How many Sacraments?

[James_2_24]

I was in a discussion with my priest last night, a very very orthodox Catholic priest. He made a statement that puzzled me a little bit. He said, "You know, it wasn’t always clear how many Sacraments there were… Augustine argued that there were eight. The Church didn’t really settle the number of Sacraments until the 400s.

In such a fundamental belief, I have a hard time that the Church didn’t even settle the matter until the 400s. To me that almost as bad as saying: “You know the divinity of Christ wasn’t really realized until the 400s, and then such and such a council…”

Can someone please point me towards info on the Sacraments and how is it possible that the Church didn’t even know its function completely until the 400s?

God Bless

 

[itsjustdave1988]

James_2:24:

I was in a discussion with my priest last night, a very very orthodox Catholic priest. He made a statement that puzzled me a little bit. He said, "You know, it wasn’t always clear how many Sacraments there were… Augustine argued that there were eight. The Church didn’t really settle the number of Sacraments until the 400s.

In such a fundamental belief, I have a hard time that the Church didn’t even settle the matter until the 400s. To me that almost as bad as saying: “You know the divinity of Christ wasn’t really realized until the 400s, and then such and such a council…”

Can someone please point me towards info on the Sacraments and how is it possible that the Church didn’t even know its function completely until the 400s?

God Bless

Hmmm…it was believed by the Church with regard to the 7, even if such belief was implicit. It wasn’t always clear to some individual Catholics whether there was more than 7.

This is more analogous to the number of books of Scripture, which is also fundamental and wasn’t canonized until the end of the 4th century. That didn’t mean the Church as a whole didn’t know what books were sacred. It simply meant that individuals in the Church differed on the topic until the Church clarified the issue.

It’s like saying “the Church didn’t know whether circumcision was required for salvation or not until the Council of Jerusalem.” Or, “the Church didn’t know that the Son was eternally begotten of the Father until Nicea.” That’s not quite accurate. It’s more accurate to say some in the Church differed with what the Church already knew, even if only believed implicitly.