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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
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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

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