The Meaning and Practice of Confirmation: Perspectives from a Sixteenth-Century Controversy

by Paul Turner

No rite in the history of Christianity has proven as puzzling as confirmation. What began as imposition of hands became anointing. What once was part of initiation has become a mature act of commitment to the Church. What is a sacrament to one Christian tradition remains an ecclesial rite to another. Confirmation has the embarrassing distinction of being the one rite about which people keep asking, «Just what does it mean?» Turner responds to the question through the study of a post-Reformation controversy about confirmation. Focusing on the work of Robert Bellarmine, the book explores the development of the theology of confirmation on both sides of the Reformation with an eye toward contemporary practice. Featured are a complete listing of the sources used by Bellarmine, John Calvin, and Martin Chemnitz on this topic, and an analysis of the contemporary Catholic and Lutheran rites of confirmation.

357 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

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Paul Turner is pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Kansas City, Missouri. A priest of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, he holds a doctorate in sacred theology from the Athenaeum of Saint Anselm in Rome. He is the author of Glory in the Cross: Holy Week in the Third Edition of The Roman Missal, When Other Christians Become Catholic, and many other titles. He is a former President of the North American Academy of Liturgy and a team member for the North American Forum on the Catechumenate. He is a member of Societas Liturgica and the Catholic Academy of Liturgy. He serves as a facilitator for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.