The Eucharist in the Reformation

The first major study of the the Eucharist that divided Western Christendom in the sixteen century.

Lee Palmer Wandel (Author)

9780521673129, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 December 2005

316 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.43 kg

'Wandel follows Christ's words through the heritage of outstanding representatives of the most influential doctrines with an admirable degree of success. Her ability and skill to communicate the history and theologies of the epoch recommend the book to a wide readership. Coherent organization and concise narrative make the work accessible to students, and advanced early modernists will find it a useful compendium.' Sixteenth Century Journal

The Eucharist in the Reformation: Incarnation and Liturgy takes up the words, 'this is my body', 'this do', and 'remembrance of me' that divided Christendom in the sixteenth century. It traces the different understandings of these simple words and the consequences of those divergent understandings in the delineation of the Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic traditions: the different formulations of liturgy with their different conceptualizations of the cognitive and collective function of ritual; the different conceptualizations of the relationship between Christ and the living body of the faithful; the different articulations of the relationship between the world of matter and divinity; and the different epistemologies. It argues that the incarnation is at the center of the story of the Reformation and suggests how divergent religious identities were formed.

1. The Eucharist to 1500
2. Augsburg
3. The Lutheran Eucharist
4. The Reformed Eucharist
5. The Catholic Eucharist.

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]