Sacramental Orders

by John D. Laurance (Preface by), Susan K. Wood

Overview

This study of bishops, presbyters, and deacons identifies four conceptualizations of the Church influencing the relationship between ordained ministry and the Church: a monarchical and hierarchical conceptualization; a eucharistic, collegial model representing the communion of particular churches; the priest, prophet, and king motif that structures the concept of the Church as the people of God; and a theology of the Church as a sacrament of Christ and ordained ministry as a sacrament of the Church. It examines the 1990 ordination rites and discusses the sacramentality of episcopal ordination, the identity of the presbyterate, and questions concerning the diaconate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814625224
Publisher:	Liturgical Press, The
Publication date:	02/18/2008
Series:	LEX Orandi Series
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Susan K. Wood, SCL, is chair of the department of theology at Marquette University. Active in ecumenical work, she serves on the U.S. Lutheran–Roman Catholic Dialogue, the U.S. Roman Catholic–Orthodox Theological Consultation, the conversation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance, and the International Lutheran–Roman Catholic Dialogue. She is an associate editor of Pro Ecclesia and serves on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ecclesiology. She is the author of Sacramental Orders (2000), and editor of Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood: Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry (2003) both published by Liturgical Press.

Editorial Reviews

The work can be recommended as an example of a careful exercise in liturgical theology and for its insight into the prevailing approach to the meaning of the sacrament of Order in the Roman liturgy.
David N. Power, OMI, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

This study is an invaluable summary of the most up-to-date scholarship and pastoral implications surrounding the sacrament of order.
Emmanuel

Wood provides a thorough and reliable introduction to the theology of orders on the basis of and in relation to the official Roman Catholic rites for the ordinations of bishops, presbyters, and deacons.
Theological Studies

The book is dense, not in the sense of being incomprehensible, but rather in the sense that it is packed with food for thought and further study.
Liturgy Network Newsletter

The book should work well in masters level courses in conjunction with larger historical surveys and theological works.
Theological Studies

. . . must be welcomed as an excellent resource for anyone studying this aspect of liturgical theology at university level.
In Illo Tempore

. . . a must-read for bishops, Commissions on Ministry, aspirants, seminarians and anyone who cares about the church's order and its relation to worship. . . . Susan Wood has crafted an enormously helpful volume. Reading, rereading, and digesting it will further our discussions, clarify terminology, and above all show in a very practical instance how to do sacramental theology out of the rites themselves.
Open

Susan Wood has made a fine contribution to the liturgical theology and ecclesiology with this book.
Theoforum

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