How do Rites of Water and Wine Influence Theology?
Can the church affirm that the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper are necessary for salvation? Why not?
When it comes to the sacraments of the church, theology in American evangelicalism has often downplayed the communal aspect of salvation, by sundering the Old and New Covenant or abstracting sacramental theology from the rituals of the Scriptures.
Such abstraction ignores the social dimension of salvation, that the effects of the First Adam's sin were fully overcome in the Last Adam, Jesus Christ. Rather than remaking individuals, Jesus' redemption remakes humanity, restoring humanity to communion with the triune God.
In his book, theologian Peter J. Leithart shows how the church's rites of water as well as bread and wine constitute a new humanity by remaking man as a man in relationship with God and others. Salvation is social salvation because it restores individuals in addition to restoring their relationships and the ritual forms of those relationships.
Leithart's book includes several essays exploring the meaning of signs as ritual actions, how to appreciate the Old and New in theology, understanding baptismal regeneration as a sociological event, tying the rite of baptism to the New Covenant priesthood, and evaluating different theological models of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and more.
