Editing Transubstantiation (section)

==Theology==
{{Further|Eucharistic theology|Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist}}
{{Further|Substance theory}}

===Catholic Church===
[[File:Disputa del Sacramento (Rafael).jpg|thumb|The ''[[Disputation of the Holy Sacrament]]'' in the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] (by [[Raphael]] 1509–1510) depicts theologians debating Transubstantiation, including four [[Doctors of the Church]], with [[Pope Gregory I|Pope Gregory&nbsp;I]] and [[Jerome]] seated to the left of the altar and [[Augustine]] and [[Ambrose]] to the right, [[Pope Julius II]], [[Pope Sixtus IV]], [[Savonarola]] and the poet [[Dante Alighieri]].<ref>Adams, ''Italian Renaissance Art'', pp. 345f.</ref>]]
While the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation in relation to the Eucharist can be viewed in terms of the Aristotelian distinction between [[substance theory|substance and accident]], Catholic theologians generally hold that, "in referring to the Eucharist, the Church does not use the terms substance and accident in their philosophical contexts but in the common and ordinary sense in which they were first used many centuries ago. The dogma of transubstantiation does not embrace any philosophical theory in particular."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur571.htm|first1=Edward |last1=McNamara |title=On Transubstantiation |agency=[[ZENIT]] |via=[[EWTN]] |date=19 April 2016 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190319234146/http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur571.htm |archivedate=19 March 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> This ambiguity was recognized also by then-[[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] theologian [[Jaroslav Pelikan]],{{efn|Pelikan later converted to [[Eastern Orthodoxy]].}} who, while himself interpreting the terms as Aristotelian, states that "the application of the term 'substance' to the discussion of the Eucharistic presence antedates the rediscovery of Aristotle. [...] Even 'transubstantiation' was used during the twelfth century in a nontechnical sense. Such evidence lends credence to the argument that the doctrine of transubstantiation, as codified by the decrees of the [[Fourth Lateran Council|Fourth Lateran]] and [[Tridentine Council|Tridentine councils]], did not canonize Aristotelian philosophy as indispensable to Christian doctrine. But whether it did so or not in principle, it has certainly done so in effect".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pelikan |first=Jaroslav |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9fbZOR6USiwC&q=Pelikan+Aristotelian&pg=PA44 |title=The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100–600) |date=1971 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226653716 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The view that the distinction is independent of any philosophical theory has been expressed as follows: "The distinction between substance and accidents is real, not just imaginary. In the case of the person, the distinction between the person and his or her accidental features is after all real. Therefore, even though the notion of substance and accidents originated from [[Aristotelian philosophy]], the distinction between substance and accidents is also independent of philosophical and scientific development."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-2CRzlijgwC&pg=PA92 Paul Haffner, ''The Sacramental Mystery'' (Gracewing Publishing 1999] {{ISBN|978-0852444764}}), p. 92</ref> "Substance" here means what something is in itself: take some concrete object – e.g. your own hat. The shape is not the object itself, nor is its color, size, softness to the touch, nor anything else about it perceptible to the senses. The object itself (the "substance") ''has'' the shape, the color, the size, the softness and the other appearances, but is distinct from them. While the appearances are perceptible to the senses, the substance is not.<ref>{{Cite web |year=1934 |title=Catholic Evidence Training Outlines |via =Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4cU9AAAAIAAJ&q=hat}}</ref>

The philosophical term "accidents" does not appear in the teaching of the Council of Trent on transubstantiation, which is repeated in the ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]''.<ref>There were two editions of the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' in the 1990s. The first was issued in French in 1992, the second in Latin in 1997. Each was soon translated into English.</ref> For what the Council distinguishes from the "substance" of the bread and wine it uses the term ''species'':

{{Quote|The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church – The sacrament of the Eucharist |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c1a3.htm |website=vatican.va}}</ref>}}

The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' cites the Council of Trent also in regard to the mode of the [[real presence of Christ in the Eucharist]]:

{{Quote|In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained." (Council of Trent (1551): DS 1651)  "This presence is called 'real' – by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present." (Paul VI, MF 39).<ref name="P41">{{Cite book |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church |publisher=Libreria Editrice Vaticana |chapter=V. The Sacramental Sacrifice Thanksgiving, Memorial, Presence |chapter-url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P41.HTM}}</ref>{{rp|1374}}|sign=|source=}}

The Catholic Church holds that the same change of the substance of the bread and of the wine at the Last Supper continues to occur at the consecration of the Eucharist<ref name="P41" />{{rp|1377}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dulles |first=Avery |title=Christ's Presence in the Eucharist: True, Real and Substantial |date=15 April 2005 |url=https://adoremus.org/2005/04/15/Christs-Presence-in-the-Eucharist/ |access-date=31 May 2017 |archive-date=9 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709041218/https://adoremus.org/2005/04/15/Christs-Presence-in-the-Eucharist/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> when the [[Words of Institution|words]] are spoken ''[[in persona Christi]]'' "This is my body ... this is my blood." In Orthodox confessions, the change is said to start during the [[Words of Institution|Dominical or Lord's Words or Institution Narrative]] and be completed during the [[Epiklesis]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kappes |first=Christiaan |title=The Epiclesis Debate: Mark of Ephesus and John Torquemada, OP, at the Council of Florence 1439 |journal=University of Notre Dame Press |year=2017 |url=https://www.academia.edu/7686304}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2022}}

Teaching that Christ is risen from the dead and is alive, the Catholic Church holds, in addition to the doctrine of transubstantiation, that when the bread is changed into his body, not only his body is present, but Christ as a whole is present ("the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity"). The same holds when the wine is transubstantiated into the blood of Christ.<ref name="P41" /> This is known as the doctrine of [[concomitance (doctrine)|concomitance]].

In accordance with the dogmatic teaching that Christ is really, truly and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine, and continues to be present as long as those appearances remain, the Catholic Church preserves the consecrated elements, generally in a [[church tabernacle]], for administering Holy Communion to the sick and dying.

In the arguments which characterised the relationship between Catholicism and Protestantism in the 16th century, the [[Council of Trent]] declared subject to the ecclesiastical penalty of [[Anathema#Roman Catholic Church|anathema]] anyone who

{{Quote|denieth, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue [... and anyone who] saith, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denieth that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood – the species only of the bread and wine remaining – which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation, let him be anathema.|Council of Trent, quoted in J. Waterworth (ed.), ''The Council of Trent: The Thirteenth Session''<ref name=CT13/>}}

The Catholic Church asserts that the consecrated bread and wine are not merely "symbols" of the body and blood of Christ: they ''are'' the body and blood of Christ.<ref name="USCCB">{{Cite web |title=The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic Questions and Answers |url=http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/order-of-mass/liturgy-of-the-eucharist/the-real-presence-of-jesus-christ-in-the-sacrament-of-the-eucharist-basic-questions-and-answers.cfm |website=usccb.org}}</ref> It also declares that, although the bread and wine completely cease to be bread and wine (having become the body and blood of Christ), the appearances (the "species" or look) remain unchanged, and the properties of the appearances also remain (one can be drunk with the appearance of wine despite it only being an appearance). They are still the appearances of bread and wine, not of Christ, and do not inhere in the substance of Christ. They can be felt and tasted as before, and are subject to change and can be destroyed. If the appearance of bread is lost by turning to dust or the appearance of wine is lost by turning to vinegar, Christ is no longer present.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tour of the Summa {{!}} Precis of the Summa Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas {{!}} Msgr P Glenn |url=http://www.catholictheology.info/summa-theologica/summa-part3.php?q=518 |access-date=2019-09-25 |website=catholictheology.info}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Summa Theologiae: The accidents which remain in this sacrament (Tertia Pars, Q. 77) |url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4077.htm |access-date=2019-09-25 |website=newadvent.org}}</ref>

The essential signs of the Eucharistic sacrament are wheat bread and grape wine, on which the blessing of the Holy Spirit is invoked and the priest pronounces the words of consecration spoken by Jesus during the Last Supper: "This is my body which will be given up for you.&nbsp;... This is the cup of my blood&nbsp;..."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church – IntraText |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P44.HTM |access-date=2019-09-25 |website=vatican.va}}</ref> When the signs cease to exist, so does the sacrament.<ref>"[I]f the change be so great that the substance of the bread or wine would have been corrupted, then Christ's body and blood do not remain under this sacrament; and this either on the part of the qualities, as when the color, savor, and other qualities of the bread and wine are so altered as to be incompatible with the nature of bread or of wine; or else on the part of the quantity, as, for instance, if the bread be reduced to fine particles, or the wine divided into such tiny drops that the species of bread or wine no longer remain" ([http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4077.htm#article4 Thomas Aquinas, ''Summa Theologica'', III, q. 77, art. 4]).</ref>

According to Catholic teaching, the whole of Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity, is really, truly and substantially in the sacrament, under each of the appearances of bread and wine, but he is not in the sacrament as in a place and is not moved when the sacrament is moved. He is perceptible neither by the sense nor by the imagination, but only by the [[nous|intellectual eye]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Summa Theologica: TREATISE ON THE SACRAMENTS (QQ[60]-90): Question. 76 – OF THE WAY IN WHICH CHRIST IS IN THIS SACRAMENT (EIGHT ARTICLES) |url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/aquinas/summa/sum528.htm |access-date=2019-09-25 |website=sacred-texts.com}}</ref>

[[St Thomas Aquinas]] gave poetic expression to this perception in the devotional hymn ''[[Adoro te devote]]'':

{{poemquote|Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed.
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.|[http://www.chantcd.com/lyrics/godhead_here_hiding.htm English translation of Adoro Te Devote]}}

An official statement from the [[Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission]] titled ''Eucharistic Doctrine'', published in 1971, states that "the word ''transubstantiation'' is commonly used in the Catholic Church to indicate that God acting in the Eucharist effects a change in the inner reality of the elements. The term should be seen as affirming the ''fact'' of Christ's presence and of the mysterious and radical change which takes place. In Catholic theology it is not understood as explaining ''how'' the change takes place."<ref name="Douglas2015">{{Cite book |last=Douglas |first=Brian |title=The Eucharistic Theology of Edward Bouverie Pusey: Sources, Context and Doctrine within the Oxford Movement and Beyond |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004304598 |page=139 |language=en}}</ref> In the smallest particle of the [[Sacramental bread|host]] or the smallest droplet from the [[chalice]] Jesus Christ himself is present: "Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P41.HTM ''Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1356–1381,'' number '''1377'''], cf. [[Council of Trent]]: DS 1641: "Nor should it be forgotten that Christ, whole and entire, is contained not only under either species, but also in each particle of either species.  'Each,' says St. Augustine, 'receives Christ the Lord, and He is entire in each portion.  He is not diminished by being given to many, but gives Himself whole and entire to each.{{'"}} (Quoted in Gratian, p. 3, dist. ii. c. 77; Ambrosian Mass, Preface for Fifth Sunday after Epiph.) ''[[Roman Catechism|The Catechism of the Council of Trent]] for Parish Priests, issued by order of Pope Pius V, translated into English with Notes by John A. McHugh, O.P., S.T.M., Litt. D., and Charles J. Callan, O.P., S.T.M., Litt. D.'', (1982) TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., Rockford, Ill. {{ISBN|978-0-89555-185-6}}. p. 249 "Christ Whole and Entire Present in Every Part of Each Species".</ref>

===Eastern Christianity===
{{Main|Metousiosis}}
{{more citations needed section|date=November 2016}}
As the ''[[Disputation of the Holy Sacrament]]'' took place in the Western Church after the [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]], the Eastern Churches remained largely unaffected by it. The debate on the nature of "transubstantiation" in Greek Orthodoxy begins in the 17th century, with [[Cyril Lucaris]], whose  ''The Eastern Confession of the Orthodox Faith'' was published in Latin in 1629.
The Greek term ''[[metousiosis]]'' ({{lang|grc|μετουσίωσις}}) is first used as the translation of Latin {{Lang|la|transubstantiatio}} in the Greek edition of the work, published in 1633.

The [[Eastern Rite Catholic Churches|Eastern Catholic]], [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]es, along with the [[Assyrian Church of the East]], agree that in a valid [[Divine Liturgy]] bread and wine truly and actually become the body and blood of Christ.
In Orthodox confessions, the change is said to start during the [[Liturgy of Preparation]] and be completed during the [[Epiklesis]]. However, there are official church documents that speak of a "change" (in [[Greek language|Greek]] {{lang|grc|μεταβολή}}) or "[[metousiosis]]" ({{lang|grc|μετουσίωσις}}) of the bread and wine. "Μετ-ουσί-ωσις" (''met-ousi-osis'') is the Greek word used to represent the Latin word ''"trans-substanti-atio"'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds. – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.v.vii.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114175340/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.v.vii.html |archive-date=2017-11-14 |access-date=2010-09-06 |website=ccel.org}}</ref><ref>"The Holy Orthodox Church at the Synod of Jerusalem (date 1643 A.D.) used the word metousiosis&mdash;a change of ousia&mdash;to translate the Latin Transsubstantiatio" ([http://anglicanhistory.org/england/cps/black.html Transubstantiation and the Black Rubric).]</ref> as Greek "μετα-μόρφ-ωσις" (''meta-morph-osis'') corresponds to Latin ''"trans-figur-atio"''. Examples of official documents of the Eastern Orthodox Church that use the term "μετουσίωσις" or "transubstantiation" are the ''Longer Catechism of The Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church'' (question 340)<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Longer Catechism of The Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church|url=http://www.pravoslavieto.com/docs/eng/Orthodox_Catechism_of_Philaret.htm |access-date=2020-06-04 |website=pravoslavieto.com}}</ref> and the declaration by the Eastern Orthodox [[Synod of Jerusalem (1672)|Synod of Jerusalem of 1672]]:

{{Quote|In the celebration of [the Eucharist] we believe the Lord Jesus Christ to be present. He is not present typically, nor figuratively, nor by superabundant grace, as in the other Mysteries, nor by a bare presence, as some of the Fathers have said concerning Baptism, or by [[impanation]], so that the Divinity of the Word is united to the set forth bread of the Eucharist hypostatically, as the followers of Luther most ignorantly and wretchedly suppose. But [he is present] truly and really, so that after the consecration of the bread and of the wine, the bread is ''transmuted, transubstantiated, converted and transformed'' into the true Body Itself of the Lord, Which was born in Bethlehem of the ever-Virgin, was baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, rose again, was received up, sits at the right hand of the God and Father, and is to come again in the clouds of Heaven; and the wine is converted and transubstantiated into the true Blood Itself of the Lord, Which as He hung upon the Cross, was poured out for the life of the world.<ref>[http://www.cresourcei.org/creeddositheus.html Confession of Dositheus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221201226/http://www.cresourcei.org/creeddositheus.html |date=2009-02-21 }} (emphasis added) The Greek text is quoted in an [http://www.constantinosa.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=149:2010-06-04-10-24-07&catid=2:2010-05-27-14-43-36&Itemid=8 online extract] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721075450/http://www.constantinosa.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=149:2010-06-04-10-24-07&catid=2:2010-05-27-14-43-36&Itemid=8 |date=2011-07-21 }} from the 1915 book "Μελέται περί των Θείων Μυστηρίων" (Studies on the Divine Mysteries/Sacraments) by Saint Nektarios.</ref>}}

The way in which the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ has never been dogmatically defined by the Eastern Orthodox Churches. However, St Theodore the Studite writes in his treatise "On the Holy Icons": "for we confess that the faithful receive the very body and blood of Christ, according to the voice of God himself."<ref>[Catharine Roth, St. Theodore the Studite, On the Holy Icons, Crestwood 1981, 30.]</ref> This was a refutation of the iconoclasts, who insisted that the eucharist was the only true icon of Christ. Thus, it can be argued that by being part of the dogmatic "horos" against the iconoclast heresy, the teaching on the "real presence" of Christ in the eucharist is indeed a dogma of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

===Protestantism===
====Lutheranism====
{{Main|Eucharist in Lutheranism}}
{{Further|Sacramental union}}
Lutherans explicitly reject transubstantiation<ref>Luther, Martin (1537), [http://bookofconcord.org/smalcald.php#sacrament ''Smalcald Articles''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010210703/http://bookofconcord.org/smalcald.php#sacrament |date=2008-10-10 }}, Part III, Article VI. Of the Sacrament of the Altar, stating: "As regards transubstantiation, we care nothing about the sophistical subtlety by which they teach that bread and wine leave or lose their own natural substance, and that there remain only the appearance and color of bread, and not true bread. For it is in perfect agreement with Holy Scriptures that there is, and remains, bread, as Paul himself calls it, [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1co10:16&version=NIV 1 Cor. 10:16]: The bread which we break. And [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1co11:28&version=NIV 1 Cor. 11:28]: Let him so eat of that bread."</ref> believing that the bread and wine remain fully bread and fully wine while also being truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ.<ref name="Brug2-4">Brug, J.F. (1998), [http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BrugReal.pdf ''The Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in The Lord's Supper:: Contemporary Issues Concerning the Sacramental Union''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204101123/http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BrugReal.pdf |date=2015-02-04 }}, pp. 2–4</ref><ref name="BasicDocs">Schuetze, A.W. (1986), ''Basic Doctrines of the Bible'' (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House), Chapter 12, Article 3</ref><ref name="WELS-Transubs">{{Cite web |title=Real Presence: What is really the difference between "transubstantiation" and "consubstantiation"? |url=http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=58&cuItem_itemID=2250 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090928161126/http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=58&cuItem_itemID=2250 |archive-date=28 September 2009 |access-date=25 July 2016 |website=WELS Topical Q&A |publisher=[[Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod]] |quote=We reject transubstantiation because the Bible teaches that the bread and the wine are still present in the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 10:16, 1 Corinthians 11:27–28). We do not worship the elements because Jesus commands us to eat and to drink the bread and the wine. He does not command us to worship them.}}</ref><ref name="WELS">{{Cite web |title=Real Presence: Why not Transubstantiation? |url=http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=58&cuItem_itemID=1325 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090928161039/http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=58&cuItem_itemID=1325 |archive-date=28 September 2009 |access-date=25 July 2016 |website=WELS Topical Q&A |publisher=[[Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod]]}}</ref> Lutheran churches instead emphasize the [[sacramental union]]<ref>[http://bookofconcord.org/fc-ep.php#part7.6 VII. The Lord's Supper: Affirmative Theses] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031063041/http://bookofconcord.org/fc-ep.php#part7.6 |date=2020-10-31 }}, ''Epitome of the [[Formula of Concord]]'', 1577, stating that: "We believe, teach, and confess that the body and blood of Christ are received with the bread and wine, not only spiritually by faith, but also orally; yet not in a Capernaitic, but in a supernatural, heavenly mode, because of the sacramental union"</ref> (not exactly the [[consubstantiation]], as is often claimed)<ref name="WELSconsubs">{{Cite web |title=Real Presence Communion – Consubstantiation? |url=https://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=58&cuItem_itemID=11345 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090927184649/https://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=58&cuItem_itemID=11345 |archive-date=27 September 2009 |access-date=25 July 2016 |website=WELS Topical Q&A |publisher=[[Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod]] |quote=Although some Lutherans have used the term 'consbstantiation' [''sic''] and it might possibly be understood correctly (e.g., the bread & wine, body & blood coexist with each other in the Lord's Supper),  most Lutherans reject the term because of the false connotation it contains&nbsp;... either that the body and blood, bread and wine come together to form one substance in the Lord's Supper or that the body and blood are present in a natural manner like the bread and the wine. Lutherans believe that the bread and the wine are present in a natural manner in the Lord's Supper and Christ's true body and blood are present in an illocal, supernatural manner.}}</ref> and believe that within the Eucharistic celebration the body and blood of Jesus Christ are objectively present "in, with, and under the forms" of bread and wine (cf. [[Book of Concord]]).<ref name="Brug2-4" /> They place great stress on Jesus's instructions to "take and eat", and "take and drink", holding that this is the proper, divinely ordained use of the sacrament, and, while giving it due reverence, scrupulously avoid any actions that might indicate or lead to superstition or unworthy fear of the sacrament.<ref name=BasicDocs/>

In dialogue with Catholic theologians, a large measure of agreement has been reached by a group of Lutheran theologians. They recognize that "in contemporary Catholic expositions, ... transubstantiation intends to affirm the fact of Christ's presence and of the change which takes place, and is not an attempt to explain how Christ becomes present. ... [And] that it is a legitimate way of attempting to express the mystery, even though they continue to believe that the conceptuality associated with "transubstantiation" is misleading and therefore prefer to avoid the term."<ref name="Luth">{{Cite web |title=The Eucharist |url=http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/ecumenical-and-interreligious/ecumenical/lutheran/eucharist.cfm |access-date=2019-09-25 |website=usccb.org}}</ref>

====Reformed churches====
{{Main|Lord's Supper in Reformed theology}}
The [[Reformed Christianity|Reformed]] tradition ([[Continental Reformed]], [[Presbyterian]], [[Congregationalist]], and [[Anglicanism|Classical Anglican]]) holds [[John Calvin]]'s view of "pneumatic presence" or "spiritual feeding", a Real Presence by the Holy Spirit for those who have faith. Calvin "can be regarded as occupying a position roughly midway between" the doctrines of Martin Luther on one hand and Huldrych Zwingli on the other. He taught that "the thing that is signified is effected by its sign", declaring: "Believers ought always to live by this rule: whenever they see symbols appointed by the Lord, to think and be convinced that the truth of the thing signified is surely present there. For why should the Lord put in your hand the symbol of his body, unless it was to assure you that you really participate in it? And if it is true that a visible sign is given to us to seal the gift of an invisible thing, when we have received the symbol of the body, let us rest assured that the body itself is also given to us."<ref>McGrath, op.cit., p.199.</ref>

The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarises the teaching:{{Quote|Q. What is the Lord's supper?

A. The Lord's supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to Christ's appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.<ref>Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 96</ref>}}

====Anglicanism====
Transubstantiation is generally rejected in Anglicanism. 
{{quote|
Elizabeth I gave royal assent to the [[39 Articles]]. The Articles declared that "Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions." The Elizabethan Settlement accepted the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament, but refused to define it, preferring to leave it a mystery. Indeed, for many years it was illegal in Britain to hold public office whilst believing in transubstantiation, as under the [[Test Act 1673|Test Act of 1673]]. Archbishop [[John Tillotson]] decried the "real barbarousness of this Sacrament and Rite of our Religion", considering it a great [[impiety]] to believe that people who attend Holy Communion "verily eat and drink the natural flesh and blood of Christ. And what can any man do more unworthily towards a Friend? How can he possibly use him more barbarously, than to feast upon his living flesh and blood?" (''Discourse against Transubstantiation'', London 1684, 35). In the Church of England today, clergy are required to assent that the 39 Articles have borne witness to the Christian faith.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Common Worship |url=http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/books/mv/preface.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808210713/http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/books/mv/preface.html |archive-date=2008-08-08 |access-date=2008-10-17 |website=cofe.anglican.org}}</ref>
}}

[[Thomas Cranmer]], the guiding figure of the [[English Reformation|Protestant Reformation in England]], aligned himself with the Eucharistic theology of [[John Calvin]], which is reflected in the 28th Article of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England: "the Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavently and spiritual manner." This view is the [[Lord's Supper in Reformed theology|real spiritual presence]] (pneumatic presence) and is held by denominations of the [[Reformed Christianity|Reformed]] (Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Reformed Anglican) tradition.<ref name="González1987"/><ref name="Elwell2001">{{cite book |last1=Elwell |first1=Walter A. |title=Evangelical Dictionary of Theology |date=May 2001 |publisher=Baker Academic |isbn=978-0-8010-2075-9 |page=990 |language=en}}</ref>
 
The Eucharistic teaching labeled "[[receptionism]]", defined by [[Claude Beaufort Moss]] as "the theory that we receive the Body and Blood of Christ when we receive the bread and wine, but they are not identified with the bread and wine which are not changed",<ref>Claude B. Moss, ''The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Dogmatic Theology'' (London: SPCK 1943), p. 366, cited in [https://books.google.com/books?id=YjY2q6aLaMEC&dq=%22defines+receptionism+as+the+theory%22&pg=PA181 Brian Douglas, ''A Companion to Anglican Eucharistic Theology'' (Brill 2012), vol. 2, p. 181]</ref> was commonly held by 16th and 17th-century Anglican theologians. It was characteristic of 17th century thought to "insist on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but to profess [[agnosticism]] concerning the manner of the presence". It remained "the dominant theological position in the Church of England until the [[Oxford Movement]] in the early nineteenth century, with varying degrees of emphasis". Importantly, it is "a doctrine of the real presence" but one which "relates the presence primarily to the worthy receiver rather than to the elements of bread and wine".<ref>Crockett, William R. (1988). "Holy Communion". In Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John. ''The Study of Anglicanism''. Philadelphia: SPCK/Fortress Press. p. 275. {{ISBN|978-0800620875}}</ref>

Anglicans generally consider no teaching binding that, according to the Articles, "cannot be found in Holy Scripture or proved thereby", and are not unanimous in the interpretation of such passages as John 6<ref>{{Bibleverse|John|6}}</ref> and 1 Corinthians 11,<ref>{{Bibleverse|1 Corinthians|11}}</ref> although all Anglicans affirm a view of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist: some Anglicans (especially [[Anglo-Catholics]] and some other [[High Church]] Anglicans) hold to a belief in the corporeal presence while [[Evangelical Anglicanism|Evangelical Anglicans]] hold to a belief in the pneumatic presence. As with all Anglicans, Anglo-Catholics and other High Church Anglicans historically held belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist but were "hostile to the doctrine of transubstantiation".<ref name="Poulson1999">{{Cite book |last=Poulson |first=Christine |title=The Quest for the Grail: Arthurian Legend in British Art, 1840–1920 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0719055379 |page=40 |quote=By the late 1840s Anglo-Catholic interest in the revival of ritual had given new life to doctrinal debate over the nature of the Eucharist. Initially, 'the Tractarians were concerned only to exalt the importance of the sacrament and did not engage in doctrinal speculation'. Indeed they were generally hostile to the doctrine of transubstantiation. For an orthodox Anglo-Catholic such as Dyce the doctrine of the Real Presence was acceptable, but that of transubstantiation was not.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Spurr |first=Barry |title=Anglo-Catholic in Religion |date=2010 |publisher=Lutterworth Press |isbn=978-0718830731 |page=100 |quote=The doctrine had been affirmed by Anglican theologians, through the ages, including Lancelot Andrewes, Jeremy Taylor (who taught the doctrine of the Real Presence at the eucharist, but attacked Roman transubstantiation), William Laud and John Cosin – all in the seventeenth century – as well as in the nineteenth century Tractarians and their successors.}}</ref> A major leader in the Anglo-Catholic [[Oxford Movement]], [[Edward Pusey]], championed the view of [[consubstantiation]]:<ref name="Rigg1895">{{cite book|last=Rigg|first=James Harrison|title=Oxford High Anglicanism and Its Chief Leaders|year=1895|publisher=C. H. Kelly|language=en |page=293}}</ref> 
{{blockquote|I cannot deem it unfair to apply the name of Consubstantiation to a doctrine which teaches, that "the true flesh and true blood of Christ are in the true bread and wine", in such a way that "whatsoever motion or action the bread" and wine have, the body and blood "of Christ also" have "the same"; and that "the substances in both cases" are "so mingled—that they should constitute some one thing".<ref name="Vogan1871">{{cite book|last=Vogan|first=Thomas Stuart Lyle|title=The True Doctrine of the Eucharist|year=1871|publisher=Longmans, Green|language=en |page=54}}</ref>}}
However, in the first half of the twentieth century, the Catholic Propaganda Society upheld both Article XXVIII and the doctrine of transubstantiation, stating that the 39 Articles specifically condemn a pre-Council of Trent "interpretation which was included by some under the term Transubstantiation" in which "the bread and wine were only left as a delusion of the senses after consecration";<ref name="CPS">{{Cite web |title=Transubstantiation and the Black Rubric |url=http://anglicanhistory.org/england/cps/black.html |website=anglicanhistory.org}}</ref> it stated that "this Council propounded its definition after the Articles were written, and so cannot be referred to by them".<ref name=CPS/>

Theological dialogue with the Catholic Church has produced common documents that speak of "substantial agreement" about the doctrine of the Eucharist: the ARCIC Windsor Statement of 1971,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pro Unione Web Site – Full Text ARCIC Eucharist |url=http://www.prounione.urbe.it/dia-int/arcic/doc/e_arcic_eucharist.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017012613/http://www.prounione.urbe.it/dia-int/arcic/doc/e_arcic_eucharist.html |archive-date=2018-10-17 |access-date=2006-01-03 |website=prounione.urbe.it}}</ref> and its 1979 Elucidation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pro Unione Web Site – Full Text ARCIC Elucidation Eucharist |url=http://www.prounione.urbe.it/dia-int/arcic/doc/e_arcic_elucid_euch.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008082332/http://www.prounione.urbe.it/dia-int/arcic/doc/e_arcic_elucid_euch.html |archive-date=2018-10-08 |access-date=2006-01-03 |website=prounione.urbe.it}}</ref> Remaining arguments can be found in the Church of England's pastoral letter: ''The Eucharist: Sacrament of Unity''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Council for Christian Unity |url=http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/ccu/england/catholics/eucharist.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060218121033/http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/ccu/england/catholics/eucharist.pdf |archive-date=2006-02-18 |access-date=2006-01-03 |website=cofe.anglican.org}}</ref>

====Methodism====
[[Methodists]] believe in the real spiritual presence of Christ in the bread and wine (or grape juice) while, like Presbyterians, rejecting transubstantiation.<ref name="Elwell2001"/><ref name="Collins2025"/> Methodism inherited the [[Lord's Supper in Reformed theology|Reformed view of the Lord's Supper]] through the [[Twenty-five Articles]], in which Article XVIII posits a real spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist, noting that the "body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner."<ref name="Elwell2001" /><ref name="Mahoney2024">{{cite web |last1=Mahoney |first1=James |title=The Methodist's Duty: Wesley's "Constant Communion" and the 21st Century Methodist |url=https://firebrandmag.com/articles/the-methodists-duty-wesleys-constant-communion-and-the-21st-century-methodist |publisher=Firebrand Magazine |access-date=4 April 2025 |language=English |date=9 July 2024 |quote=Methodists say with Wesley that Holy Communion is a sacrament, and though we choose not to define our understanding along the lines of transubstantiation or consubstantiation (Methodist Articles of Religion, Art. XVIII), we do nonetheless believe in the Real Presence (that Jesus is present “after a spiritual manner,” Art. XVIII) and that this sacrament is both medicine and food.}}</ref><ref name="Collins2025">{{cite web |last1=Collins |first1=Kenneth J. |title=Worship and the Sacraments (Part 2)|url=https://www.biblicaltraining.org/learn/institute/th511-wesleyan-theology-ii/th511-17-worship-and-the-sacraments-part-2 |publisher=Biblical Training |access-date=4 April 2025 |language=en |date=2025 |quote=Wesley says that there is a spiritual presence of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper.}}</ref> According to the [[United Methodist Church]], "Jesus Christ, who 'is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being',<ref>{{bibleverse||Hebrews|1:3}}</ref> is truly present in [[Holy Communion]]."<ref>{{Cite web |title=This Holy Mystery: Part Two |url=http://www.gbod.org/worship/thisholymystery/parttwo.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707030906/http://www.gbod.org/worship/thisholymystery/parttwo.html |archive-date=July 7, 2009 |access-date=30 May 2013 |publisher=The United Methodist Church GBOD}}</ref>

While upholding the view that [[prima scriptura|scripture is the primary source of Church practice]], Methodists also [[Wesleyan Quadrilateral|look to church tradition]] and base their beliefs on the early Church teachings on the Eucharist, that Christ has a real presence in the Lord's Supper. The ''Catechism for the use of the people called Methodists'' thus states that, "[in Holy Communion] Jesus Christ is present with his worshipping people and gives himself to them as their Lord and Saviour".<ref name="Methcat">{{Cite book |title=A Catechism for the use of people called Methodists |date=2000 |publisher=Methodist Publishing House |isbn=978-1858521824 |location=Peterborough, England |page=26}}</ref>