The Cleansing of the Heart: The Sacraments as Instrumental Causes in the Thomistic Tradition by Reginald M. Lynch, O.P. (review)

As this volume's title suggests, Reginald Lynch offers insight into how the sacraments pertain to the very "essence and purpose of the Church's life" (2). The book has four, complementary chapters.

Chapter 1, "Historical Considerations," begins by situating the subject of the book, Aquinas's teaching on sacramental causality, in relation to the influence of St. Augustine, the school of St. Victor, Peter Lombard, and the later medieval schools. Lynch points out a number of distinctions made by Augustine in his works against the Donatists that had lasting significance for sacramental theology. Lynch argues that "perhaps most importantly, Augustine drew a clear distinction between a sacrament and its fruit: while Baptism itself cannot be repeated, the fruition or grace of the sacrament can be lost and subsequently regained" (11). This important contribution became the catalyst for many further Scholastic developments. "Hugh of St. Victor … began a final synthesis of Augustinian sacramental doctrine that would become normative for many scholastic authors" (14). Hugh's synthesis includes the doctrine that the sacraments contain grace as a medicine is contained in a container. Peter Lombard, who had studied under Hugh, then offered an even more developed account of sacramental causality. After a few pages about Aquinas, the chapter moves through the positions of the subsequent schools, especially the teachings of the Franciscans and Dominicans. The chapter also treats the reforms of Trent and ends with a helpful section on "contemporary considerations," which discusses figures from the twentieth century—such as Casel, Leeming, Schillebeeckx, Rahner, and Chauvet—and the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Lynch concludes his historical presentation by positioning the Thomist perspective on sacramental causality against the other dominant perspectives: "Unlike its medieval, modern, and contemporary alternatives, the Thomist approach to sacramental causality offers an integration between cause and effect, sign and sacred reality, that relates intrinsically to the human person in the order of grace … [and does so] with a degree of clarity and theological precision that is not often found in contemporary sacramentology" (66). A careful study of this chapter gives the reader an advanced understanding of how the doctrine of sacramental causality developed from the Donatist controversies through the twentieth century, and how major figures like Albert the Great, Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Scotus sought to clarify the nature of sacramental efficacy.

In the second chapter, Lynch considers Aquinas's teaching on sacramental causality in his Commentary on the Sentences. At the heart of the mechanics of his early position lies the distinction between divine and creative modes of efficient causality. As a result, the first section of this chapter provides a treatment of Aquinas's teaching on divine causality and creation. Creatio ex nihilo differs from human artistic productivity on many important levels: "While a creaturely artist uses tools to accomplish a work of art, God's role as first principle implies that the act of creative artistry must not only be ex nihilo but also immediate. Because nothing preexistent can be involved in a properly creative act, creation necessarily proceeds directly from the eternal will of God who is the principal cause of all" (74-75). There is, however, another sense in which God does work as an artist when he uses tools to influence "that which he has already created" (78). This opens the way for types of instrumental mediations, like the Incarnation and the sacraments, in which God acts upon creation as the principal agent yet with the help of intermediaries. By mapping Aquinas's doctrine of divine causation in the first section of this chapter, Lynch is able to pinpoint a critical question in relation to sacramental causality: if the ultimate effect of the sacraments pertains to the supernatural order, in what sense can created instruments be said to cause...