Eucharistic theology is a branch of Christian theology which treats doctrines concerning the Holy Eucharist, also commonly known as the Lord's Supper and Holy Communion. The majority of Christian denominations view the Eucharist as a sacrament or ordinance.
In the Gospel accounts of Jesus' earthly ministry, a crowd of listeners challenges him regarding the rain of manna before he delivers the famous Bread of Life Discourse (John 6:22–59), and he describes himself as the "True Bread from Heaven".The Gospel According to John: A Literary and Theological Commentary by Thomas L. Brodie 1997 p. 266 The aforementioned Bread of Life Discourse occurs in the Gospel of John, John 6:30–59. Therein, Jesus promises to give his flesh and blood, which he states will give eternal life to all who receive it. In John 6:53 (RSV), Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you"; in verses 54–55, he continues: "he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed."
Every year, Jews in Israel celebrated the Passover Meal, remembering and celebrating their liberation from captivity in Egypt. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is recorded as celebrating the Last Supper with his Apostles at Passover.
Saint Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:23–26), as well as the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 26:26–28), Mark (Mark 14:22–24), and Luke (Luke 22:19–20), state that Jesus, in the course of the Last Supper on the night before his death, instituted the Eucharist, stating: "This is my body", and "This is my blood". For instance, Matthew recounts: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body; And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
The Gospel of John, on the other hand, makes no mention of this. One explanation offered is that the author of the Gospel of John intended the Gospel to supplement what other evangelists had already written.
Overview Because Jesus is a person of the Holy Trinity, theology regarding the Eucharist involves consideration of the way in which the communicant's personal relationship with God is contributed to by consumption of the Eucharist. However, debates over Eucharistic theology in the West have centered on the metaphysical aspects of Jesus' presence in this ritual.
Real presence
Many Christian denominations have the teaching of Christ being truly present in the Eucharist, such as Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East, Lutheranism, Moravianism, Anglicanism, Methodism, the Continental Reformed tradition, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, the Baptist tradition, and the Irvingian Church. The differences in the teachings of these churches primarily concern "the mode of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper".
Definitive change Eastern Orthodox Christians generally do not hold to the specifics of the defined doctrine of transubstantiation, though there is agreement with the definition's conclusion about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Eastern Orthodox Christians use the term "change" (), as in the epiclesis of the Divine Liturgy, to describe the change of the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus. (See "Objective reality, silence about technicalities", below.) The terminology of transubstantiation was adopted within the Eastern Orthodox Church by the Synod of Jerusalem (1672), although it is not recognized as having the authority of an Ecumenical Council and has been criticized by some theologians within the Eastern church for a perceived tendency toward Latinization.
Transubstantiation
In the substance theory of the Eucharist, the substances of the bread and wine become the substances in the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus; however, it is also believed that the accidents (physical traits, including chemical properties) of the bread and wine remain. This view is taught by the Roman Catholic Church, including in its Eastern Rites.
Sacramental union
The sacramental union is the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist held by the Lutheran churches. In the sacramental union view, in the "use" of the sacrament, according to the words of Jesus and by the power of his speaking of them, the consecrated bread is united with his body and the consecrated wine with his blood for all communicants, whether believing or unbelieving, to eat and drink. This is the position of the Lutheran Church, echoing the view of "objective reality, but pious silence about technicalities", with its "pious silence about technicalities" in that it objects to philosophical terms like "transubstantiation" (the Roman doctrine) and "consubstantiation" (the Irvingian doctrine).
Consubstantiation
Consubstantiation is the belief that "The bread retains its substance and ... Christ's glorified body comes down into the bread through the consecration and is found there together with the natural substance of the bread, without quantity but whole and complete in every part of the sacramental bread." Consubstantiation was the position of the Lollards,Bengt Hägglund, History of Theology, Gene J. Lund, trans., (St. Louis: CPH, 1968), 194 as well as the Irvingian churches, such as the New Apostolic Church. Some High Church Anglicans identify with this position. It is erroneously used to denote the Lutheran position, who instead affirm the doctrine of sacramental union as their teaching of the corporeal presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Objective reality, silence about technicalities "Objective reality, but pious silence about technicalities" (or "divine [or holy] mystery") is the view of all the ancient churches of the East. While they agree that in the sacrament the bread and the wine are really and truly changed into the body and the blood of Jesus, and while they have at times employed the terminology of "substance" to explain what is changed, they usually avoid this language, considering it redolent of scholasticism, as presenting speculative metaphysics as doctrine, and as scrutinizing excessively the manner in which the transformation takes place.
Pneumatic presence
The pneumatic presence, also called Real Spiritual Presence, spiritual presence, or mystical presence, is the belief that not only the spirit of Christ but also his true body and blood of Jesus (hence "real"), are received by the sovereign, mysterious, and miraculous power of the Holy Spirit (hence "spiritual") only by those partakers who have faith. This view approaches the "pious silence" view in its unwillingness to specify how the Holy Spirit makes Jesus present, but positively excludes not just symbolism but also trans- and con-substantiation. This understanding is often called "receptionism". This view is held by the Reformed traditions, including the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Baptist and Anglican traditions. 3-2+9Thomas Cranmer, the guiding Protestant Reformer of the Church of England, reflected this real spiritual presence in the Thirty-nine Articles, which hold that "the Body of the Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavently and spiritual manner". This view can be seen as being suggested in the invocation of the Anglican Rite as found in the American Book of Common Prayer, 1928 and earlier and in Rite I of the American BCP of 1979 as well as in other Anglican formularies:
Rite I is unchanged from the BCP of 1552 (Second Prayer-Book of Edward VI) save for modern syntax and spelling:
The Rite also differs in its inclusion of some additional words from the BCP of 1549 (First Prayer-Book of Edward VI):
The Reformed theology of receptionism, or the real spiritual presence, is the view inherited by and held by Methodists "and is well presented in the Holy Communion hymns of Charles Wesley."
Presence manifested in the assembly of the faithful During the celebration of the Lord's Supper, Anabaptists emphasize the "mystery of communion with the living Christ in his Supper [that] comes into being by the power of the Spirit, dwelling in and working through the collected members of Christ's Body".
Memorialism The view known as memorialism is that bread and wine are symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus, and in partaking of the elements the believer commemorates the sacrificial atonement of Jesus for all; Jesus presence in the sacrament is in the faithful minds and hearts of the communicants not in any physical sense. This view, also known as "Zwinglianism" after Huldrych Zwingli, is held by the Plymouth Brethren, Unitarians, and Jehovah's Witnesses. The Racovian Catechism of Unitarian Christianity teaches that "this rite is to be observed for the purpose of commemorating or showing forth the kindness manifested by Christ towards us".
Suspension Suspension is the view that Jesus did not intend partaking of the bread and wine to be a perpetual ordinance, or that he did not intend it to be taken as a religious rite or ceremony (also known as adeipnonism, meaning "no supper" or "no meal").Idealism and Christian Theology, John R. Farris, S. Mark Hamilton, Editors. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016, p. 211 This is the view of Quakers and the Salvation Army, as well as the hyperdispensationalist positions of E. W. Bullinger, and others.Holding Fast the Faithful Word, Cornelius Richard Stam, Germantown, WI: Berean Bible Society, pp. 93-95 Some full preterists, holding that Jesus returned in AD 70, believe on the basis of 1 Corinthians 11:26 that it is no longer required to partake of the Lord's Supper.Full Preterism and the Lord's Supper, Michael W. Adams https://resources.grantedministries.org/article/full_preterism_and_lord's_supper_m_a.pdf
Eucharistic sacrifice Catholics, Lutherans, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox Christians all affirm that the Eucharist is a sacrifice.
Both Lutheran and Orthodox Christians teach: "that the Eucharist is a sacrifice in the sense that 1) it is Christ, not the celebrant priest, who offers and is offered as the sacrifice, 2) Christ’s sacrifice of atonement is made once and for all with respect to God, and 3) it is sacramentally enacted so that its benefits are distributed to the believers each and every time the Eucharist is celebrated. Both Orthodox and Lutherans also regard the Eucharist as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise (Heb. 13,15)."
A formal statement by the USCCB affirms that "Methodists and Catholics agree that the sacrificial language of the Eucharistic celebration refers to 'the sacrifice of Christ once-for-all,' to 'our pleading of that sacrifice here and now,' to 'our offering of the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving,' and to 'our sacrifice of ourselves in union with Christ who offered himself to the Father.'"
The Irvingian churches, teach the "real presence of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion":
Efficacy of the rite
Eastern and Western liturgical traditions generally agree with St. Augustine of Hippo in teaching that the efficacy of the sacraments as a means of divine grace does not depend on the worthiness of the priest or minister administering them. Augustine developed this concept in his controversy with the Donatists. In traditional Christianity, the efficacy and validity of the sacrament does, however, depend on properly ordained bishops and priests with a lineage from the Apostles, a doctrine called "apostolic succession". Apostolic succession is taught by the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Moravian/Hussite churches.
Theologies of different churches
Catholic Church