4 Views of the Eucharist with regard to the presence of Christs body

1. Zwinglian (e.g., most Baptists): The Eucharist is a Biblical ordinance which Christians put

into practice in obedience to Christ as a token or symbol of their faith and their membership in

his body. Christs physical body is not literally present in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a memorial (because Christ said, Do this in memory of me) reminding us of what Christ did for us once for all on the cross.

2. Calvinist (e.g., Presbyterians): Christs body is present at the Eucharist, but not "locally present," i.e. not present in any particular place or locality (e.g., not in the bread, not in your

mouth). Christs presence is spiritual, not bodilyin the power of his life-giving flesh, but not in its material substance. His body is located literally in heaven, but it is present by the power of

the Holy Spirit for all who believe. If we receive the bread and wine in faith, it is as if we were

raised on high by the power of the Spirit to partake of his flesh in heaven. For that's where his

resurrected body remains, until he comes again in glory. The liturgies informed by Calvins theology typically say: as truly as we eat this bread, we partake of his body. But we partake of

his body by faith, not by chewing it with our teeth. Those who take the sacrament without faith

receive bread and wine, but not the body and blood of Christ.

3. Lutheran (often called Real Presence). Christ is present bodily, not just spiritually. His body

is present in the bread. (Lutherans like to say it is "in, with and under" the bread. But I think

just plain "in" is clearer). The body is present in the bread just as truly as the bread is present in

your mouth. Since Christ is bodily present in the bread, all who eat it are eating his body, even if

they don't believe (but without faith it does their soul harm rather than good). How this is all

possible is something we can't fully explain, but it has to do with the fact that we are talking

about his resurrected, glorified body. Also, he has ascended to heaven, which does not mean

some place in the sky (you're not going to get there in a spaceship) but at God's right handand Gods right hand is everywhere. Thus Christ's body can be everywhere, while remaining at God's right hand. So it is literally his body, right there in the bread and in our mouths. But we

should remember it is his glorified body. We chew it with our teeth, but we dont do it any harm (his glorified body cannot be cut up, digested, etc.). And it is locally present, located in space, in

the sense that it's right there in the bread in our mouthseven though it's not contained or limited by the bread, because Christ's body is present in every place that God is present.

4. Roman Catholic (Transubstantiation): Christ is indeed bodily present in the Eucharist (as the

Lutherans say). The great difference is that for Catholics, there is no bread left. The bread has

been wholly changed into Christs body, and the wine into his blood. So in the Eucharist you still have the appearance of bread and wine, looking and tasting exactly like bread and wine,

which is to say (in technical terms) that you have the accidents of bread and wine. But in its

substance (i.e. in its true, underlying reality) these are not bread and wine but the body and blood

of Christ. Just as a change of form is called a trans-formation, this unique and miraculous

change of substance is called tran-substantiation.

In short, in the Eucharist:

1. For Zwingli, Christs body is not present, but is symbolized by the bread. 2. For Calvinist, Christs body is spiritually but not locally present. 3. For Lutherans, Christs body is locally present, literally in the bread. 4. For Roman Catholics (and Eastern Orthodox), the bread has been changed into Christs body.