In Breaking of Bread

A brilliant and controversial analysis of why transubstantiation and its newer replacements are inadequate.

P. J. FitzPatrick (Author)

9780521351119, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 May 1993

432 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3.5 cm, 0.83 kg

'An immensely important book, beautifully written, powerfully argued, often delightfully witty, and sometimes … quite moving.' Fergus Kerr

For many years, the Roman Catholic Church has used the term 'transubstantiation' to express the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Of late, however, although proposed replacements have not found favour, the term itself no longer has the place and setting it once had, and debates about transubstantiation have died down. This book is written in the belief that reflection upon the matter is indispensable. It proposes that transubstantiation and its proposed replacements are all fundamentally similar in their confusions - they divorce appearance from reality because they fail to do justice to the Eucharist as a rite. The changes in Roman Catholic worship have sharpened the need for an account that will do justice to this, and the book is an attempt to provide one. It is also an endeavour to discuss central problems in the Roman Church today.

Preface
List of abbreviations
Methods of citation
1. Against Transubstantiation
2. Against Transignification
3. History and Language
4. Signs and Disguises
5. Eucharistic Proclamation
6. 'Corpus Mysticum'
References
Selective Index
Texts of Aquinas, cited or mentioned.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM]