Background From the beginning of Christianity through the 10th century, Christian theologians saw the
Eucharist as the church's participation in
Christ's sacrifice. Christ was believed to be present in the Eucharist, but there were different views over the way in which this occurred. Reformed theologian John Riggs has argued that the
School of Antioch in the
Eastern Roman Empire, along with
Hilary of Poitiers and
Ambrose in the
Western Roman Empire, taught a realist, metabolic, or somatic view, where the elements of the Eucharist were believed to be changed into Christ's body and blood. Riggs maintains that the influential fourth-century Western theologian
Augustine of Hippo, on the other hand, held that Christ is really present in the elements of the Eucharist but not in a bodily manner, because his body remains in
heaven. Riggs argues that Augustine believed the Eucharist is a spiritual eating which allows Christians to become part of Christ's body. Western theologians in the three centuries following Augustine did not elaborate on the way Christ is present in the Eucharist but emphasized the transforming power of the sacrament. According to Riggs, in the ninth century,
Hrabanus Maurus and
Ratramnus also defended Augustine's view of nonmetabolic real presence. During the high and late
Middle Ages, the metabolic view became increasingly dominant to the exclusion of the nonmetabolic view, to the point that it was considered the only orthodox option. The doctrine of
transubstantiation was developed in the high Middle Ages to explain the change of the elements into Christ's body and blood. Transubstantiation is the belief that the Eucharistic elements are transformed into Christ's body and blood in a way only perceivable by the intellect, not by the senses.
Anglican theologian Brian Douglas maintains that "Augustine is clear, nonetheless, in his use of realism and argues that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist is real such that the bread and wine and their offering participate in a real way in the eternal and heavenly Forms of Christ's body and blood."
Berengar of Tours had a view very similar to Calvin, and such views were common in the early Anglo-Saxon church, as can be seen in the writings of
Aelfric of Eynsham.
Reformation depicts a hand holding a heart to heaven. Calvin believed Christians were lifted up to heaven by the Holy Spirit in the Lord's Supper.
Martin Luther, leading figure of the
Reformation and leader of the
Protestant movement which would be called
Lutheranism, rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation. However, he continued to hold that Christ is bodily present "under the bread and wine" in a manner later Lutheran theology calls the
Sacramental Union (to be distinguished from the Reformed union between "sign and thing signified"). Luther insisted that Christ's words during the institution of the sacrament, "this is my body", be taken literally. He believed that anyone who ate and drank during the Eucharist (often called the "Lord's Supper" by Protestants) truly ate Christ's body and drank his blood, regardless of their faith.
Huldrych Zwingli, the first theologian in the Reformed tradition, also rejected the view of transubstantiation, but he disagreed with Luther by holding that Christ is not bodily present in the Eucharistic elements themselves. He held that Christ's whole person (body and spirit) is presented to believers in the Eucharist, but that this does not occur by Christ's body being eaten with the mouth. This view has been labeled "mystical real presence", meaning that those who partake have a direct experience of God's presence, or "spiritual real presence" because Christ's presence is by his spirit. Zwingli also did not believe that the sacrament actually confers the grace which is offered in the sacrament but that the outer signs of bread and wine testify to that grace and awaken the
memory of Christ's death. Zwingli's views on the Lord's Supper did not largely contribute to the shaping of the Reformed doctrine of the Eucharist (which are chiefly based on the Eucharistic theology of Calvin and Bullinger), though it was influential in the views of other non-Reformed traditions of Christianity, such as the
Plymouth Brethren.
John Calvin, a very influential early Reformed theologian, believed the Lord's Supper fed Christians with the spiritual food of
union with Christ. He believed that in the Supper Christians feed on Christ's flesh, which he saw as an inexplicable miracle. Calvin taught that the Supper confirms the promises communicated to Christians in the preaching of the
Gospel. He also saw its purpose as provoking praise for God and love for other people. He believed it necessary for Christians to partake of Christ's humanity in the Supper as well as his Spirit, and that the bread and wine really present, rather than simply symbolize or represent, Christ's body and blood. Calvin spoke of the communication involved in the Lord's Supper as spiritual, meaning that it originates in the
Holy Spirit. Calvin's teaching on the Lord's Supper was a development of that held by
Martin Bucer and was held by other Reformed theologians such as
Peter Martyr Vermigli. Calvin, like Zwingli and against Luther, did not believe that Christ is bodily present in the elements of the Eucharist. He taught that Christ remains in heaven and that we commune with him in the Lord's Supper by being raised up to him rather than him descending to us. Calvin believed the elements of the Supper to be used by God as instruments in communicating the promises which they represent, a view called symbolic instrumentalism.
Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli's successor, went beyond Zwingli by teaching that there is a union between the sacrament of the Supper and the grace symbolized in them. Bullinger's view was not identical to Calvin's because he did not see sacraments as instrumental in communicating grace. Bullinger's view has been called "symbolic parallelism" because the inward feeding on Christ occurs at the same time as the outward eating of bread and wine but is not caused by it in any way.
Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the
English Reformation and guiding figure who shaped Anglican doctrine, aligned himself with the Eucharistic theology of John Calvin, which is reflected in the 28th Article of the
Thirty-Nine Articles of the
Church of England: "the Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavently and spiritual manner."
John Knox, the leader of the
Scottish Reformation and father of Presbyterianism, emphasized that in the Lord's Supper, believers are lifted "up to Christ in a spiritual feeding upon his body and blood". His beliefs of the Lord's Supper aligned with those of John Calvin. Because of this theology of the Lord's Supper, Calvin advocated for communion "at least weekly" (
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.17.43). From this, Godfrey wrote:The frequency of administration may say something about what we expect to find at that table (or, maybe I should say, whom we expect to find at that table) and what the blessing of meeting Jesus Christ there really is.Many of Godfrey's students at
Westminster Seminary California have followed-up and advocated and practiced weekly communion on the basis of the theology of the
Reformed confessions, in their congregations, first in the
Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) and now in the
United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA):
R. Scott Clark, Kim Riddlebarger,
Michael Horton, and Daniel R. Hyde. ==Meaning==