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The long-standing tradition of baptizing infants suggests that the sacraments plunge our bodies into salvation, so the revelation of God's love in the sacraments addresses the whole person, not the mind alone. In this work, the contemporary Roman Catholic rite of baptism for infants becomes a case study, manifesting the connections between the human body, the ecclesial body, and the Body of Christ. The sacramental life, for children as for adults, is an ongoing journey deeper into the life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. By examining the church's practice of infant baptism, Kimberly Hope Belcher asks how human beings participate in God's life through the sacraments. Christian sacraments are embodied, cultural rituals performed by and for human beings. At the same time, the sacraments are God's gifts of grace, by which human beings enter into God's own life. In this study, contemporary ritual studies, sacramental theology, and Trinitarian theology are used to explore how participation in the sacraments can be an efficacious engagement in God's life of love.
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Reviews
"Oelrich's thorough analysis of Congar's insightful writings on ecclesial authority is timely indeed."
Michael A. Fahey, SJ, Boston College
"Anthony Oelrich patiently and clearly explains Congar's theology which has inspired theological and pastoral renewal in the contemporary chuch, not least though its influence on the documents of Vatican II. Both the center and the periphery the church's hierarchy and its creative prophets have much to learn here."
Paul Philibert, OP, Translator of Congar's True and False Reform in the Church
"With new insight and informed theological rigor, Belcher advances the now decades-long effort to appreciate and promote the human symbolic activity of sacraments as experiences of sharing in the very life of God. True to the wisdom and knowledge she has gleaned from the field of ritual studies, she delves into the particulars of one rite, infant baptism, to demonstrate how its personal, bodily, c
Bruce T. Morrill, S.J., Vanderbilt Divinity School