Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T20:32:37.551Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The iron in the fire: a proposal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

George Hunsinger
George Hunsinger
Affiliation:
Princeton Theological Seminary
Get access

Summary

A proposal for resolving ecumenical controversies about sacramental conversion and real presence can now be developed under six captions: mode of bodily presence, mode of rhetoric, mode of reception, mode of conversion, mode of duration, and mode of consecration. The first three involve suggestions primarily for non-Catholics, with special attention to the Reformed tradition. The second three address the possibility that the views of Catholics and non-Catholics could be diverse without being church-dividing.

Mode of bodily presence

Following Aquinas and others, any viable ecumenical resolution would need to affirm that no real presence of Christ's body occurs in the eucharist at the expense of its local presence in heaven. Conversely, no local presence of his body in heaven could be admitted that would prohibit its real presence in the eucharist. For a position to be ecumenically viable, both modes of bodily presence – real in the eucharist and local in heaven – would need to be upheld at the same time. None of the four major traditions examined – Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, and Eastern Orthodox – would deny what this assertion intends, though the Reformed, especially the more Zwinglian, might have the most problems with parts of it.

The idea of “local presence in heaven” is ecumenically mandatory. Whatever it might mean, the integrity of Christ's humanity, and therefore of his human body, cannot be defined out of existence in its final, glorified state.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Eucharist and Ecumenism
Let Us Keep the Feast
 , pp. 47 - 92
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600–1700) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), p. 47.Google Scholar
Stone, Darwell, A History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, vol. i (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1909), pp. 138, 177, 179.Google Scholar
The French Confession of 1559, ed. Small, Joseph D. (Louisville: The Presbyterian Church USA, 1998), p. 16.
The Scots Confession of 1560, ed. Henderson, G. D. (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1960), p. 75.
Schaff, Philip, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. iii (New York: Harper & Row, 1931), pp. 334–35.Google Scholar
An Invitation to Action, ed. Andrews, James E. and Burgess, Joseph A. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), p. 14.
Cranmer, Thomas, “A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Our Saviour Christ,” in The Work of Thomas Cranmer, ed. Duffield, G. E. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1965), p. 187.Google Scholar
Brooks, Peter, Thomas Cranmer's Doctrine of the Eucharist (New York: Seabury Press, 1965)Google Scholar
White, Hayden, Metahistory (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973), pp. 31–37Google Scholar
Lanham, Richard A., A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969)Google Scholar
Ladner, Gerhart B., “Medieval and Modern Understanding of Symbolism: A Comparison,” Speculum 54 (1979), pp. 223–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sasse, Hermann, This Is My Body (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), pp. 163, 254–55.Google Scholar
Calvin, , “The True Partaking of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Holy Supper,” in Tracts and Letters, vol. ii, ed. Beveridge, Henry (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983), p. 516.Google Scholar
Gerrish, , The Old Protestantism and the New (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 106.Google Scholar
Harnack, Adolph, History of Dogma, vol. ii (New York: Dover Publications, 1961), pp. 144–45.Google Scholar
Schmemann, Alexander, The Eucharist (Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1988), p. 38.Google Scholar
Zizioulas, John, “Symbolism and Realism in Orthodox Worship,” Sourozh 79 (2000), pp. 3–17Google Scholar
Vermigli, Peter Martyr, The Oxford Treatise and Disputation on the Eucharist, 1549 (Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2000), pp. 215–19Google Scholar
Damascus, John of, The Orthodox Faith in Saint John of Damascus: Writings (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), p. 360.Google Scholar
Luther, , “Confession Concerning Christ's Supper,” in Luther's Works, vol. 37 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1961), p. 300.Google Scholar
Schmid, Heinrich, Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1899; repr. 1961), pp. 568–71.Google Scholar
The Documents of Vatican II, ed. Abbott, Walter M. (New York: Guild Press, America Press, Association Press, 1996), pp. 357–61.
Meyendorff, John, Byzantine Theology (New York: Fordham University Press, 1979), p. 203.Google Scholar
Ware, Timothy, The Orthodox Church, 2nd edn. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1997), p. 283.Google Scholar
Fouyas, Mathodios, Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 189.Google Scholar
Rahner, Karl, “The Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,” in Theological Investigations, vol. iv (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966), pp. 299–300.Google Scholar
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper No. 111 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982).
Kilmartin, Edward J., SJ, “The Official Vatican Response to BEM: Eucharist,” in Ecumenical Trends 17 (1988), pp. 37–40; on p. 39.Google Scholar
Jenson, Robert W., Unbaptized God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), p. 28Google Scholar
Pusey, E. B., The Doctrine of the Real Presence as Contained in the Fathers (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1855)Google Scholar
Pusey, E. B., The Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist: A Sermon Preached Before the University, in the Cathedral Church of Christ, in Oxford, on the Second Day after Epiphany, 1853 (Oxford: James Parker & Co., 1871Google Scholar
Regan, Patrick, “Quenching the Spirit: The Epiclesis in Recent Roman Documents,” Worship 79 (2005), pp. 386–404Google Scholar
Taft, Robert F., “Ecumenical Scholarship and the Catholic–Orthodox Epiclesis Dispute,” Ostkirchlichen Studien 45 (1996), pp. 201–26.Google Scholar
Spinks, Bryan D., “ ‘And with thy Holy Spirite and Worde’: Further Thoughts on the Source of Cranmer's Petition for Sanctification in the 1549 Communion Service,” in Cranmer: A Living Influence for 500 Years, ed. Johnson, Margot (Durham: Turnstone Ventures, 1990), pp. 94–102Google Scholar
Wainwright, Geoffrey, “Word and Sacrament in the Churches' Responses to the Lima Text,” One in Christ 24 (1988), pp. 304–27Google Scholar
McLelland, Joseph C., The Visible Words of God (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1957), pp. 32–33.Google Scholar
Kay, James F., “The Lex Orandi in Recent Protestant Theology,” in Ecumenical Theology in Worship, Doctrine, and Life, ed. Cunningham, David S.et al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 11–23.Google Scholar
Wainwright, , “The Eucharist in the Churches' Responses to the Lima Text,” One in Christ 25 (1989), pp. 53–74, on p. 65.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×