Description: With the widespread use of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, religious education teachers are being confronted with a wealth of questions and problems. Sacramental Guidelines provides helpful guidelines for anyone preparing classes that deal with the sacraments.
In a clear and logical order, author Kenan B. Osborne puts forth the hierarchy of truths involved in sacramental instruction. He identifies which doctrines of the church are "immutable truths" that must be concisely taught. Then, he discusses statements which are currently the official teachings of the church, but which may change in time, Finally, he describes those areas in sacramental teaching which are still being discussed and argued by reputable Catholic theologians.
Sacramental Guidelines is an indispensable tool for religious education teachers. Parents and pastors will appreciate its straightforward overview of the sacraments and how they function in our faith as the heart of our Catholic belief and the soul of our spirituality.
Description: Presents the Roman Catholic approach to sacraments in general in a way that encompasses the teaching of Vatican II, contemporary Catholic theologians and the ecumenical dimension.
These six Lectures on the Christian Sacraments were delivered in Jerusalem in the middle of the fourth century. They belong to a period of rapid transition for the Church. Less than forty years before, Christianity had been an illegal religion, the object of intense persecution. Now it was the favored religion of the state. Potential converts thronged the shining new basilicas, built through the beneficence of Constantine and his successors. Catechetical instruction was needed. It was provided by gifted preachers and teachers like St Cyril of Jerusalem.
The first of the lectures, the "procatechesis," is a hearty welcome to the candidates for baptism and introduces them to the periods of doctrinal instruction which lies ahead. The remaining five, the "mystagogical catecheses," are an exposition the rites of Christian initiation - baptism, chrismation, and the Eucharist - for the newly baptized. A rich source of information on the history and worship of the forth century, the lectures remain a source of instruction and inspiration. The present edition, with its scholarly introduction and Greek text as well as its eminently readable English translation, makes this remarkable text available to the specialist and non-specialist alike.
On the Christian Sacraments is part of the POPULAR PATRISTIC SERIES.
Description: The author of Christ's Act in the Church concentrates on Protestantism, exploring the Calvinistic Eucharist traditions of the Presbyterians, members of the United Church of Christ, and Methodists (of whatever Wesleyan type). He also provides material pertinent to preaching, study of the Eucharist by laity, and practical local reform that implements recent revision of denominational rites.
