Abstract
The Catholic Church recognises the validity of all sacraments administered in thenon-Catholic Eastern Churches because they have apostolic succession. Furthermore,in Catholic theology, a sacrament can exist when it is properly administered, according to the teaching of St Augustine: “The Word accedes to the element and becomesa sacrament”.The above criteria are also used by the Orthodox Churches of the Slavic and Romanian traditions, which, as a rule, recognise the validity of the baptism of non-OrthodoxChristians. However, some Orthodox question the validity of the administration of baptism by pouring as the Greek word baptisma itself literally means immersion.Not all Orthodox Churches recognise baptism administered outside the OrthodoxChurch. For these Churches the criterion is the maxim of St Cyprian of Carthage: “Outside the Church there is no salvation”. It means that there can be no sacrament outsidethe visible boundaries of the Orthodox Church.In order to present these two different conceptions of the theology of the sacraments(St Cyprian’s and St Augustine’s), the definition of a sacrament and the question of thenumber of sacraments will first be presented.
Published Version
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