The Nominalist Justiication for Luther’s Sacramental Theology Roland Millare The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the sacraments as “‘powers that come forth’ from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving.” 1 According to Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a sacrament is “that which is ordained to signify our sanctiication. In which three things may be considered: the very cause of our sanctiication, which is Christ’s Passion; the form of our sanctiication, which is grace and the virtues, and the ultimate end of our sanctiication, which is eternal life. And all these are signiied by the sacraments.” 2 Sacraments are eficacious signs of God’s grace that Christ himself instituted. The Church teaches that the sacraments draw their eficacy from the causal- ity of Christ’s Passion and Death. At the same time, the eficacy of Christ’s sacriice for humanity depends upon the mystery of the Incarnation. While the sacraments play a signiicant role in the theology of Martin Luther (1483–1546), it is clear that his understanding of sacramental eficacy is substantially different from the doctrine of the Catholic Church. At the beginning of his work The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520), Martin Luther outlines the existence of three sacraments: “baptism, penance, and the bread.” 3 While Luther refers to Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist as sacraments, in light of his writings it would be more accurate to describe them as rites that are outward signs of the one sacrament: the believer’s act of faith in Christ. In order to demonstrate that faith in Christ is the sole sacrament for Luther, it is necessary to begin with a 1 Catechism of the Catholic Church (hereafter as CCC), 1116. For the quotation cf. Lk 5:17; 6:19; 8:46. 2 ST IIIa q60 a3. 3 Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, in Luther’s Works, general editor Helmut T. Lehmann, Volume 36: Word and Sacra- ment II (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971) 18. Hereafter, I will abbreviate Luther’s Works as LW and cite the appropriate volume and page number. Antiphon 17.2 (2013): 168–190