The real presence in the Eucharist: a comparison of the teaching of some modern roman catholic theologians with that of the teaching of St. Thomas aquinas and of the council of Trent

Abstract

The Second Vatican Council and the subsequent teaching given by Pope Paul VI have certainly led to fresh developments in the Church's understanding of the sacraments and of their necessity as the principal means of sanctification, both in the economy of the Church and in the life of the individual Christian. If this is the case with sacraments in general, it is much more so with regard to the Holy Eucharist, in which (according to traditional Roman Catholic teaching) the Lord gives himself, body, blood, soul and divinity really and truly under the sign of sacramental bread and wine for the nourishment and building up of the Church. Some modern Roman Catholic theologians (Schoonenberg, Schillebeeckx, Rahner) and the New Dutch Catechism have tried to re-express this doctrine of the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, in such a way as to be understood by the modern man. They have suggested substituting new terms like 'transfinalization and 'transsignification' for the traditional word 'transubstantiation', to denote the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. These new approaches, as might have been expected, found a different reception in different parts of the Church. The ensuing controversy naturally provoked an official response, which was given in the form of an encyclical Mysterium Fidei by Pope Paul VI, where he encourages the theologians to be faithful to the official teaching of the Church and presents Thomas Aquinas as the model. In this thesis, I have undertaken to compare the opinions of the modern theologians with that of the Decree of the Council of Trent and the opinion of St. Thomas. Trent gives official doctrine, and the Summa of Thomas is the best example of theologizing. Keeping this in mind, this thesis is divided into nine chapters. Chapter I comprises a brief summary of the opinions of the above-mentioned theologians. Chapter II is a survey of the doctrine in the Early Middle Ages. Chapters III, IV and V examine the teaching of Thomas at considerable length. Chapter VI gives a bird's eye-view of the Eucharistic controversies from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. This leads us into Chapters VII and VIII which deal with the council on Trent. Finally, Chapter IX compares the opinions of the modern theologians with that of the decree of the council of Trent and of the teaching of St.Thomas.