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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
This article examines the ways in which Anglican theologians have reflected on the doctrine of transubstantiation. The article notes that there is substantial agreement between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion on the nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist and that this agreement has been forged by the long established and continuing dialogue of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). At the same time the article notes that official responses from the Roman Catholic Church, while acknowledging the worth of the dialogue, have insisted on particular theological and philosophical definitions of the nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist concerning a change in the substance of the elements. While Anglicans have not accepted this particular definition of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist as defined by the traditional doctrine of transubstantiation, they have nonetheless accepted the notion of the real presence and reflected in modern times on transubstantiation. Examples of this reflection on transubstantiation by Anglicans are discussed in the hope of allowing the dialogue to continue at new levels of understanding.
1 See the following documents of the Commission: Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, ‘Eucharistic Doctrine’, in The Final Report (London: SPCK and Catholic Truth Society, 1982), pp. 12–16Google Scholar; Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission,‘Eucharistic Doctrine: Elucidation’, in The Final Report (London: SPCK and Catholic Truth Society, 1982), pp. 17–25Google Scholar; and Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Clarifications of Certain Aspects of the Agreed Statements on Eucharist and Ministry of the First Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission together with a letter from Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy President Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (London: Church House Publishing, 1994), pp. 4–8Google Scholar.
2 The Report of the Lambeth Conference 1978 (London: CIO Publishing, 1978), p. 50Google Scholar; The Truth Shall Make You Free. The Lambeth Conference 1988. The Reports, Resolutions and Pastoral Letters from the Bishops (London: Church House Publishing, 1988), p. 210Google Scholar; Lambeth Conference 1998, ‘Resolution IV.23 The Roman Catholic Church’, in The Official Report of the Lambeth Conference 1998 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Moorehouse, 1998), pp. 415–416Google Scholar.
3 ‘Church of England Faith and Order Advisory Group on the Final Report of ARCIC I (1985)’ in Hill, Christopher and Yarnold, Edward (eds) Anglicans and Roman Catholics: The Search for Unity (London: SPCK and Catholic Truth Society, 1994), pp. 111–152Google Scholar.
4 ‘The Official Roman Catholic Response to the Final Report of ARCIC I’, in Hill, Christopher and Yarnold, Edward (eds) Anglicans and Roman Catholics: The Search for Unity (London: SPCK and Catholic Truth Society, 1994), pp. 156–166Google Scholar.
5 Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, ‘Eucharistic Doctrine’, p. 14, footnote 2.
6 See Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, ‘Response to the Final Report of ARCIC I’, in Hill, Christopher and Yarnold, Edward (eds) Anglicans and Roman Catholics: The Search for Unity (London: SPCK and Catholic Truth Society, 1994), pp. 94–110Google Scholar and French Roman Catholic Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity, ‘Concerning the Holy See's Response to the Final Report of ARCIC I, in Hill, Christopher and Yarnold, Edward (eds) Anglicans and Roman Catholics: The Search for Unity (London: SPCK and Catholic Truth Society, 1994), pp. 171–184Google Scholar.
7 These different philosophical assumptions are explored in detail in Douglas, Brian and Lovat, Terence, ‘The Integrity of Discourse in the Anglican Eucharistic Tradition: A Consideration of Philosophical Assumptions’, The Heythrop Journal, 51 (2010) 847–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially pp. 856–7. .
8 See paragraphs 1373–1381 in Catechism of the Catholic Church (Homebush: St Pauls, 1994), pp. 346–348Google Scholar. See especially paragraph 1376, p. 347, where the Catechism quotes from the Council of Trent, saying: ‘by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change in of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly called transubstantiation’.
9 See Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles which says that ‘Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacraments, and hath given occasion to many superstitions’. It should be noted however that this Article seems to refer only to a definition of transubstantiation which overthrows the nature of a sacrament, such as that implied by a fleshy presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Any moderate realist assumptions regarding Christ's presence in the Eucharist, such as a real presence, are seemingly not excluded and some have argued that Anglicans can use the word ‘transubstantiation’ if it is understood in this sacramental realist manner.
10 Traditionally defined as a conversion of the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of the body and blood of Christ with the accidents or appearances of bread and wine remaining.
11 See Tomlinson, J.T., The Great Parliamentary Debate in 1548 on the Lord's Supper. From the Original MS now in the British Museum. With an introduction and notes (London: Shaw and Co., undated)Google Scholar.
12 Tomlinson, The Great Parliamentary Debate in 1548 on the Lord's Supper, pp. 49 and 50.
13 Ridley, Nicholas, ‘Disputation at Cambridge’, cited in Stone, D., A History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1909), II, p. 185Google Scholar.
14 Ridley, Nicholas, Works, in Christmas, H., ed., (Cambridge: The Parker Society, 1841), p. 171Google Scholar.
15 Ridley, Works, pp. 229–230.
16 Taylor, Jeremy, The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, proved against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation (London: Bohn, 1867), II, p. 685Google Scholar.
17 Taylor, The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, II, p. 685.
18 Taylor, The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, II, p. 685.
19 Andrewes, Lancelot, Works, in Wilson, J. and Bliss, J., ed., (Oxford: Parker, 1841–1854), VIII, p. 13Google Scholar.
20 Andrewes, Works, VIII, p. 262.
21 Andrewes, Works, VIII, p. 265.
22 Bramhall, John, Works, in Haddam, A.W., ed., (Oxford: Parker, 1842–1845), I, p. 8Google Scholar.
23 Spens, Will, ‘The Eucharist’, in Selwyn, Edward, ed., Essays Catholic and Critical. By Member of the Anglican Communion (London: SPCK, 1926), pp. 442–443Google Scholar.
24 Spens, ‘The Eucharist’, p. 443.
25 See Article XXVIII.
26 Spens, ‘The Eucharist’, p. 444.
27 Temple, William, Christus Veritas: An Essay (London: Macmillan, 1924), p. 3Google Scholar.
28 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 13.
29 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 15.
30 Presumably the scholastic concepts of substance and accidents.
31 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 15.
32 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 15.
33 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 15.
34 Temple, Christus Veritas, pp. 16–17.
35 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 17.
36 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 17.
37 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 18.
38 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 18.
39 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 19.
40 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 18.
41 Temple, Christus Veritas, p. 17.
42 Mascall, Eric, Corpus Christi – Essays on the Church and the Eucharist (London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1953), pp. 40–41Google Scholar.
43 Mascall, Corpus Christi, p. 41.
44 Mascall, Corpus Christi, p. 135.
45 Mascall, Corpus Christi, pp. 135–136.
46 Mascall, Corpus Christi, p. 136.
47 Mascall, Corpus Christi, pp. 136–137.
48 Macquarrie, John, Paths in Spirituality (London: SCM Press, 1992), p. 88Google Scholar.
49 Macquarrie, Paths in Spirituality, p. 89.
50 Macquarrie, Paths in Spirituality, p. 89.
51 Macquarrie, Paths in Spirituality, p. 89.
52 Macquarrie, Paths in Spirituality, p 90.
53 Macquarrie, Paths in Spirituality, p. 90.
54 Macquarrie, Paths in Spirituality, p. 91.
55 Macquarrie, John, A Guide to the Sacraments (London: SCM Press, 1997), p. 131Google Scholar.
56 Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments, p. 131.
57 Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, Eucharistic Doctrine, p. 14, footnote 2.
58 Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments, p. 131.
59 Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments, p. 132.
60 Schillebeeckx, Edward, The Eucharist (London: Sheed and Ward, 1977)Google Scholar.
61 Pickstock, Catherine, After Writing: The Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), p. xiiiGoogle Scholar.
62 Pickstock, After Writing, p. xv.
63 Pickstock, After Writing, p. 260.
64 Pickstock, After Writing, p. 263.
65 Pickstock, After Writing, p. 262.
66 Pickstock, Catherine, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, in Beckwith, Sarah, ed., Catholicism and Catholocity: Eucharistic Communities in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), pp. 51–52Google Scholar.
67 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 52.
68 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, pp. 52–53.
69 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 54.
70 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 54.
71 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, pp. 54–55.
72 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 61.
73 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 62.
74 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 63.
75 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 63.
76 Pickstock, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Quest for Catholicity’, p. 63.
77 As expressed in the Official Response.
78 See Douglas and Lovat, ‘The Integrity of Discourse in the Anglican Eucharistic Tradition: A Consideration of Philosophical Assumptions’.
79 See Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, ‘Response to the Final Report of ARCIC I’ and French Roman Catholic Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity, ‘Concerning the Holy See's Response to the Final Report of ARCIC I’.
80 Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei. Encyclical of Pope Paul VI on the Holy Eucharist, September 3, 1965, Online at: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_03091965_mysterium_en.html. Accessed 2 November, 2010.
81 Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, paragraph 1.
82 Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, paragraph 25.
83 Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, paragraph 46.
84 Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Clarifications on Eucharist and Ministry, p. 7.
85 Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, ‘Eucharistic Doctrine’, p. 14, footnote 2.
