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14 - The Body of Jesus in His People

from Part III - Ethics, Theology, and Critical Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2024

By
Thomas Joseph White
Edited by
Markus Bockmuehl
Markus Bockmuehl
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

St. Paul speaks about the church as the body of Christ, and he also speaks about the Eucharist as the body of Christ. How are these two affirmations related? Christian medieval authors gave consideration to the notion of the church as the “mystical body” of Christ and understood the church as the fruit or result of eucharistic communion in the “true body” of Christ. This chapter examines the thought of Thomas Aquinas on the church and its relation to the sacraments. It also shows how this conception has deeply informed the modern idea of the church as a sign and instrument of grace for all human beings, called to communion in the one Christ.

Keywords

incarnationsacramentsEucharistchurchmystery
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge Companion to Jesus , pp. 232 - 249
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Aquinas, Thomas. 1947. Summa Theologica. Translated by Dominicans of the English Province. 3 vols. New York: Benziger.Google Scholar
Bettenson, Henry Scowcroft, ed. 1984. Augustine: City of God. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Calvin, Jean. 1960. Institutes of the Christian Religion. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.Google Scholar
De Lubac, Henri. 2006. Corpus Mysticum: The Eucharist and the Church in the Middle Ages. Translated by Gemma Simmonds. Edited by Hemming, Laurence Paul and Parsons, Susan Frank. Faith in Reason. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Emery, Gilles. 2004. “The Ecclesial Fruit of the Eucharist in St. Thomas Aquinas.” Nova et vetera 2: 43–60.Google Scholar
Flannery, Austin, ed. 2004. Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Documents. Northport: Costello.Google Scholar
Tillard, Jean Marie Roger. 1967. The Eucharist; Pasch of God’s People. Translated by D. L. Wienk. Staten Island: Alba House.Google Scholar

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