Luther’s sacramentology

One of the most discussed issues in the reformation controversy was the question of the sacraments. Such a high significance was inextricably linked with the place and role of the Church in the justifying process. Luther makes drastic changes to the sacramentology of Rome, but for all its distinctiveness, it cannot be called destructive of sacramentology as such. The article attempts to systematically describe and identify the theological foundations and internal logic of Luther’s decisions in the field of sacramentology, which is a specific unfolding of his reformation doctrine of the righteousness of God, in which the only Subject of salvation is God, acting by the Word, one of the forms of which are the sacraments. Understanding the sacrament as God’s Word about salvation, as directed at the recipient, and not at the bodily element of the sacrament, leads Luther to transform the Catholic ex opere operato into ex verbo dicto, as a result of which the sacrament from “healing nature” (Rome) turns into “creating faith” (Luther). Despite the radical nature of Luther’s position, it carries many features of the Catholic doctrine of the sacraments and should be understood as a borderline version of Catholic sacramentology, which becomes obvious in the light of Luther’s polemic with the Anabaptists and Zwingli. With all the diversity and dissimilarity of the positions of his opponents, Luther sees their common mistake in using philosophical criteria as dominant in reasoning about God, forgetting that God is above all human rationality, that He is a Sovereign Subject.