'This word, this life-giving manna': Scripture as 'Sacrament' in Early Protestantism

Dr. Ron Rittgers

This paper is part of a larger book project entitled The Enchanted Word of Early Protestantism. The book seeks to show that during the Reformation, Protestants viewed Scripture—read, heard, preached, sung, or inscribed—as a kind of sacrament or means of grace. Scripture was not simply a source of correct if contested information about God for early Protestants, it was more profoundly a place of encounter with God, even mystical encounter. The book thus calls upon us to revise the traditional Weberian disenchantment narrative in new ways by demonstrating the centrality of a Word-based “enchantment" at the very heart of the Reformation. This paper will examine brief case studies from Reformation biblical commentaries, postils, church ordinances, devotional literature, and archeological evidence to advance the argument of the larger book project. It will show that one does not have to do an end-run-around the Reformation to arrive at a sacramental view of Scripture.

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