Description:
The article explores fruitful lines of development for sacramental theology. It shows first how contemporary society seeks the transcendent in the relational space of the body and in the question about the temporal structure of human life and history, both topics very much related to the sacramental logic. It then analyzes recent theological reflection on the sacraments and the tools it provides to address these concerns of our time. In this light it proposes paths for future research: the link between the seven sacraments and the Eucharist; the development of a Eucharistic Christology; the relationship between the logic of the sacraments and the language of the body; the capacity of the sacraments to configure human time and history; a sacramental view of the Church and of her mission. In this prospective view, the sacraments come out, not only as an object of theology whose future we wish to understand, but as the vantage point from which to envision and to generate the future possibilities for theology as a whole.