Sacramental Spirituality for Free Churches? Pilgram Marpeck Considered

In light of the currently resurgent search for spiritual wisdom within both ecclesial and secular societies, this article proposes a rethinking of the often marginal role of sacramental theology in contemporary free-church traditions. A particular voice from the distant past of the free-church tradition (namely, that of Pilgram Marpeck, a sixteenth century Anabaptist) deserves an attentive, critical hearing from evangelicals in our day. By shifting the emphasis of theological reflection from specific sacramental objects to the total dynamic of a Christian community’s action in submissive synergy with divine action, Marpeck offers seminal insights fruitful for developing an indigenously free-church sacramental spirituality for our own day.