sacramentalism

American  

[sak-ruh-men-tl-iz-uhm] / ˌsæk rəˈmɛn tlˌɪz əm /

noun

1. a belief in or emphasis on the importance and efficacy of the sacraments for achieving salvation and conferring grace.

2. emphasis on the importance of sacramental objects and ritual actions.

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sacramentalism British  

/ ˌsækrəˈmɛntəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. belief in or special emphasis upon the efficacy of the sacraments for conferring grace

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Other Word Forms

• sacramentalist noun

Etymology

Origin of sacramentalism

First recorded in 1860–65; sacramental + -ism

Example Sentences

Modernist Catholicism has in my opinion antedated the irruption of crude sacramentalism into the Church, and has greatly overstated its importance in the religion of the first-century Christians.

From The Legacy of Greece Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield by Livingstone, R.W.

It is much more free from sacramentalism, from vestiges of the ancient blood sacrifice, and its associated sacerdotalism, than Christianity.

From God the Invisible King by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

Thus certain sectarian movements borrowed the sensationalism without the sacramentalism of Wesley.

From The Victorian Age in Literature by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)

Closely related to symbolism is sacramentalism; the man who sees nature as a book of symbols is likely to regard life as a sacrament.

From Architecture and Democracy by Bragdon, Claude Fayette

This principle of the mediation of the spiritual by the material is the principle of sacramentalism.

From Religious Reality by Rawlinson, A. E. J. (Alfred Edward John)