As a multi-faceted introduction to sacramental theology, the purposes of this Handbook are threefold: historical, ecumenical, and missional. The forty-four chapters are organized into the following parts five parts: Sacramental Roots in Scripture, Patristic Sacramental Theology, Medieval Sacramental Theology, From the Reformation through Today, and Philosophical and Theological Issues in Sacramental Doctrine. Contributors to this Handbook explain the diverse ways that believers have construed the sacraments, both in inspired Scripture and in the history of the Church's practice. In Scripture and the early Church, Orthodox, Protestants, and Catholics all find evidence that the first Christian communities celebrated and taught about the sacraments in a manner that Orthodox, Protestants, and Catholics today affirm as the foundation of their own faith and practice. Thus, for those who want to understand what has been taught about the sacraments in Scripture and across the generations by the major thinkers of the various Christian traditions, this Handbook provides an introduction. As the divisions in Christian sacramental understanding and practice are certainly evident in this Handbook, it is not thereby without ecumenical and missional value. This book evidences that the story of the Christian sacraments is, despite divisions in interpretation and practice, one of tremendous hope. Hans Boersma and Matthew Levering: Introduction: The Handbook's Three Purposes Sacramental Roots in Scripture 1. Walter Moberly: Sacramentality And The Old Testament 2. Dennis T. Olson: Sacramentality in the Torah 3. Craig A. Evans and Jeremiah J. Johnston: Intertestamental Background of the Christian Sacraments 4. Nicholas Perrin: Sacraments and Sacramentality in the New Testament 5. Edith M. Humphrey: Sacrifice and Sacrament: Sacramental Implications of the Death of Christ 6. Richard Bauckham: Sacraments and the Gospel of John 7. David Lincicum: Sacraments in the Pauline Epistles 8. Luke Timothy Johnson: Sacramentality and Sacraments in Hebrews Patristic Sacramental Theology 9. Everett Ferguson: Sacraments in the Pre-Nicene Period 10. Khaled Anatolios: Sacraments in the Fourth Century 11. Lewis Ayres and Thomas Humphries: Augustine and the West to AD 650 12. Andrew Louth: Late Patristic Developments in Sacramental Theology in the East (Fifth-Ninth Century) Medieval Sacramental Theology 13. Mark G. Vaillancourt: Sacramental Theology from Gottschalk to Lanfranc 14. Boyd Taylor Coolman: The Christo-Pneumatic-Ecclesial Character of Twelfth-Century Sacramental Theology 15. Joseph Wawrykow: The Sacraments In Thirteenth-Century Theology 16. Ian Christopher Levy: Sacraments in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 17. Yury P. Avvakumov: Sacramental Ritual in Middle and Later Byzantine Theology, 9th -15th centuries From the Reformation through Today 18. Mickey L. Mattox: Sacraments in the Lutheran Reformation 19. Michael Allen: Sacraments in the Reformed and Anglican Reformation 20. John Rempel: Sacraments in the Radical Reformation 21. Peter Walter, Translated by David L. Augustine: Sacraments in the Council of Trent and 16th Century Catholic Theology 22. Brian A. Butcher: Orthodox Sacramental Theology: Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries 23. Trent Pomplun: Post-Tridentine Sacramental Theology 24. Scott R. Swain: Lutheran and Reformed Sacramental Theology, 17th-19th Centuries 25. E. Brooks Holifield: Sacramental Theology in America, 17th through 19th Centuries 26. Twentieth Century and Contemporary Protestant Sacramental Theology Part I. Martha L. Moore-Keish: Sacraments in General and Baptism in Twentieth Century and Contemporary Protestant Theology Part II. George Hunsinger: The Lord's Supper in Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Protestant Theology 27. Peter Casarella: Catholic Sacramental Theology in the Twentieth Century 28. Peter Galadza: Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Orthodox Sacramental Theology Dogmatic Approaches 29. David W. Fagerberg: Liturgy, Signs, and Sacraments 30. Geoffrey Wainwright: One Baptism, One Church? 31. C. C. Pecknold and Lucas Laborde, S.S.J.: Confirmation 32. Bruce D. Marshall: What is the Eucharist? A Dogmatic Outline 33. Brent Waters: Marriage 34. The Sacrament of Orders Dogmatically Understood: 35. Anthony Akinwale, O.P.: Reconciliation 36. John C. Kasza: Anointing of the Sick Philosophical and Theological Issues in Sacramental Doctrine 37. Thomas Joseph White, O.P: Sacraments and Philosophy 38. Benoit-Dominique de La Soujeole, O.P. Translated by Dominic M. Langevin, O.P.: The Sacraments and the Development of Doctrine 39. David Brown: A Sacramental World: Why It Matters 40. Francesca Aran Murphy: Christ, The Trinity, and The Sacraments 41. Peter J. Leithart: Signs of the Eschatological Ekklesia: The Sacraments, the Church, and Eschatology 42. Gordon W. Lathrop: Liturgy, Preaching and the Sacraments 43. C. J. C. Pickstock: Sense and Sacrament 44. Jorge Scampini, O.P: The Sacraments in Ecumenical Dialogue Hans Boersma (Ph.D. University of Utrecht) is the J. I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. Before coming to Regent College in 2005, Boersma taught for six years at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. He also served several years as a Pastor. Boersma has written of a number of books, including Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach (Oxford University Press, 2013), Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (Eerdmans, 2011), Nouvelle Theologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford University Press, 2009), and Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition (Baker Academic, 2004). Matthew Levering is Perry Family Foundation Professor of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. He serves as co-editor of two theological quarterlies, Nova et Vetera and The International Journal of Systematic Theology. He is the author of Predestination (Oxford University Press, 2011), Biblical Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Natural Law: A Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Trialogue (with David Novak and Anver Emon; Oxford University Press, 2014). He is also the co-editor of Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition (with Matthew L. Lamb; Oxford University Press, 2008).