'We speak their sense': Taylor, the Eucharist, and breathing with both lungs

Section XII of Taylor's The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament (1654) abounds with quotations from the Greek Fathers. Taylor demonstrates how the teaching of the Greek Fathers regarding the change effected in the bread and wine in the Holy Mysteries does not support transubstantiation; that is, "the passage and conversion of the whole substance, into the whole substance". He points to the terms used by "the Greek Church" to describe the change occurring in the Eucharist:

When the Fathers in this question speak of the change of the symbols in the holy Sacrament, they sometimes use the words of μεταβολὴ, μεταρρύθμισις, μετασκεύασμος, μεταστοιχείωσις, μεταποίησις in the Greek Church: conversion, mutation, transition, migration, transfiguration, and the like in the Latin; but they by these doe understand accidental and Sacramental conversions, not proper, natural and substantial.

Such change is also affirmed by the Greek Fathers - and here Taylor turns to Cyril of Alexandria and Chrysostom - in Baptism and "Sacramentals":

Whatsoever the Fathers speak of this, they affirm the same also of the other Sacrament, and of the Sacramentals, or rituals of the Church. It is a known similitude used by S. Cyril of Alexandria. As the bread of the Eucharist after the invocation of the holy Ghost is no longer common bread, but it is the body of Christ: so this holy unguent is no longer meer and common oyntment, but it is (χάρισμα Χριστοῦ,) the grace of Christ ... it is in this, as in the Eucharist ... Thus S. Chrysostome sayes, that the Table, or Altar is as the manger in which Christ was laid; that the Priest is a Seraphim, and his hands are the tongs taking the coal from the Altar ... That which comes most fully home to this, is their affirmative concerning Baptisme, to the same purposes, and in many of the same expressions which they use in this other Sacrament ... and S. Cyril of Alexandria sayth. By the operation of the holy Spirit, the waters are reformed to a divine nature, by which the baptized cleanse their body.

We might note, of course, that comparing the change in the elements of the Eucharist to that in the element of Baptism was a recurrent in Reformed eucharistic theologies. More widely, Taylor's evocation of the rich sacramental language of the East is a reminder that applying a particular theology of change to the Eucharist alone, apart from the other Sacrament and other sacramental acts, undermines and potentially disorders the sacramental economy.

Section XII of this work, therefore, has a deeply Eastern character, affirming the East's theologies of sacramental change - "conversion, mutation, transition, migration, transfiguration". As Taylor explicitly declares:

we speak their sense, and in their own words, the Church of England expressing this mysterie frequently in the same formes of words.

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School. Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979. We ...

laudable Practice

Search This Blog