John Colwell presents a robust sacramental theology for Protestant churches. He maintains that a doctrine of the Trinity leads us to conceive of God’s gracious engagement with his creation as one that is mediated through that creation. And this lies at the foundation for an understanding of the sacraments. Colwell further argues that the Church and Scripture confer context, definition, and validity on all other sacramental events.
Following an introduction that briefly reviews the development of sacramental theology, the book begins with an exploration of God’s Triune identity and the implications of this doctrine for the gracious and mediated nature of God’s relatedness with the world.
A central section follows in which a doctrine of the Church and a doctrine of Scripture are expounded in response to this understanding of the gracious and mediated nature of God’s relatedness. Both Church and Scripture are identified as conferring context, definition, and validity on all other sacramental events.
The final section reconsiders the seven Sacraments of the Catholic tradition in the light of an understanding of sacramentality developed in the first two sections of the book. The Sacraments are discussed from a Baptist perspective but with a committed ecumenical intent and an underlying awareness of the contemporary British and North American context within which the Church exists and Scripture is heard.
