned to Augustine for the idea of the visible word and for the distinction of sign and reality. Calvin wrote that a sacrament is an outward sign by which the Lord seals on the conscience his promises of good will toward believers. Others, such as Zwingli, stressed the sign as a pledge and a public profession. The Heidelberg Catechism (question 66) calls the sacraments visible, holy signs and seals. Eastern writers rarely use Augustine’s vocabulary but respect his authority on the Trinity and grace, and some Orthodox theologians criticize aspects of his thought.

  1. Is the sacrament being described as a sign, a cause, or both?
  2. What part does the word play in making the sacrament?
  3. Does the writer say the minister’s worth affects the sacrament?
  4. What is the difference between receiving the sign and receiving the reality?
  5. Which passage of Augustine does the later writer rely on?
  6. Does the later writer use Augustine fairly?

Examples

The unworthy minister

A congregation learns that the priest who baptized their children has been living in secret sin. Under the Donatist view, the baptisms would be doubtful. Under Augustine’s view, the baptisms are valid because Christ is the true baptizer. Catholic and Orthodox churches and most Protestants still follow his reasoning. (A constructed example.)

Water and the word

Luther in his Small Catechism writes that baptism is not simply water but water included in God’s command and combined with God’s word. This echoes Augustine’s idea of the word coming to the element, and shows how the Reformation used him.

A soldier’s mark

Augustine compared baptism to the mark that a soldier receives on enlistment. A deserter who returns is not marked again, but restored. The image was used to explain why baptism is not repeated, even for those who leave the church and later come back.

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic theology builds on Augustine and Aquinas, teaching that sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, effective by Christ’s action through the church. The Council of Trent taught that the sacraments confer grace on those who place no obstacle in the way, and that they do so by the work done. Catholics see this as a faithful development of Augustine.

Orthodox

Orthodox writers honor Augustine as a father, though less than in the West, and some question how his thought has been used. They do not usually define sacraments as signs that cause grace, and are cautious about the Western vocabulary of validity and efficacy. They hold that the sacraments are actions of Christ in the church.

Protestant

Protestants draw on Augustine for the visible word, for the necessity of faith and for the sign and reality distinction. Lutherans and Reformed use these differently. Lutherans stress that the word of promise is attached to the elements, and Reformed writers stress the work of the Spirit in those who believe.

Scholarly view

Scholars note that Augustine’s sacramental theology was shaped by controversy. They also note that his sentences have been quoted in many later systems, and that he held both a strong view of the sacrament’s objective validity and a view that its benefit depends on charity. Reading him fairly means holding both.

Why it matters

The Western definition of a sacrament, and with it the arguments of Catholics and Protestants about what a sacrament does, comes largely from Augustine. Knowing his actual statements shows both what the later traditions share and where they selected from him. It also gives a basis for a fair comparison.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Augustine defined a sacrament as a visible sign of an invisible grace.

Correction: That short form is a later summary. Augustine spoke of sacred signs and the visible word in several places and never gave that exact definition.

Misunderstanding: Augustine taught that sacraments work like magic regardless of faith.

Correction: He taught that a sacrament can be valid without profiting the recipient, and that faith and love are needed for the benefit. The validity does not depend on the minister’s worth.

Misunderstanding: Protestants rejected Augustine on sacraments.

Correction: They relied heavily on him, especially on the visible word and the importance of faith. They differed from the medieval church on the number of sacraments and on what the signs give.

Misunderstanding: The Donatists were heretics about the Trinity.

Correction: The Donatists held the same creed as the Catholics. The dispute was about the purity of the church and the validity of sacraments given by sinful or lapsed ministers.

Knowledge check

What did Augustine mean when he spoke of the visible word?

He taught that the word comes to the element, such as water, and so a sacrament is made, as a visible word of God’s promise. He wrote this in his commentary on John. The Reformers often cited it for the link between the word and the sign.

How did Augustine answer the Donatists on the minister’s worth?

He said that Christ is the true baptizer, so a sacrament does not depend on the worth of the minister. A sacrament given by an unworthy minister is valid, though it may not profit the recipient without faith and love.

What is the difference between the sacrament and the res in Augustine?

The sacrament is the outward sign, and the res is the reality it points to, such as unity with Christ and his church. A person may receive the sign without the reality, and exceptionally the reality without the sign.

Name two later writers who used Augustine and one point of difference between them.

Aquinas used him to teach that sacraments cause grace as instruments, and Calvin used him to speak of the sign as a seal of God’s promise received by faith. They differ on what the sacramental signs themselves give.

Think it through

  1. Why does it matter whether a sacrament depends on the minister’s worth?
  2. Can a sign be both a pointer to a reality and a means by which that reality is given?
  3. How might one tradition read Augustine as supporting its view and another read him differently?
  4. What does it mean to receive the sign without the reality?

Independent assignment

Augustine in three later writers

In your notebook, read the short passages from Augustine named in this lesson (City of God 10.5, Tractates on John 80.3, and a passage from On Baptism if available). Then read a short passage on the sacraments from Aquinas or Trent, from Calvin or the Heidelberg Catechism, and from an Orthodox source. For each, note how Augustine is used, and write 250 to 350 words on where the use is faithful and where it selects. Keep the work in your notebook.

Further study