4th century

Sacraments in the 4th century: mystagogy, baptism, the Eucharist and the Trinitarian debates

Anatolios: the 4th century did not analyze its sacramental life as seven sacraments but identified two foundational “mysteries,” baptism and the Eucharist, whose rite and interpretation took shape in the dispute over how the confession of Jesus as Lord relates to the worship of the one God. Defenders of the full divinity of Son and Spirit saw the sacraments as a way to deification, their opponents as glorifying God and acquiring knowledge of him. Mystagogy arose – explanation of the rites after baptism (Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia); the interpretation of baptism shifted from “new birth” to sharing in Christ's death and resurrection, and the gift of the Spirit to the post-baptismal anointing, in connection with Jesus' own baptism. The eucharistic prayers of Jerusalem, the Apostolic Constitutions, Basil and Serapion bear the mark of the Trinitarian disputes, while Cyril, Ambrose, Chrysostom and Theodore combined a distinction between sign and reality with an affirmation of identity of content and an ethical demand on communicants.