Sacerdotalism (from Latin sacerdos, priest, literally one who presents sacred offerings, sacer, sacred, and dare, to give) is a term applied (usually in a hostile sense) to the system, method, and spirit of a priestlyorder or class, under which the functions, dignity, and influence of the members of the priesthood are exalted in the ministry of religion, and in the church at the expense of the laity. This exalting of the priesthood in the Christian church is based on the claim that the priest exercises sacrificial and supernatural powers in the celebration of the Eucharist. Roman Catholic priest LCDR Allen R. Kuss (USN) aboard USS Enterprise A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... A religious order is an organization of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with religious devotion. ... A priesthood is a body of priests, shamans, or oracles who are thought to have special religious authority or function. ... The term Christian Church expresses the idea of Christianity (the Christian religion) seen in its role as an institution. ... Sacrifice is the practice of offering food, or the lives of animals or people to the gods, as an act of propitiation or worship. ... The supernatural (Latin:super- exceeding+nature) comprises forces and phenomena that cannot be perceived by natural or empirical senses, and whose understanding may be said to lie with religious, magical, or otherwise mysterious explanation —yet remains firmly outside of the realm of science. ... The Eucharist is either the celebration of the Christian sacrament commemorating Christ’s Last Supper, or the consecrated bread and wine of this sacrament. ...
This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911), contend supporters, in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...
Sacerdotalism (from the Latin sacerdos - priest) is the belief in a priestly system where the priest has been given the special authority to act as a spiritual mediator between God and mankind.
Although the priests are not supposed to be seen as better or more godly than others, their role in the sacraments of the church give them a special "mediatorial" role, as representatives of the Church (Christ's body on earth) and thus of Christ.
The Reformers rejected the sacerdotal system altogether, and substituted for it the general priesthood of all believers, who have direct access to Christ as our only Mediator and Advocate, and are to offer the spiritual sacrifices of prayer, praise, and intercession.
The explanation of Christianity in terms of sacerdotalism is unfortunately not confined in our day to the old unreformed Church from which Protestantism broke forth, precisely that it might escape from dependence on the Church rather than on God alone in the matter of salvation.
But it remains sufficiently sacerdotal to confine the activities of saving grace to the means of grace, that is to say, to the Word and sacraments, and thus to interpose the means of grace between the sinner and his God.
In the second place, sacerdotalism deals with God the Holy Spirit, the source of all grace, in utter neglect of his personality, as if he were a natural force, operating, not when and where and how he pleases, but uniformly and regularly wherever his activities are released.
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