Explaining Eucharistic “Real Presence”: Moving beyond a Medieval Conundrum

Abstract

Understandings of body and resurrected bodiliness in the early centuries shaped the explanations of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. Medieval writers debated how Jesus’ body, which was at the right of the Father, could also be present in the Eucharist. The concept of transubstantiation and Thomas Aquinas’s emphasis on a substantial presence sought to resolve that conundrum. This article shows how contemporary theological perspectives on body and resurrected bodiliness, on the human personality of Jesus, and on symbolic reality open up a new path toward explaining eucharistic real presence.