The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2036 page)

 
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Sach Kha
.

The Sikh ‘realm of truth’, the fifth and final stage of spiritual ascent. It is the abode of the One without form, where the believer enters into union with God, and as such, the term can sometimes be a synonym for ‘heaven’.

 
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Sacrament
.

Any of certain solemn religious acts, usually associated with Christianity. The Lat.,
sacramentum
(in secular usage, ‘oath’), acquired this technical sense by its use to translate the Gk.,
myst
rion
, in the Latin New Testament. The exact reference has varied.
Augustine
defined it as the ‘visible form of invisible
grace
’, picked up in the Anglican
catechism
as ‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace … ordained by
Christ
himself’. He applied it to formulae such as the
creed
and Lord's Prayer; and this wide application was maintained into the Middle Ages. However, by the time of
Peter Lombard
, seven particular sacraments have become traditional and are enumerated:
baptism
,
confirmation
, the
eucharist
,
penance
, extreme
unction
,
orders
, and
marriage
; in E. Christianity, they retain their Gk. names, i.e.
baptisma
,
chrism
,
koin
nia
(as well as
eucharistia
),
metanoia
,
euchelaion
,
hierosun
,
gamos
.
The traditional Catholic theology of the sacraments holds that they are channels of God's grace to the recipient. The right ‘matter’ (bread and wine for the eucharist, etc.), the right ‘form’, and the right
intention
are essential for the sacrament to be ‘valid’. In addition, the recipient must be in a proper state of faith and repentance for it to be ‘efficacious’.
In Anglican tradition (Art. 25 of the
Thirty-Nine Articles
) baptism and the eucharist are distinguished as having been ordained by Christ (i.e. Dominical sacraments), from the other five so-called sacraments.
Protestant
theology generally speaks of these two sacraments only.
‘Blessed Sacrament’ (or ‘Sacrament of the altar’) refers specifically to the eucharist, or the bread and wine consecrated at it.
The term ‘sacrament’ is then applied to actions and substances in other religions where fundamental meaning is expressed through non-verbal languages (even if accompanied by words). The term is thus commonly applied to the Hindu
sa
sk
ras
.

 
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