laudable Practice

Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of Brett Salkeld's excellent Transubstantiation: Theology, History, and Christian Unity (2019) is Zwingli's appearance in the discussion of what is shared in eucharistic theology by Thomas and Calvin: On this, of course, Calvin (and Zwingli too!) follows Aquinas rather precisely ... How ironic, then, Calvin's reputation as a Zwinglian is based largely on his theology of signs and his affirmation of the ascension, two points on which he is in strict agreement with Aquinas! Now, to be clear, Salkeld does not propose a rehabilitation of Zwingli (such as  laudable Practice has previously suggested).  For Salkeld, Zwingli - unlike both Bullinger and (more fully) Calvin - still proposes that the bread and wine in the Supper are "signs of an absent reality".  Leaving aside, for the moment, the fact that Salkfeld does not address those statements by Zwingli which clearly confess a true participation in Christ in the Supper, it ...

How should we to interpret Hooker's famous dictum on the Eucharist, "The real presence of Christ’s most blessed body and blood is not therefore to be sought for in the sacrament, but in the worthy receiver of the sacrament" ( LEP V.67.6)? It is not a denial that the consecrated Elements are changed: Christ assisting this heavenly banquet with his personal and true presence doth by his own power add to the natural substance thereof supernatural efficacy, which addition to the nature of the consecrated elements changeth them and maketh them that unto us which otherwise they could not be (V.67.11).   It is not to say that the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist are mere figures: the Eucharist is not a bare sign or figure only ... the efficacy of his body and blood is not all we receive in this sacrament (V.67.8).   It is not to deny that there is a "conjunction of his body and blood with those elements" (V.67.10).  The Bread and Cup "are his body and blood fo...

In a recent episode of the always thoughtful and insightful Holy CofE podcast, theologian Hans Boersma was interview. Boersma - who belonged to the Reformed tradition - recently received episcopal orders, being ordained a priest in the Anglican tradition. One particular line from the interview struck me.  Addressing the vocation of the theologian, Boersma said: There is no, it seems to me, better way to do that than to be a priest in the Church. This, of course, does not deny that there other ways which are as equally good and proper: the lay theologian in the academy or the lay theologian in the service of the Church.  It does, however, suggest that the office and work of the priest is inherently caught up with the vocation of the theologian.   The vocation of the theologian in this context is not to publish but, rather, to take seriously the stuff of theology, what Thomas Aquinas calls sacra doctrina .  And it is Thomas who provides us with the key definitio...