The body of Christ—An Intersubjective Interpretation

Horizons ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Bracken
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
The Body ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
The Church

ABSTRACTIn this essay the author rethinks the provocative remarks of Karl Rahner about the overall symbolic character of reality in his essay “The Theology of Symbol.” While conceding the inevitable differences in perspective between a Thomistic metaphysics of Being and process-relational philosophy, the author explains how Rahner's “theses” on symbolism likewise make good sense within the context of his own process-oriented metaphysics of intersubjectivity as developed in previous publications. Then he applies this Rahnerian/neo-Whiteheadian scheme to the analysis and explanation of Christian belief in the Incarnation of the Divine Word in the human nature of Jesus, the Real Presence of the risen Christ in the Eucharist, and the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

Aristotle and the Sacrament of the Altar: A Crisis in Medieval Aristotelianism

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 195-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn McCord Adams
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

In the Anglican theological circles in which I move, the doctrine of transubstantiation is apt to be declared guilty by association with its Aristotelian underpinnings, most notably its ‘out-moded’ substanceaccident ontology. These negative assessments, based as they usually are on cursory acquaintance with the theory’s most enthusiastic medieval exponent, Thomas Aquinas, abstract from historical complications. For eleventh-century theologians had already debated the manner of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist: whether it was merely symbolic (as Berengar of Tours was accused of holding) and/or spiritual (as some passages of St. Augustine would suggest); or whether the Body and Blood of Christ were really present in the Eucharist under the forms of bread and wine? Once the Church pronounced in favor of ‘the real presence,’ several competing theories were advanced to explain it: (i) ‘impanation,’ according to which the Body of Christ assumed the substance of the bread, the way the Divine Word assumes Christ’s human nature; (ii) ‘annihilation,’ according to which the substance of the bread is annihilated; (iii) ‘consubstantiation,’ which stipulates that the substance of the bread remains and the Body of Christ coexists with it; and (iv) ‘transubstantiation,’ which says the bread is neither annihilated nor remains, but is converted into the Body of Christ.

Martin Luther and the Eucharist

1983 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Bodily Presence ◽  
The Church

Several years before the mode of Christ's eucharistic presence became a controverted issue which would presently provoke a lasting schism among the Churches of the Reformation, Luther could unaffectedly propound the traditional dogma of the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar as a necessary consequence of the evangelical quest for the sensus grammaticus of the words of institution. The same exegetical method which led to his reappropriation of the doctrine of the justification of the sinner ‘by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith’ obliged him to confess that ‘the bread is the body of Christ’. Already here, in the mordantly anti-Roman treatise On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Luther has laid his finger on the model in terms of which he will understand the real presence to the end of his days: the consecrated host is the body of Christ, just as the assumed humanity of jesus Christ is the Son of God. The displacement of the scholastic theory of transubstantiation by the model of the incarnate person illustrates the Reformer's allegiance to the Chalcedonian Definition: ‘Luther is really replacing Aristotelian categories by those derived from Chalcedonian christology, to which he remained faithful: “unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably”.’ While the doctrine of the real presence moved from the periphery to the centre of Luther's theology and piety as the 1520s wore on, his conception of the modality of the eucharistic presence remained constant throughout.

scholarly journals "Saam een liggaam" (1 Kor 10:17)-Deelname van kinders aan die nagmaal

2001 ◽  
Vol 57 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Buitendag
Keyword(s):  
Current Practice ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Child Participation ◽  
The Real ◽  
Fourth Lateran Council ◽  
The Church ◽  
As If

"We are one body" (1 Cor 10:17) - Child participation in Holy Communion. The conclusion of the article is that Holy Communion should include infants. When the broader framework of theologizing happens to be the covellant, this possibility becomes an imperative. Children - together with others - were the outcasts of society. But Jesus reached out to these marginalized people and repaired their status. The author points out that the current practice of excluding children from the Table of our Lord dates back to the Fourth Lateran Council in 1115. This implied that little children, who have not attained the use of reason, are not of necessity obliged to be included in the sacramental communion.  It seems as if Calvin accepted this practice of the church rather uncrincally. The most common argument used to exclude children from Holy Communion, namely that of testing oneself to discern the body of Christ, is based on a misunderstanding of the body of Christ. In this context of Corinthians, the expression is not meant to be the mystical body of Christ, but the real body as expressed by and in the congregation's gathering. And this body should not be torn apart.

scholarly journals Reality of presence in virtually mediated sacramentality: Has sacramental theology sustained us?

2022 ◽  
pp. 000332862110603
Author(s):  
Lizette Larson-Miller
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Eucharistic Theology ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The global pandemic has impacted the liturgical life of the church by forcing worshiping communities to turn to online liturgies in lieu of gathering together as the body of Christ in one place and time. But the ongoing theological reflection has been particularly concerned with sacramental liturgy online. How can incarnate matter-filled ecclesial sacraments be celebrated without being “in-person”? This article suggests that the ritual and sacramental effects of the pandemic brought an already-existing lack of catechesis on sacramental theology to the surface by exploring two connected conversations: on the one hand, eucharistic theology and the meaning of “real presence” in a time of Internet religion, and on the other hand, the effects of the insidious inculturation of consumerism and commodification highlighted in the “liturgy on demand” world of online ritual and ritual online.

Philosophy and the Good Life: Hume's Defence of Probable Reasoning

Dialogue ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-504
Author(s):  
David Owen
Keyword(s):  
Good Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
Probable Reasoning

At the beginning of his section “Of Miracles,” Hume mentions an argument of Dr. Tillotson. The doctrine of “the real presence” seems contradicted by our senses. We see a piece of bread, but are asked to believe it consists in the substance of the body of Christ.

The Doctrine of Transubstantiation in Durand's Rationale

Traditio ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 308-317
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Thibodeau
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
The Body ◽  
Final Word ◽  
The Real ◽  
Eucharistic Theology ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
Fourth Lateran Council

In a recent article on the medieval dogma of transubstantiation, Gary Macy builds upon the works of Hans Jorissen and James F. McCue to question the validity of Jaroslav Pelikan's claim that “at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the doctrine of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist achieved its definitive formulation in the dogma of transubstantiation.” Macy demonstrates that through most of the thirteenth century, the majority of theologians did not, in fact, consider Lateran IV's decree the final word on eucharistic theology. The debate over precisely how the real presence of Christ occurred in the eucharist was far from closed.

La metáfora de la 'ecclesia mater' en la literatura antidonatista

Augustinus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-225
Author(s):  
Paola Marone ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
African Theology ◽  
The Church

The modern scholars have studied the maternity of the Church independently from the anti-Donatist literature. But a careful study of the anti-Donatist documents reveals many interesting elements. According to Optatus and Augustine the notion of mother was abscribed to all believers, because the body of Christ was formed of all those the Church bore as children through the baptism. According to both African bishops also the donatists gave a valid baptism, but only Augustine demonstrated how the salvation could be found outside of the viscera Ecclesiae. Then this article deals with the image of the Ecclesia mater as illustrated in the Adversus Donatistas of Optatus published in answer to the donatist bishop Parmenianus and in all that Augustine penned against the schismatics (Tractatus, Sermones, Epistulae). By doing so, it presents a picture of the African theology of the fourth century.

What is Distinctive about Methodist Ecclesiology? A Response to Papers by Miriam Haar, Justus Hunter and Robert Martin

Ecclesiology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-74
Author(s):  
Kenneth Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Church

Does Methodism want a distinctive ecclesiology? British Methodism assumes its ecclesiology from the Church of England which explains its lack of ecclesiological thinking, its genuine desire for reunification, and indeed its focus on ecclesia in actu. But there can be no ecclesia in actu apart from ecclesia per se. Being and doing are one in God. The Church, grounded in the dynamic being of God in Trinity, celebrates in the action of the Eucharist the wholeness of God’s presence with his world. Proleptically the Church includes the whole of creation and all people. Hence, when as the Body of Christ we pray the Our Father with our Lord, we pray on behalf of all, not just for ourselves. But what then do we mean by apostolicity? Perhaps in Methodism we would be well occupied exploring more keenly with the Roman Catholic Church what we each mean by being a society within the church. Outler may have been right when he opined that Methodism needed a Catholic Church within which to be church.

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