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.

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.

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.

Disability and the Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecost and the Renewal of the Church

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amos Yong
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Disability Rights Movement ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe interface between the disability rights movement and renewal Christianity has been one of missed opportunities in part because of the centrality of healing in renewal Christian circles. This essay delineates the challenges that occur at this intersection and charts the way toward a renewal theology of disability in dialogue with J. Rodman Williams, one of the leading theologians of the charismatic and neo-Pentecostal movements. Central to such an endeavor is the articulation of an inclusive ecclesiology derived from the Pauline metaphor of the body of Christ animated by the Spirit's diverse giftings amidst and through the church's many members.

Remember as Re-membering: The Eucharist, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, and Profound Intellectual Disability

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-162
Author(s):  
Julie Marie Land
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
The Social ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

In 1 Cor 11:17-34 Paul reprimands the Corinthians for the way in which they gather for worship, and addresses the Corinthians’ situation with the words of institution. This paper, exploring how the Lord’s Supper is importantly related to discerning the body of Christ and the church’s response to people on the social margins, pursues a question of the contemporary church: are we eating rightly? An examination of 1 Cor 11:17-34 reveals that the Lord’s Supper criticizes developments in society that have come to base the worth of bodies on their ability to meet society’s prized values of achievement, consumption, and production. Bodies that do not meet these aims are positioned as problems. This paper argues that people with profound intellectual disabilities, who often are placed on the social margins of both church and society, have much to teach about what it means to gather and be with one another as the church.

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