Fulfilled in Christ: The Sacraments. A Guide to Symbols and Types in the Bible and Tradition

Book excerpt: The Early Church read the Scriptures with the conviction that (in the words of St. Augustine), “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” Drawing inspiration from how both the Apostles and Christ himself read the Old Covenant as referring to the New (cf. Luke 24:27, 1 Peter 3:20–21, 1 Corinthians 10:1–5), the Church found the Old Testament to be rich with figures, or “types,” that foreshadowed both the mysteries of the life of Christ and the mysteries, or sacraments, of the New Covenant. And yet, in modern times the study of types (or “typology”) has been largely abandoned by scholars due to the dangers of subjectivity and exaggeration. How can typology be studied in a way that is objective and that avoids the excesses present in the past? Fr. Devin Roza seeks to offer a solution to these difficulties by asking the question, “According to the Scriptures and the living Tradition of the Church, what are the types and symbols of the sacraments and what do they mean?” As authorized representatives of the living Tradition, the Liturgy (including the readings from the Church Fathers) and the Catechism, together with the Scriptures, offer both the scholar and pastor the opportunity to study typology as the Catholic Church herself understands and prays it today, in those texts the Church considers her own. Fulfilled in Christ thus offers a comprehensive and readable summary of references to types and symbols of the sacraments in the Scriptures and the living Tradition of the Church, as represented by the Liturgy and the Catechism. The result is a highly objective, scholarly, and at the same time pastoral study of how the Church understands and lives the types and symbols of the sacraments today.