The Development of the Catholic Sacraments

For Further Reading

Baldwin, Marshall. The Medieval Church (Cornell University Press, 1953) is a concise and readable history of Christianity in the Middle Ages.

Evans, G. R. Philosophy and Theology in the Middle Ages (Routledge, 1993) is a very approachable introduction to how and why medieval thinkers thought the way they did.

Dawson, Christopher. Medieval Essays (Doubleday Image Books, 1959) contains a number of essays on the church and medieval thought.

Frank, Isnard Wilhelm. A Concise History of the Medieval Church (Continuum, 1995) gives an overview of what was going on socially, politically, spiritually and intellectually.

Price, B. B. Medieval Thought (Blackwell Publishers, 1992) grounds the development of scholastic theology in Greek thought and Christian spirituality.

Volz, Carl. The Medieval Church (Abingdon Press, 1997) situates the twelfth century renaissance within the broader sweep of medieval history.

For Further Study
Sacraments and Theology

Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica contains his theology of the sacraments in Part III, Questions 60–90, and Supplement. Summa Contra Gentiles presents his ideas on the sacraments in more summary fashion in Book IV, Chapters 56–78.

Congar, Yves. A History of Theology (Doubleday, 1968) contains three chapters on the development and contributions of scholasticism.

Copleston, F. C. A History of Medieval Philosophy (Methuen, 1972) goes deeply into the philosophical foundations of medieval theology.

Garland, Peter. The Definition of Sacrament According to Saint Thomas (University of Ottawa Press, 1959) gives a technical but clear explanation of Aquinas’ understanding of sacraments as signs of grace.

Gallagher, John. Significando Causant: A Study of Sacramental Causality (Fribourg University Press, 1965) is a thorough treatment of how Aquinas and other scholastics explained that sacraments cause grace.

Haren, Michael. Medieval Thought (University of Toronto Press, 1992) explains how the recovery of ancient Greek philosophy provided a foundation for the development of scholasticism.

Larson-Miller, Lizette. Medieval Liturgy (Garland, 1997) is a book of essays by historians and liturgists on a variety of topics related to the title.

Lonergan, Bernard. Grace and Freedom in Aquinas (Herder and Herder, 1971) develops the approach to grace and causality followed in this chapter.

Macy, Gary. The Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early Scholastic Period (Oxford University Press, 1984) presents a detailed account of how theology was done in the Middle Ages, focusing on different interpretations of the eucharist.

Oberman, Heiko. The Harvest of Medieval Theology (William B. Eerdmans, 1962) gives a more positive view of nominalism than the usual one, presented in this chapter.

O'Meara, Thomas. Thomas Aquinas, Theologian (University of Notre Dame Press, 1997) is a comprehensive treatment of the thinker, his context, and his legacy.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Growth of Medieval Theology, 600–1300 (University of Chicago Press, 1978) traces the development of scholasticism up until the synthesis of Thomas Aquinas.

Rogers, Elizabeth. Peter Lombard and the Sacramental System (Richwood Publishing, 1976) shows the changes that took place in numbering and defining the sacraments in the middle of the twelfth century.

Vauchez, André. The Laity in the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practices (University of Notre Dame Press, 1993) is a collection of the author's articles, which are informative but not imaginatively written.

Vogel, Cyrille. Medieval Liturgy: An Introduction to the Sources (Pastoral Press, 1986) meticulously traces the development of the Latin liturgy from the sixth to the sixteenth century.

Church History

Baldwin, Marshall. The Medieval Church (Cornell University Press, 1953) is a concise and readable history of Christianity in the Middle Ages.

Deanesly, Margaret. A History of the Medieval Church, 590–1500 (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1969) is a clear and often reprinted account of almost every aspect of church life in that period.

Herrin, Judith. The Formation of Christendom (Princeton University Press, 1987) takes a close and detailed look at Christianity in the early Middle Ages.

Hillgarth, J. N., ed., Christianity and Paganism, 350–750 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986) introduces and comments on historical texts, documenting the gradual conversion of western Europe.

Hollister, C. Warren. Medieval Europe (John Wiley and Sons, 1982) provides a generous supply of maps and illustrations to help explain what was happening in the Middle Ages.

Lynch, Joseph. The Medieval Church (Longman, 1992) covers everything from the conversion of Europe to the invention of the printing press.

Oakley, Francis. The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (Cornell University Press, 1979) describes ecclesiastical, liturgical, and theological developments during that period.

Russell, Jeffrey Burton. A History of Medieval Christianity (Harlan Davidson, 1968) looks at the period in terms of a dialectic between the transforming spirit of Christianity and the tendency toward social organization.

Southern, Richard. Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (William B. Eerdmans, 1970) details the social and political background to the theological developments in medieval Christianity.

Thomson, John. The Western Church in the Middle Ages (Arnold, 1998) gives a fairly comprehensive overview of developments in Europe from the fall of Rome to the eve of the Reformation.