Sacrament and Oath: A Theological-Political Displacement

This article pays attention to the historical displacement of the meaning of the word sacramentum at the moment in which theological reflection appropriates the civil meaning. By addressing this historical displacement, the present article reflects not only on the theological-political character of oaths, but also on the complex inventive character of political theology. In fact, that kind of appropriation involves multiple transferences of meanings from one realm to another - the political and the religious, what is constitutive of the theological-political approach. Attempting to grasp the topic, this article first examines the Biblical meanings of oath, covenant and sacrament; second, it looks at the meaning of sacramentum in the classical Roman tradition; and, finally, it recovers the meaning of sacrament in Tertullian, who is primarily responsible for the coinage of the term for theological reflection.