The Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist: A Historical-Analytical Survey of the Problems of the Sacrament (Historical-Analytical Studies on Nature, Mind and Action, 10)

This volume is about the most mind-boggling sacrament of the Christian faith, also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist: in its Roman Catholic interpretation, the conversion of the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ for Holy Communion. The challenge of providing a rational interpretation of this doctrine of faith proved to be one of the most contentious issues in the Western history of ideas, apparently going against self-evident metaphysical principles (requiring accidents existing without a substance, and a body in several places at the same time, etc.), and dividing schools of thought, indeed, eventually, warring religious factions. The volume addresses both the metaphysical, theoretical issues involved in this challenge and the historical, theological developments of how meeting this challenge played out first in the schools and even later in religious schisms, leading to the paradigmatic shift from medieval to modern forms of thought. The essays of the volume derive from the lectures of an eponymous international conference held in Budapest, Hungary, which was also the occasion of founding the Society for the History of European Ideas (SEHI); accordingly, the book is the first volume of the annual Proceedings of the SEHI. This book is aimed just as much at laymen and religious scholars seeking a better understanding of their faith as at anyone seeking this understanding with a non-religious attitude. Acknowledgements A Brief Introduction to The Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist Anacrusis: Should We Discuss Matters of Faith, and If So, How? Setting Up the Problems The Semantical Problems Three Metaphysical Problems Conclusion Contents Chapter 1: Christology and the Eucharist in Two Redactions of Pseudo-Dionysius 1.1 The Birth of a Late Antique Fiction 1.2 Emiliano Fiori’s Criticism of the Two-Redaction Theory 1.3 The (Incomplete) Structure of the Pseudo-Dionysian Theology and Its Interpretation by Sergius of Reshaina 1.4 Dating the Dionysian Corpus 1.5 How Can We Detect the Transformation of the Original Text Between the Putative Model of the Syriac Translation and the Greek Text We Have in the Manuscripts? 1.5.1 Case e: Corruptions in the Second Redaction of the Corpus, Introducing Incomprehensible Elements, Which Can Be Corrected Based on Sergius’ Translation 1.5.1.1 The Exclusion of the Unworthy Ranks from the Eucharistic Prayer 1.5.2 Case f. and g.: Doctrinally Motivated Intentional Changes in the Second Redaction, Combined to Errors Due to Ignorance about the Original Liturgical Context 1.5.2.1 The Putative Creed in the Ecclesiastic Hierarchy, the Dates of the First and Second Redactions of the Corpus, and the Elimination of a Strict Dyophysite Terminology 1.5.2.2 Sergius’ Translation Situating the Ecclesiastic Hierarchy in the Domain of the Evagrian Praktike 1.6 Final Conclusions References 1. Ancient Sources Critical Edition of the CD English Translation with Notes, and Introductions Sergius’ Translation of DN, MT and Ep. Evagrius of Pontus, Kephalaia Gnostica Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist Marinus, Life of Proclus or on Happiness English Translation The Constantinopolitan Colloquium of 532 and the Letter of Innocentius of Maroneia Fifteen Canons Against the Origenists Symeon the New Theologian, The Hymns of Divine Loves Sergius of Reshaina, Introduction to the Syriac Translation of Pseudo-Dionysius The Book of the Holy Hierotheus Doctrina Patrum The Anaphora Attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus 2. Secondary Literature Chapter 2: Azymes and Epiclesis: Two Medieval Debates About the Eucharist 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Problem of the Azymes 2.3 The Emergence of the Latin Tradition 2.4 A Special Problem: Transubstantiation 2.5 The Problem of the Epiclesis107 2.6 A Few Corollaries Primary Sources Secondary Sources Chapter 3: “Whoever Eats My Flesh and Drinks My Blood Remains in Me, and I in Him” (John 6:56–57): Theoretical Developments in Understanding the Mystery of the Eucharist in Medieval Armenian Theology 3.1 The Eucharist-Sacrifice Approach 3.2 The ‘Christology-to-Eucharist’ Principle of Interpretation 3.3 Coexisting Divergences: Typological and Anti-Typological Hermeneutic Models for the Mystery of the Liturgy 3.4 The ‘Substance-Accident’ Approach: An Attempt to Conceptualize ‘Transubstantiation’ 3.5 From Eucharistic Piety to Metaphysics: Later Developments in Mystical Poetry 3.6 Conclusions Chapter 4: Verum sub metaphoris et fabulis or fabulosum et falsum? The Impossibility of Transubstantiation and the Philosophical Representation of Religion in the 1260s and 70s 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Faith, Horror, Ridicule, and the Zero-Day Vulnerability of Religious Claims 4.3 A Framework for the Demarcation of Science, Articles of Faith, and Fables 4.4 Resisting Ridicule 4.5 The Impossibility of Transubstantiation Bibliography Primary Secondary Chapter 5: Accidens Secundum Species: Bonaventure’s Solution to the Problem of the Accidens Sine Subiecto Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Chapter 6: Speaking in Christ’s Person: Thomas Aquinas on the Semantics and Pragmatics of the Words of Consecration 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Two Arguments 6.3 Significative Productivity 6.4 Instrumental Representation 6.5 Recitation 6.6 Conclusion References Primary Literature Secondary Literature Chapter 7: Do Accidents Contain Inhering in a Substance in Their Definition? Aquinas vs the Arts Masters and the Background in Avicenna 7.1 Avicennian Backgrounds and Aquinas’ Genus Argument for the Essence-Esse Real Distinction 7.2 Eucharistic Applications 7.3 Reactions to Aquinas on “Substance-Less” Accidents among His Contemporaries 7.4 Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 8: Aquinas’ Solution of the Problem of the Persistence of Accidents in the Eucharist and Its Impact on Later Developments in the European History of Ideas 8.1 Aquinas on “The Problem of Persistence” 8.2 Aquinas’s Solution 8.3 The Position of the Anonymous Physics-Commentary 8.4 Siger of Brabant’s Position 8.5 Conclusion Chapter 9: The Body of Christ in Aquinas’s Quodlibetal Questions 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Christ’s Eucharistic Body 9.3 Christ’s Glorified Body 9.4 Christ’s Non-Human Body 9.5 Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 10: Real Presence, Ergo Transubstantiation: St. Thomas Aquinas on the Eucharistic Conversion 10.1 The Real Presence 10.2 The Bread and Wine Do Not Remain 10.3 Not Annihilation 10.4 Substantial Conversion 10.5 Accidents Remain 10.6 The Substantial Form of Bread Does Not Remain 10.7 Instantaneous 10.8 How To Speak of This Conversion 10.9 Conclusion Chapter 11: Inherence and the Eucharist in Medieval Theology 11.1 Thomas Aquinas 11.2 Giles of Rome 11.3 Duns Scotus Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Chapter 12: Substantiation: Trans and Con 12.1 Background 12.2 Special Issues Raised by the Real Presence 12.3 Ockham 12.3.1 Wyclif Bibliography Chapter 13: John Buridan on the Eucharist. With a Translation of his Questions on Aristotle’s ‘Metaphysics’ 4.6 13.1 Buridan and the Arts 13.2 Substance and Signification 13.3 The Eucharist and the Categories 13.4 Buridan and Theology Appendix: QM 4.6 Bibliography Primary Secondary Chapter 14: Rejecting Transubstantiation in Late Medieval England and Bohemia 14.1 Wyclif on Subjects and Accidents 14.2 Wyclif and the Words of Institution 14.3 Wyclif on Real Presence 14.4 Wyclif’s English Opponents 14.5 English Wycliffites 14.6 Wyclif’s Legacy in Bohemia 14.7 Conclusion References Primary Sources Secondary Sources Chapter 15: A Lutheran Objection to Thomistic Transubstantiation 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Thomistic Transubstantiation 15.3 Objections to Thomistic Transubstantiation 15.4 Presence and Change of Place 15.5 Problems with (P2) and (P3) 15.6 The Lutheran Alternative 15.7 Concluding Ecumenical Postscript References Works Cited Chapter 16: Transubstantiation and the Real Distinction Between Essence and Existence? The Concerns of Benet Perera SJ (1536–1610) 16.1 Introduction 16.2 The Thomists’ Opinion and Arguments 16.3 Perera’s Opinion and Arguments 16.4 Perera’s Answers to the Thomists’ Arguments 16.5 Perera vs Aquinas? 16.6 Conclusion Bibliography Primary Secondary Chapter 17: Descartes on the Eucharistic Presence 17.1 Real Accidents 17.2 Real Presence (The Mainstream View) 17.3 Real Presence (The Mesland-Letter) 17.4 Real Presence (The Clerselier-Letter) 17.5 The Problem of Contingency 17.6 Conclusion Bibliography Primary Secondary Chapter 18: Christ, the Subject of the Accidents in the Eucharist 18.1 The Right Use of Wittgenstein 18.2 Six Arguments 18.3 A Modern Metaphysical Version 18.4 Three Objections Bibliography Chapter 19: “Real Presence” Is Not Enough: Recovering the Lost Semantics of Transubstantiation 19.1 Prologue: Real Presence Is Not Enough 19.2 The Argument 19.3 The Distinction Between Substance and Accident 19.4 “The Vanishing of Substance” 19.5 Semantics and Catholic Theology 19.6 Misreading Aquinas 19.7 Conclusion: The Gift of the Eucharist Bibliography Chapter 20: The Eucharist and the Person of Christ 20.1 Introduction 20.2 The Goal of Communion 20.3 The Eucharist and Second-Person Relatedness 20.4 Conclusion Bibliography