Customer Reviews

Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Discovering the history of how the sacraments were celebrated and changed over the last 2000 years makes them come to life as real encounters with the human risen Lord. Joseph Martos gives us a very readable, interesting and extremely informative new understanding of the sacraments in this updated, after the Second Vatican Council, rendition of his earlier work on this topic. Frequent confession went from non-existent in the first century, to encouraged, to condemned by a Church Council as conducive of frequent sinning and therefore a scandal, to encouraged again for spiritual growth by the Church today. Did you experience a roller coaster of emotions about confession? So did the Catholic Church, as outlined by Martos. Read about all of the sacraments and develop an entirely new appreciation of them, as our tradition presents them. When you whet your appetite on one, you'll want to read about them all. Do yourself a favor and grow in your Catholic Faith today - read the Doors to the Sacred.

Martos's treatment of the history of the sacraments is comprehensive and very enlightening, and presented in a clear and orthodox manner. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the Roman Catholic view of the sacraments or in Church history.

There are only two disappointing aspects. First, Martos's treatment of the later 20th century gives the impression that sacramental theology is now indefinite, but that this does not matter as long as the believer finds their concepts to be "doors to the sacred." Secondly, he has the rather annoying tendency to use American RC parishes as illustrations of the promise of
Vatican II fulfilled. For example, in his treatment of the sacrament of Reconciliation, he overly stresses "communal guilt" and such "corporate" sins as racism, and suggests that sacramental confession of individual sins fell by the wayside because of this new "awareness." Both are faulty concepts which he presents as if they were highly positive.

It is a fine reference work, but serious theological students will need to be certain it is one of several.

Joe Martos' book is quite detailed on the history of the
Sacraments. The first part of the book is about sacraments
in general: sacraemtns in all religions, beginnings of the Christian Sacraments, Development of the Catholic Sacraments.
He writes about the Protestant relationship to the
Sacraments and the problems that Martin Luther had with
how Catholics were doing Sacraments.
In the second part of the book he goes into detail on each
of the seven Catholic Sacraments.
The book is so detailed and philisophical at times it makes
it difficult to stay focused on the reading.
This book is used in many college courses on Sacraments. It
is NOT a light read, nor does it give much on the rites of
today's sacraments. It is a historical perspective.

I haven't read this yet but wanted to share that it comes highly recommended by our Parish's Pastor Associate. Our Pastor Associate has a Doctorate of Theology and teaches at a local university. It is a text assigned in the course. While it is used as a text book, she says that this book covers all the sacraments in an historical format and is very readable and comprehensive. I gave it 5 stars knowing this is how highly recommended it is. It was introduced to us during a Parish course on the new Roman Missal. Hope this help.

Martos' text is an essential reading for anybody interested in the history and theology of sacraments, especially individuals involved in the religious education of adults. well written, extremely complete and, above all, very candid. I found his comments to be very balanced.

Doors to the Sacred is the #1 book on understanding the Catholic Sacraments from the time of Jesus to modern times. It reads better then a textbook.

Martos understanding of the meaning of sacraments leave much to be desired. I would recommend a reading of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to understand properly what the Church teaches about the sacraments. It seems too watered down and unclear.

This is a terrible book.

The essential problem with "Doors to the Sacred," as with Martos' other scribblings, e.g., Why be Catholic? : Understanding Our Experience and Tradition, is a radically deficient ecclesiology, including a woeful misunderstanding of Vatican II -- its purpose, its teachings, its place in the development of doctrine.

Indeed, any Catholic scholar (and I don't mean to suggest Martos is one) who thinks the Church is free to ordain women (as Martos suggests in this book, despite nearly two millennia of sacred tradition and recent teachings of the magisterium) is either willfully ignorant or theologically inept. Martos, who effortlessly demonstrates ineptitude on almost every page of this sad excuse for a book, falls clearly within the latter category.

If you seek a substantive understanding of the sacraments (N.B., there is no such thing as a truly comprehensive one, nor can there be), there are any number of far superior books, e.g, Vorgrimler's Sacramental Theology, Stratford Caldecott's The Seven Sacraments: Entering the Mysteries of God, Schmemann's For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, von Speyr's Cross: Word and Sacrament and Chauvet's The Sacraments - The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body Even before venturing into these fine books, however, one should first consult the relevant portions of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Second Edition for the essentials of any authentic Catholic sacramental theology.

If one is more interested in an historical approach to the sacraments (as Martos' book purports to be) then one should seek out the titles in the "Church at Prayer" series published by Liturgical Press, including Robert Cabie's The Church at Prayer: The Sacraments (Church at Prayer).

In any event, avoid this book -- unless, for whatever reason, you are curious to learn just how bad a book on sacramental theology can be.