transubstantiation

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Christ the Redeemer (Ukrainian icon, 18th century)

In Roman Catholic theology, the term transubstantiation ( Latin for "change of essence") denotes the change of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ during Holy Mass .

The doctrine of transubstantiation describes the permanent change of bread and wine in the priestly visualization of the one sacrifice of Christ during the words of change . The doctrine of transubstantiation belongs to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Churches united with Rome .

Other churches such as the Old Catholic , Old Oriental , Anglican , Lutheran , Methodist , Orthodox Churches and the Christian Community teach that the real presence of Christ in or under the visible forms of bread and wine is given after the words of institution have been spoken or after the epiclesis . Depending on the teaching, this also includes the actual change in the substance of bread and wine. There are also differences in the teachings of these churches in terms of the type and duration of consecration .

Transubstantiation in theology

Gregory Mass (around 1480)

In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation is used to denote the transformation of the essence of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ during the consecration within the prayer of mass . The term refers to debates about the understanding of the Eucharist in the 9th – 13th centuries. Century back.

The substance ( ancient Greek οὐσία ) is in the Aristotelian sense the non-sensually perceptible essence of a thing in itself. The change in view in the Eucharist is supposed to be a real change of essence and does not affect the sensually perceptible accidents . For the body of Christ continues to appear to the senses like bread even after the change. Medieval theologians used the term substance to describe the events taking place here. Understood in Aristotelian terms, a continuation of the accidents and thus of the external shape when the substance is changed does not seem possible because accidents depend on the substance on which they occur.

The reason for the definition of transubstantiation were reactions to the Christology of Berengar von Tours and in particular his teaching on the Eucharist. Berengar found what seemed to him to be crude realism. His opponents formulated, for example, that the body of Jesus would be crushed by the teeth of the believers - as in a letter of confession written by Humbert von Silva Candida , which Berengar had to sign in 1059 - which Berengar regarded as absurd. Here the expression “substance” is associated with the idea of ​​a physical thing and the “Hoc est corpus meum” of the mass is understood as a material transformation (mutatio materialis). On the other hand, Berengar argued that the Church Fathers had already understood the Eucharist as a sacred sign and that the body of Christ was transfigured after the resurrection. Berengar's main opponents, Lanfrank von Bec and Guitmund von Aversa , then spoke of a change in substance (substantialiter transmutari). This was taken up by the Roman Synod of 1079 with the formulation “substantialiter converti”. The expression transubstantiation is first documented by Rolandus Bandinelli in 1155/56 ; probably Robertus Pullus already expressed himself this way around 1140. At the fourth Lateran Council in 1215 this way of speaking was codified as orthodox, although not yet defined as a dogma . The interconnection of the transubstantiation doctrine with the doctrine of concurrence (the bread is only transformed into the body and the wine only into the blood of Christ, "but the other is always included and present because of the inner connection of body and blood") provides for medieval-scholastic theology and all other subsequent Catholic traditions the sacrament-ontological and liturgical-practical legitimation to validly donate the Eucharist even under one of its forms.

Martin Luther , who stuck to the real presence of Christ all his life and made this particularly effective in relation to Huldrych Zwingli's spiritualistic teaching of the Eucharist , attributed the authorship of the doctrine of transubstantiation to Thomas Aquinas . However, he only granted the doctrine of transubstantiation the rank of "doctrine" (opinionio) and rejected any claim to dogmatic liability for this "sophistic subtlety". According to Luther, as for Jean Calvin, it is neither written nor rational due to very similar arguments.

In the Council of Trent , the teaching of the Fourth Lateran Council and the teaching of high scholastic theology are affirmed:

“Through the consecration of bread and wine [takes place] a transformation of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of his blood [...]. This metamorphosis has been correctly called by the Holy Catholic Church and in the true sense of the word transubstantiation. "

The Eucharistic change takes place through divine grace , the priest acts in persona Christi .

Transubstantiation doctrine in ecumenical dialogue

Transformation of the wine at a holy mass

A theology of the change of essence is defined for the Roman Catholic Church by the Council of Trent . It is dogmatically codified: “Whoever says that in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist remains together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ the substance of bread and wine, and that wonderful and unique transformation of the whole substance of the bread into the body and all substance of the wine into the blood, whereby only the shapes of bread and wine remain, denies that it is occupied with the anathema . ”The expression transubstantiation is not given as the content of the dogma, but only said:“ The Catholic Church calls this change very apt change of essence ”. The Lateranum IV had already used the term, but made no dogmatic determination in this regard.

The Orthodox churches also profess an essential transformation (enhypostasis) and call the shapes of bread and wine when receiving communion “precious body and precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ”, but reject their definition as transubstantiation. It is also doubted that the change takes place solely through the words of institution recited by the priest .

Martin Luther firmly rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation in his Schmalkaldic Articles (Part III, sub-item “On the Sacrament of the Altar”). On the other hand, he taught that the believers consume the body and blood of Christ "in, with and under" bread and wine (so-called real presence). This is often imprecisely described by the term consubstantiation ; however, Luther himself never used this term. Many Lutherans today reject the term because it could wrongly suggest, on the one hand, that bread and wine as well as body and blood come together and form a new, common substance, or, on the other hand, that, like bread and wine, are present in their natural way, too Christ's body and blood are physically present. Rather, Lutherans believe that at the Lord's Supper, bread and wine are naturally present as that, while Christ's body and blood are supernatural, heavenly, but not carnal. This supernatural presence does not arise through belief in it (as taught by Zwingli), but is given through the sacramental union. In summary, this sacramental real presence is justified by the omnipresence (“ubiquity”) of Jesus Christ; that is, bread and wine are "embraced" in the presence of Christ. The value of the Lutheran doctrine of a real presence of Christ at the Lutheran Last Supper is not denied by the Roman Catholic Church, insofar as “an ecclesiology based on the concept of succession , as it applies in the Catholic Church, in no way denies a salvific presence of the Lord in the Lutheran Last Supper got to".

In the Reformed churches there are different understandings of the “spiritual presence”: from a union of the souls of believers with Christ's body in heaven ( John Calvin ) to the making present in believing remembrance of the passion of Christ ( Zwingli ). The fundamental difficulty of Reformed theology in recognizing the doctrine of transubstantiation lies in the words of institution Christi hoc est corpus meum . Due to the real presence of Christ with a view to bread and wine, the meaning “this symbolizes my body” rather than “this is my body” should be assumed here.

The Anabaptists completely reject the transubstantiation of the elements of the Lord's Supper. For them, wine and bread retain their nutritional character and are only symbolic of the body and blood of Christ.

The Old Catholic theology rejects both the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation from and Protestant Konsubstantiationslehre. The change of the Eucharistic gifts is a mystery that breaks human categories such as “substance” and therefore cannot be adequately explained with the help of this concept. However - in contrast to the Reformed churches - it confesses the permanent presence of Christ in the Eucharistic gifts, even after the end of the Mass. It thus comes close to the understanding of the Orthodox churches.

The ecumenical conversation tries to clarify whether and how a factual identity of certain beliefs can be determined with different theological terminology. With regard to the Orthodox and Roman Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, a consensus on the matter can in any case be considered to have already been reached. Without prejudice to the Catholic recognition of important elements of the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper, the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1993 (or 1997 in the authentic Latin version) in accordance with the Roman Catholic provisions on intercommunion formulates the basic difference, which has so far not been abolished: “Those that emerged from the Reformation, from Ecclesiastical communities separate from the Catholic Church have not preserved the original and complete reality of the Eucharistic mystery , mainly because of the lack of the sacrament of Holy Orders ( Unitatis redintegratio , n. 22). For this reason, Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible for the Catholic Church ”(n. 1400).

See also

literature

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Web links

Wiktionary: Transubstantiation  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Kurt Flasch : Kampfplatz der Philosophie, 2008, p. 91 f.
  2. ↑ Matthias Laarmann: Konkomitanz and communion under both forms. For discussion from the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century . In: Benjamin Dahlke, Bernhard Knorn (Ed.): An Authority for Dogmatics? Thomas Aquinas in modern times. Festschrift for Leonhard Hell [for his 60th birthday]. Herder, Freiburg i.Br. 2018, pp. 60-74, there p. 60.
  3. ↑ Cf. Erwin Metzke: Sacrament and Metaphysics . A Luther study on the relationship between Christian thought and the bodily-material (1948). In: Karlfried founder (ed.): Coincidentia Oppositorum. 1961, pp. 158-204; Albrecht Peters: Real presence. Luther's testimony of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper. 2nd Edition. Berlin 1966; Susi Hausammann: Real presence in Luther's doctrine of the Last Supper. In: Studies on the history and theology of the Reformation . Festschrift Ernst Bizer. Neukirchen-Vluyn 1969, pp. 157-173; F. Mann: The Lord's Supper with young Luther, 1971; Hartmut Hilgenfeld: Medieval-traditional elements in Luther's Last Supper writings. Zurich 1971; W. Schwab: Development and shape of the theology of the sacrament in M. Luther, 1977; T. G. A. Hardt: Venerabilis et adorabilis Eucharistia. A study of the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper in the 16th century , ed. by J. Distelmann, Göttingen 1988; Lothar Lies: Real presence with Luther and the Lutherans today. An overview based on recent publications. In: Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 119 (1997), pp. 1–26.
  4. ↑ See Walther Köhler: Zwingli and Luther, Leipzig 1924/1953; Martin Werner: The Protestant Way of Faith , Vol. 2, Bern 1962, pp. 482–498.
  5. ^ M. Luther: To the Christian nobility of the German nation (1520). Weimar edition 6, 456, 36.
  6. ↑ Luther: De captivitate babylonica ecclesiae. Weimar Edition 6, 508; Leif Grane: Luther's criticism of Thomas Aquinas in “De captivitate babylonica”. In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 80 (1969), pp. 1–13; Schmalkald. Art. III, 6, 5 (1537). In: Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Göttingen 1930, 452, 1–7. 21-25.
  7. ↑ Luther: De captivitate babylonica ecclesiae. Weimar edition 6, 509, 20f.
  8. ^ J. Calvin: Institutio christianae religionis IV, 17 (1559). In: Opera selecta , ed. by Peter Barth and Wilhelm Niesel, 2nd edition, Munich 1959; 5, 357, 362, 367; The Confession of Faith (Confessio Scotica) (1560). In: Confessions and church ordinances of the Church reformed according to God's Word , ed. by Wilhelm Niesel, Zollikon / Zurich 1938, 108, 2; on Calvinist school theology, cf. Heinrich Heppe, Ernst Bizer: The dogmatics of the evangelical reformed church. 1934; 2nd edition, Neukirchen 1958, pp. 499-525; Leopold Schümmer: La Forme des prières de 1592: Transsubstantiation des communiants et translation des éléments. In: Communautés et liturgies 66 (Ottignies, Belg. 1984), pp. 363-390.
  9. ↑ 13th Session, Decree on the Sacrament of the Eucharist, chap. 4: DH  1642; German History in Documents and Pictures , Volume 1: From the Reformation to the Thirty Years War, 1500–1648 ( The Council of Trient (1547–63). )
  10. ↑ See Denzinger-Hünermann 1651f
  11. ^ DH 1652
  12. ^ Ibid .: conversionem catholica Ecclesia aptissime transsubstantiationem appellat.
  13. ↑ Cf. Alexander Vasyutin: Enhypostasierung or Transubstantiation. On the most recent Russian Orthodox Eucharistic debate. In: Hans-Peter Großhans, Malte Dominik Krüger (ed.): In the presence of God. Contributions to the theology of worship . Frankfurt / Main 2009, pp. 311–326.
  14. ↑ Communion - Consubstantiation? - Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). Retrieved March 5, 2017 .
  15. ^ Concordia formula (1577), Formula Concordiae (first part). VII. Of the Holy Communion of Christ. In: Glaubensstimme.de. Retrieved on September 17, 2018 : “6. We believe, teach and confess that the body and blood of Christ are received not only spiritually through faith, but also orally, but not in a capernastic, but supernatural, heavenly way for the sake of sacramental union, with bread and wine, like such clearly show the words of Christ, since Christ means taking, eating and drinking, which then come about by the apostles; "
  16. ↑ Network Ecumenism: The Understanding of the Lord's Supper among Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists | Ecumenical network. Retrieved March 5, 2017 .
  17. ^ Letter from the Prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, to the Protestant Bavarian regional bishop, 1993.
  18. ↑ John M. Janzen: Mennonite worship houses, The relationship of form and meaning. In: Mennonite Lexicon . Volume 5 (MennLex 5).
  19. ↑ cf. Document Church and Justification (ed. By the "Common Roman Catholic Evangelical-Lutheran Commission". Bonifatius Druck - Buch, Paderborn / Verlag Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt 1994, ISBN 3-87088-828-8 , 151 pages), the above mentioned Ratzinger quote - but without explicit reference to the source - takes up (p. 102).